Free throws lift Indian Creek to win

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More than anything else, free-throw shooting usually plays a major role in the outcome of a close game.

Such was the case in Friday's Little Ten battle between Indian Creek and visiting Hinckley-Big Rock.

Blake Mitchell and Nathan Peterson combined to hit five of six from the charity stripe in the final 42 seconds to help Indian Creek seal a 68-63 win.

IC improved to 17-10 overall, while H-BR dipped to 16-11. Both teams finished 5-3 in conference play to tie for third place behind Somonauk and Newark.

"When you have the lead with under two minutes left, if you make free throws you're going to win," said IC coach Joe Piekarz. "We made it interesting, but Nathan and Blake stepped up and looked real cool out there."

The win capped a 9-1 stretch for the Timberwolves, who avenged their only loss in that stretch. H-BR downed IC two weeks ago in the semifinals of the Little Ten Tournament.

For much of the first half on Friday, it looked like H-BR might walk away with a sweep of the season series. Kyle Burks and Ryan Austin sparked a 10-0 run late in the first quarter to help the Royals go up 21-7.

A driving layup by IC's Jake Swanson at the first quarter horn made it 23-11. The Timberwolves hit four three-pointers, two of which came from Matt Davis, in the second quarter and cut the lead to 35-31 at halftime.

H-BR held the lead until late in the third quarter when a bucket by Freddy Assell made it 47-46. A putback by Peterson with 30 seconds to play in the period made it 49-46.

The Royals cut the deficit to 56-54 with 3:50 left when Ryan Salazar scored off a nice feed from Tim Tokars. But that was as close as H-BR would get in the final minutes.

As a team, Indian Creek hit 14 of 17 free throws and connected on six three-pointers. H-BR hit only 12 of 23 free throws.

Both teams were hit by the turnover bug, as Indian Creek turned the ball over 22 times to H-BR's 17 turnovers.

"We were sloppy with the ball instead of being patient against the press," said Piekarz. "When we were patient and broke the press, we were getting layups. We were trying to be a little too aggressive."

H-BR coach Bill Sambrookes thought the same thing about his team's turnover problems.

"We forced things a little too much, especially at critical times in the fourth quarter," he said. "It was because guys were trying to make things happen, but we needed to be a little more selective."

Peterson led a balanced Indian Creek attack with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Assell, Mitchell and Randall MaKarrall each scored 10 points to share team scoring honors with Peterson. Jake Swanson added nine points.

H-BR also had balanced scoring with four players in double figures. Brian Michaels led with 15 points, Salazar added a dozen, Tokars had 11 and Burks scored 10. Austin scored nine points and led with six rebounds.