OP_120816

46 | December 8, 2016 | The orland park prairie Sports
opprairie.com
Sandburg beats Andrew at the line to take close game
Eagles start season
on a 5-1 run
Jason Maholy
Freelance Reporter
Sandburg players hit three
free throws in the final seconds
of this past Friday’s
contest against Andrew, providing
the margin of victory
in a 35-32 win in a district
rivalry game played before
a packed house in the Eagle
Gym.
Barlow Alleruzzo, playing
in his first home game
as a member of the Eagles,
sunk what proved to be the
winning free throw Dec. 2
with 3.5 seconds to go; however,
his miss of the second
attempt gave the visiting
Thunderbolts a chance to
make a play and get the ball
back, down just one point.
Fortunately for Sandburg
(5-1), the smallest player
on the floor, Eagles junior
point guard Jake Pygon, corralled
the loose ball and was
abruptly fouled. He then hit
both free throws to give the
hosts a three-point cushion
with 2.4 seconds remaining.
Andrew senior guard Joey
Krutilla had a clean look at
the basket on the game’s final
play, but his heave from
just inside half court glanced
off the front of the rim.
Pygon led all Eagles with
14 points. Alleruzzo — a junior
forward who transferred
to Sandburg from St. Rita
this past year but did not
play because of Illinois High
School Association eligibility
rules — scored six points.
“Barlow stepped up,”
Sandburg coach Todd Allen
said. “There was a lot of
pressure on him. It was his
first home game at Sandburg,
so I was happy for him
that he was able to come
through for us and get the
one that put us ahead.
Sandburg’s Jack McNulty (middle) passes the ball to a
teammate over two Andrew defenders.
“But as big a play was Pygon
getting the loose ball on
the rebound.”
After an intense first quarter
in front of a raucous
crowd ended with the score
knotted at 11, both squads
were largely offensively
challenged for the remainder
of the contest. The Eagles
managed only 13 points over
the second and third quarters
combined. For the game,
they hit as many free throws
(11) as they did shots from
the field.
The Thunderbolts (2-5),
however, fell into even bigger
problems. After Krutilla
scored on a layup to tie the
game at 16 with 5 minutes to
go in the first half, Andrew did
not put the ball in the basket
again until Mike DeHaan’s
bucket with 47 seconds remaining
in the third quarter.
“We knew it was going to
kind of be that way,” Allen
said of both teams’ offensive
struggles. “I think it was a
case of both teams being patient
offensively, but I don’t
think either team set the
world on fire. Neither team
found a rhythm offensively
and couldn’t establish any
kind of lead.
“But credit Andrew. I
thought they mixed in some
zone and man, and did a
good job there. They’re
tough kids and well coached.
It was a grind-’em-out district
rivalry game ... and a
game that came down to the
wire. We were happy to get
the win, and we’ll take them
any way we can.”
Despite managing only
eight points over the second
and third quarters and
going scoreless for a nearly
12-minute stretch, Andrew’s
defense held the Eagles in
check and kept the team
in the game. A Krutilla
3-pointer closed the gap to
two points with 55 seconds
remaining, and DeHaan’s
basket with 23 seconds left
Sandburg’s Barlow Alleruzzo shoots Friday, Dec. 2, during a game against Andrew in the
Eagle Gym. Photos by Adam Jomant/22nd Century Media
in the contest tied the score
at 32.
Andrew coach Dave Wilson
said he was pleased
with his team’s effort, coming
off a 71-42 thrashing at
Hinsdale South earlier in the
week.
“The outcome wasn’t what
we wanted, but we were
challenged to come back
from the effort on Tuesday
to keep grinding in practice
and show some fight today,”
Wilson said. “We battled
from the tip all the way to
the end, and in that way, I
felt my team responded after
being blown out of the gym
by Hinsdale South.”
Wilson said the Thunderbolts
are still trying to find
out who they are, and leaned
heavily on their seniors during
practice the two days
leading up to the game versus
Sandburg.
“We knew that this was
going to be a physical battle
and would test our ability
Sandburg’s Jake Pygon (right) runs the ball downcourt
against the Thunderbolts.
to handle that pressure and
adversity, and we were just
a few buckets short of coming
out of here with a win,”
Wilson said. “Good defense
keeps you in every game, but
I have to do a better job of
getting my team in position
to make shots under pressure,
and that starts in practice.
... Right now, we make
shots in practice, but we’re
not making them in games.”
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