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Boys Basketball: Balanced effort keys Elmwood Park win
Updated: January 27, 2012 11:23PM
Elmwood Park’s 15-0 run to close the first half proved to be enough as the Tigers held off Fenton’s fourth-quarter comeback attempt to earn a 62-58 Metro Suburban victory Friday night.
Four Tigers scored in double digits led by Julian Molina’s 16 points in a rare start. Anthony Santiago scored 14 points while freshman Joe Uvelli added 12 including a big three-pointer midway through the fourth and a pair of free throws in the final minute of the game.
Fenton’s Collin Wallace led all scorers with 20 points.
“I shoot all the time, so those shots are like any other,” Uvelli said. “A shot is a shot, so the pressure is not that big of a deal. I shoot 100 shots every day, but some people might think there’s more pressure because I’m a freshman. There is pressure, but you just can’t let it affect you.”
Uvelli’s three gave the Tigers (10-7, 2-4) a 12-point lead with 4:54 left, but the Bison wouldn’t go quietly. They went on a 13-2 run to bring themselves within a single point with a Wallace basket with 1:12 remaining. Uvelli calmly sank a pair of free throws with 39.1 seconds left to make it a three-point Tigers lead.
Fenton (2-18, 1-5) scored 11 straight points after the Tigers opened the game with a basket from Santiago. They benefitted from Elmwood Park being in foul trouble early in the second half getting into the bonus before the end of the third quarter. Fenton couldn’t take advantage enough of that situation as they hit just 14 of 23 for the game and 6 of 12 in the fourth quarter including missing the front end of a pair of one-and-one’s. Jeremy Shimanek scored 16 points for the Bison before fouling out.
“We tend to get off to fairly good starts,” Fenton head coach Dennis Cromer said, “but unfortunately at some point in time we hit a wall or bad stretch. In that second quarter I looked up, and we were up 19-15, and by the time the quarter ended we were down 30-22. I thought we played relatively well and hard, but we don’t shoot the three well enough, and it was tough for us at the end with our free throws.”
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