Boys Basketball: TJ Mayer’s late threes boost Oak Forest past Evergreen Park

Updated: December 16, 2011 11:12PM

With Oak Forest guard T.J. Mayer struggling from the floor, Bengals coach Matt Manzke made it clear to his senior to keep firing away. Mayer repaid his coach’s confidence with a sterling second-half performance.

The sharpshooter buried a trio of fourth-quarter three-pointers as Oak Forest rallied from a five-point deficit to beat Evergreen Park 55-50 on Friday night.

Mayer scored 14 of his game-high 16 points in the final two quarters.

“I couldn’t hit anything in the first half,” Mayer said. “But coach Manzke called it during halftime. He told me I’d hit three in a row. It was crazy that I did.”

The win puts Oak Forest (5-3) back on track after a listless performance against Oak Lawn on Dec. 9. And while Manzke was proud of the way his team bounced back, he’d still like the Bengals to tighten up their ball control.

“We play pretty good defense and have a couple guys who can score,” Manzke said. “But we can’t keep turning the ball over like this. These close wins can easily turn into close losses.”

Evergreen Park (4-8) appeared on its way to a third straight victory after forcing 19 Oak Forest turnovers, but the Mustangs couldn’t keep Oak Forest off the glass. Tim Loeding (12 points, 9 rebounds) gave Oak Forest a three-point lead with less than a minute to go after scoring on a putback off a rare Mayer miss.

“T.J. isn’t going to miss short,” Loeding said. “If he does, it goes long, and I put myself in position to grab it.”

Evergreen Park led after each of the first three periods, but in a game of runs, the Mustangs couldn’t swing the fourth-quarter momentum their way. Evergreen Park was paced by junior guards Morgan Murphy (13 points) and Brandon White (12 points, 5 steals).

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