Wilmington stuns Manteno; Peotone wins

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:18AM

A fan settled into a spot in the bleachers Wednesday night at the Class 2A Reed-Custer Regional, noticed Wilmington was leading top-seeded Manteno early in the third quarter and said to a friend, "Wilmington is winning, huh?''

Wilmington came into the game with 20 losses, including a pair to Manteno, but the Wildcats left with a spot in the championship game Friday night after Garrett Saulters hit a jumper near the free throw line with three seconds left in overtime for a 60-59 semifinal victory.

"When it went in, I couldn't believe it,'' Saulters said. "This is huge, especially to be 0-2 against them in the regular season. We knew we could do it.''

Wilmington (8-20) wouldn't have done it without 6-foot-1 senior Ty Anderson, who scored 33 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made two free throws with two seconds to play in regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 52.

"It was awesome,'' said Anderson, who connected on seven three-pointers. "We've still got one more game to win, but to beat these guys after losing to them twice, it's huge.''

Anderson got Wilmington rolling early, hitting two three-pointers and scoring 12 first-quarter points to put the Wildcats ahead 14-4 with 2:50 left in the opening period.

"The first shot I hit, I thought maybe I'll keep shooting,'' said Anderson, whose previous best was 28 points last season.

Saulters finished with 12 points, Dan Kulpa chipped in eight points and Lee Oehmen had eight rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

"I can't lie – we haven't played with that kind of effort every night,'' said Wilmington coach Matt Hines. "If we had we wouldn't have lost 20 games. We've got to remind ourselves we've got another game. We haven't won anything yet.''

J.J. Witherow scored a team-high 19 points for Manteno (19-8), which had won eight in a row and 10 of its last 11 games.

The 7:30 p.m. title game Friday will match Wilmington against Peotone, a 36-27 winner over Reed-Custer in the second semifinal.

Tyler Paeth (11 points) and Matt Borens (10 points) led Peotone, which outscored Reed-Custer 16-7 in the fourth quarter sparked by six points from Johnny Ryan.

"We move to the next level,'' said Peotone coach Scott Maupin. "Credit the guys, they hung tough. I thought we did a great job defensively. We're playing some good basketball now and it's the time of the year to do it.''

Nick Stewart led Reed-Custer (7-21) with 10 points.

The Reed-Custer Regional champ advances to the Herscher Sectional for a semifinal game Tuesday against the winner of Seton vs. Momence in the Momence Regional final.

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