Boys basketball: Joliet West mounts furious rally to topple St. Rita in front of packed house

WASHINGTON – Joliet West trailed by 14 points with 6:22 to play Wednesday night against a highly touted St. Rita team at the Tournament of Champions in Washington.

Based on what had developed the first 25 minutes of the game, there was almost no reason to believe the Tigers could make a comeback.

But it didn’t matter if the capacity crowd believed the Tigers could do it.

All that mattered was the players on the Joliet West roster believed it could be done.

“We knew it was going to be a battle because of the inside force that they have,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “But we feel like with our four guards, that’s going be the the difference in this season.”

And ever so slowly, the Tigers (2-0) inched their way back into the game.

“We were down 14, I believe, at the start of the fourth quarter,” Kreiger said. “And we talked at the break about how long eight minutes in a quarter are. And we thought if we could get it under 10, it would change the complexion of the game.”

It wasn’t a certainty that would happen. It took until there was less than four minutes to play to get that lead under 10, as a scoring flurry from the Tigers led to a 9-0 run. When it was completed by a Drew King dunk, all of a sudden Joliet West was within four points (53-49) with just more than two minutes to play.

“It was just a matter of one possession at a time,” Jeremy Fears said. “Coach told us that if we could get it under 10 with five minutes to play, we were going to win the game and asked everyone on the bench down the line, ‘Do you believe we can win the game?’ ” And we all said yes and looked him in his face and did what we needed to do one possession at a time to get the win.”

They made up almost the entire deficit with sharpshooting from the foul line.

At one point West strung together 24 consecutive made free throws, including a whopping 19 of 20 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. It was a giant contributor in the final quarter where the Tigers scored as many points in the fourth (32) as it did in the first three quarters combined.

West outscored St. Rita 32-11 in the fourth quarter.

The rally didn’t seem conceivable after a disaster of a third quarter. Joliet West scored only four points in the third quarter, making it appear as if St. Rita was about to run away with the game.

The Mustangs got to that point by dominating the glass. St. Rita has two interior giants, Morez Johnson and James Brown, and after a first half where both had more than 10 rebounds each, they kept on limiting Joliet West to one shot, or even none, per trip. Meanwhile, St. Rita was feasting on second- and third-chance opportunities.

But West maintained contact, whittling the lead to 32-28 at halftime, largely because of proficiency from long range. The Tigers connected on five well placed 3-pointers, including a long bomb from Jeremy Fears just before the half to send the Tigers into the break on a positive note.

It looked like that good feeling wasn’t going to last. Rita quickly pushed the lead into double digits in the third quarter. But even when things started to look bleak, West never stopped attacking the basket, and eventually the shots that were altered or blocked early changed to the Tigers drawing fouls in bunches.

And while St. Rita struggled mightily from the foul line, Joliet West went to the foul line and made shot after shot, with Jayden Martin’s two free throws finally drawing the Tigers even at 55 with 1:01 to play.

The Mustangs momentarily reclaimed the lead at 56-55 as James Brown split a pair of free throws, but that lead quickly was washed away as Joliet West forced turnovers, finally corralled some rebounds on the defensive end and then promptly sealed the game by hitting 7 of 8 from the line in the game’s final 40 seconds.

“Free throws win close games, and they win games in March,” Kreiger said.

Jeremy Fears, Jeremiah Fears and Justice McNair all finished with a team-high 17 points. That seemed fitting, because the relentless nature of the trio was the main reason the rally was mounted at all.

Lemont transfer Nojus Indrusaitis and Morez Johnson led St. Rita with 14 points. Brown finished with 12. Both Brown and Johnson finished with double-doubles, but in the end couldn’t squash the relentless nature of the Tigers, particularly in the case of McNair.

“The biggest thing that I love about our team, while I understand that the Fears are a two-headed snake, the unforgotten hero is Justice McNair,” Kreiger said. “He’s the third banana in our bunch.”