Boys Basketball: Andrew finds line to recovery

For most of Friday night’s 51-40 SouthWest Suburban Red victory, No. 4 Andrew was able to suffocate Stagg with an intense man-to-man defense.

“That’s why we’ve been successful,” Thunderbolts coach Mike O’Halloran said. “That’s what we’ve done game in and game out.”

How about hitting 10 consecutive free throws, which they did in the final 53.4 seconds?

“We haven’t done that all year,” O’Halloran said, laughing. “That was a welcome addition.”

Jubril Adekoya (20 points, nine rebounds) and Glorind Lisha (14 points) led the way for Andrew (17-1, 8-1), which rebounded from its first loss of the season Tuesday to Thornton.

Sean Dwyer (12 points) and Ryan Dahleen (nine rebounds) led Stagg (12-9, 5-4).

The free-throw perfection was the perfect shut-off valve that helped the T-bolts stave off a quick, but furious, late comeback by the Chargers that saw them close as much as a 16-point deficit down to five.

The quick strikes came first via back-to-back three-pointers by Dwyer. Max Strus and Steve Kubiak each added a trey before a layup by Kubiak on a pass from Kamil Barnas made it 41-36 with 59.4 seconds left.

The foul game then ensued.

Mike Grenda went to the line first for Andrew and swished two. After a Stagg miss, Adekoya rebounded and was sent to the line. No problem.

The process repeated three more times, with Adekoya sinking two and Mike Bobek four.

“I had to knock the free throws down because they could have come down and hit the three,” Adekoya said. “It’s just focus, really. Free throws are really, really important in conference play.”

The T-bolts, while needing to hang on at the finish, never trailed. They exploded to a 9-0 start, with Adekoya ferociously working under the basket. The lead peaked at 28-12 late in the second period.

“It’s a rivalry, you know,” Adekoya said with a smile. “We came out with more fire because of the loss, but any time we play Stagg we’ve got to play harder than we usually do.”

The Chargers never did find an offensive rhythm. It showed most glaringly around the perimeter, where they missed their first 12 three-point attempts. Their two top scorers, Brett Kaiser (eight points) and Dwyer, were a combined 7-of-29 from the field. As a team, Stagg shot 35 percent.

“People say that if you watch the final two minutes you’ve seen the whole basketball game,” Chargers coach John Daniels said. “But we lost this game in the second quarter when we only scored six points. That’s not Stagg.”

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