NL_120816

44 | December 8, 2016 | The New Lenox Patriot sports
newlenoxpatriot.com
Boys Basketball
West’s late surge not enough in 55-45 loss to East
RANDY WHALEN
Freelance Reporter
Just over six minutes into
the Friday, Dec. 2 boys basketball
matchup between a
pair of District 210 rivals,
Lincoln-Way East junior
guard Zach Parduhn looked
up at the scoreboard and saw
his team leading Lincoln-
Way West by 16 points.
“Once I saw that, I was
like, ‘wow, we have to keep
it up,’” Parduhn said. “But
we knew they were a tough
team. We knew they would
fight back.”
West did fight back and
had a two-point lead midway
through the fourth quarter.
But another big burst by
East at the end proved to be
the difference. The Griffins
pulled away for a 55-45 victory
in a SouthWest Suburban
Conference crossover
in Frankfort.
East (4-1) had a balanced
attack that was paced by
Parduhn (14 points). Seniors
Dorian Aluyi (13
points) and Sam Shafer (12
points, 5 rebounds) were
also in double figures.
Marco Pettinato (18
points) led West (1-4) with
a game-high 18 points and
fellow senior guard Nolan
Green added 13 points for
the Warriors.
But in a game of runs,
the Griffins had an opening
spurt of 18-2 and an ending
spurt of 12-0 to come away
with the win.
West scored five straight
points and took its first and
only lead of the game at 45-
43 on a pair of free throws
by sophomore guard Nathan
Clendenning with 4:13 to
play in the game. But two
straight layups by Aluyi, the
second with 3:24 remaining,
gave the Griffins the
lead for good.
“We talked all week about
trying to get the ball to
Dorian inside,” East coach
Rich Kolimas said of the
strategy at the end. “We told
Dorian late in the game that
we needed him to post up
and stay in there. They were
playing man-to-man on
Dorian and giving up quite
a few inches. They were
fighting and battling, but
we felt confident that if we
could get the ball inside to
Dorian he would score and
he did.”
The Shafer brothers —
Sam and senior forward
Max (7 points), combined
to hit 2-of-4 free throws,
and then Sam found Max
on a nice pass underneath
for a layup and a 51-45 lead
with 1:56 to play. After both
teams couldn’t convert on
possessions, the Griffins
clinched the win by hitting
four straight free throws in
the final 31.3 seconds. They
were 7-of-10 from the line
in the game.
“Once we had the lead,
everything was exactly
where we wanted it to be,”
West coach Brian Flaherty
said. “Then one mistake
here, one out of position
mistake that leads to a lob
under the basket there, and
the next thing you know,
our two-point lead goes to
us chasing four points and
us having to start fouling.”
For a nearly 22 minute
span in the middle of the
game, West outscored the
Griffins 43-25. Problem
was at the start and end of
the game the Warriors were
blitzed 30-2. That left last
season Class 3A state runner-up
scratching its head.
“Before the game, I
leaned over to my assistant
[Dick Mandella] and said,
‘when’s the last time we
had a lead to start a game?’”
Flaherty said. “Right now,
Warriors shooting guard Jay Bumstead shoots a corner
three-pointer.
we are just notorious for our
slow starts.
“I thought Nolan [Green]
had his best game of the
year. We’ll figure it out. I
can’t fault the team’s effort
because they came back and
did what they had to do.”
Aluyi had five points in
the first quarter, including a
three-pointer that gave East
an 11-0 lead with 4:33 to
play in the period. Parduhn
had seven points in the first
quarter, including a threepointer
to open the game.
An old-fashioned threepoint
play by Sam Shafer
Lincoln-Way West Marco Pettinato goes for a lay up
surrounded by Lincoln-Way East defenders Friday, Dec.
2, during a matchup between the two teams in Frankfort.
Photos by Julie McMann/22nd Century Media
made it 18-2 with 1:58 left
in the period. The Griffins
hit on 7-of-9 shots, including
a trio of 3-pointers, in
the first quarter.
“We came out amped up,
and we felt the crowd behind
us,” Parduhn said. “We
were ready to go. It was our
first home game. We came
out with the momentum and
felt really good about ourselves.”
Pettinato had seven points
in the first quarter. Five of
them, including a threepointer
at the buzzer, came
in a 9-0 run to end the opening
quarter to close West
within 18-11. The defenses
settled in during the second
quarter as the Griffins were
only 2-of-9 from the field,
but they still led 23-20 at
halftime.
The Warriors tied the
game three times in the third
quarter, the last one was at
35-35 on a layup by Pettinato
with just less than a minute
left. But a three-pointer
by Sam Shafer gave East a
38-35 lead after three.
Junior guard Joey Buggemi
scored nine points for
the Griffins. Senior guard
Jay Bumstead added seven
points for West, which was
9-for-11 from the line in the
game.
“[West] is led by a great
coaching staff,” Kolimas
said. “We knew they weren’t
going to let their team give
up that early in the game.
Then you have Marco. He’s
such a smart high school basketball
player who is hard to
defend because he can do so
many different things.”