FS_031518

frankfortstation.com sports
the frankfort station | March 15, 2018 | 45
Boys basketball
Griffins' postseason run ends with fall to West Aurora
RANDY WHALEN, Freelance Reporter
One program was playing in
this game for the 46th time in its
108-year history. The other was
playing in it for the first time in
its 17-year history. So, history was
not on the side of the Lincoln-Way
East boys basketball team in its
first sectional appearance — and,
in the end, neither was the score.
West Aurora pulled away in the
third quarter and went onto a 70-
58 victory over East on Wednesday,
March 7, in the second semifinal
of the Class 4A Romeoville
Sectional.
The second-seeded Blackhawks
(24-4) won for the 16th straight
time and attempted to win a sectional
title for the 22nd time in
their history when they played
top-seeded Bolingbrook on Friday,
March 9, for the sectional
championship.
Bolingbrook (22-6) outlasted
No. 4 seeded Joliet Central 94-91
on Tuesday, March 6, in an unforgettable
opening semifinal game.
East (23-6), the No. 3 seed, was
playing in a sectional for the first
time ever. East was 23-of-25 from
the free throw line in the game,
and Sam Shafer capped his outstanding
career for the Griffins
by scoring a game-high 22 points.
But it wasn’t enough as East never
led in the second half.
“That could have had something
to do with it,” East coach Rich Kolimas
said of West Aurora having
tons of program experience while
the Griffins were in their first sectional
game. “I don’t know the
answer to that. It’s difficult to tell.
They just played better than us.
“We didn’t treat it any differently
than any other game, but with
what was at stake, it was a bigger
stage.”
The Griffins succeed in taking
West Aurora’s two main senior
scorers, guard Camron Donatlan
(12 points, 8 rebounds) and forward
Jared Crutcher (4 points) out
of the game. But others stepped
up as senior guard Damian Virgen
led the way with 21 points, junior
guard Traevon Brown banged in
17 points and senior forward Benjamin
Young contributed 16 points
and six rebounds.
The game was tied 15-15 at
the end of the first quarter. Junior
guard Julian Barr scored on
a layup and senior point guard
Zach Parduhn (9 points) nailed a
3-pointer to give the Griffins their
largest lead at 20-15. They still
led 26-22 following a pair of free
throws by senior forward Brandon
Petkoff (7 points) with 3:10 left in
the half.
But West Aurora quickly went
on an 8-0 run in a span of 1:35.
Virgen had five points in the spurt
and East had a trio of turnovers —
the last of which was a steal and a
layup by Brown with 23 seconds
left in the half. Parduhn hit a pair
of free throws with 11.5 seconds
left in the quarter to narrow the
margin to 30-28 at halftime. But
that was as close as the Griffins
would get the rest of the game.
“I thought the second quarter
was the key to the game,” Kolimas
said. “We wanted to take charges
and get their two main guys in foul
trouble, and we did that. We were
able to get in the bonus early, and
we’re an 82-percent free-throwshooting
team. But us not getting
any kind of [big] lead at that point
speaks to how well-coached, how
very disciplined and very athletic
they are.
“The most disappointing thing
is this was not the team we saw
all year. Were we fatigued? I
don’t know. Maybe I shortened
the bench too much toward the
end of the season. But let’s give
[the Blackhawks] credit. They just
played better than us.”
Ahead 33-30, West Aurora
quickly scored seven straight
points in just over a minute span
to go up 40-30 with 4:35 left to
play in the third. Senior guard
Joey Buggemi (13 points) scored
on a layup midway through the
quarter to slash the advantage to
eight. But a telling third quarter
thing happened on the next Blackhawk
possession. They missed
East’s Sam Shafer takes a shot Dec. 8 during the team’s game against
Homewood-Flossmoor. Shafer scored a game-high 22 points March
7 during East’s playoff game against West Aurora, which the Griffins
ultimately lost 70-58. 22nd Century Media file photo
three straight shots but got the rebound
on all of them, and Young
converted his own miss into a basket
for another 10-point lead. West
Aurora led 47-36 after three.
“They pressured us into some
mistakes,” Parduhn said, “But that
[pressure] was not something we
haven’t seen. We just lost the momentum
and couldn’t get it back.”
East hoped to be the ones applying
some pressure in the third
quarter, but the Blackhawks only
had one of their 11 turnovers in
the quarter. They also outrebounded
East 15-3 in the third and 30-24
in the game.
“We decided we needed to go
with a smaller lineup in the third
quarter and maybe create some
turnovers off our traps — a brilliant
decision on my part,” Kolimas
deadpanned.
The Blackhawks upped the lead
to 54-38 as Brown scored seven
straight to start the fourth quarter.
Seemingly out of the game, the
Griffins never quit. Displaying the
fortitude he had all of his threeyear
varsity career, Shafer scored
13 points in the fourth quarter. Included
in that was a 4-point play
that brought East within 58-52
with 1:58 to play in the game.
“I knew the whole game we
were still in it,” said Shafer, who
will continue to play at Southern
Illinois University. “We’re a resilient
group. We tried to get back,
but just fell short.”
Shafer, who averaged about 19
points per game, scored 17 in the
second half against West Aurora.
He lamented the team’s slow start.
“It felt like we were slow, not
moving as much on offense as
we should in the first half,” Shafer
said. “We were forcing some
things, forcing 3-pointers, forcing
shots. Our game plan was to
get them in foul trouble and take
some charges and get them out of
their game. We went zone in the
third quarter, and sometimes in a
zone, it’s hard to get rebounds on
the weak side.”
The Griffins never drew closer
than that six point margin. Sophomore
forward Nate Seputis gave
them one last glimmer of hope
by sinking a 3-pointer from the
left corner to make it 65-57 with
48 seconds remaining. But that
8-point margin was as close as it
got in the final minute.
Young, who isn’t built like
a 3-point shooter, hit a trio of
them in the first quarter as the
Blcakhawks jumped out to leads
of 5-0, 7-2 and 10-5. Junior center
Alex Witkowski capped a 7-0 East
run on a layup for the team’s first
lead with 2:05 to play in the opening
quarter. But the game was tied
after one quarter.
East finished with 15 turnovers,
10 of those in the first half.
The Griffins hoped for another
matchup with SouthWest Suburban
Conference rival Bolingbrook
Please see b-ball, 42