Boys Basketball: Timothy Christian upends Elmwood Park

Updated: January 13, 2012 11:35PM

Timothy Christian scored the final 11 points of the first half to take the lead for good and knocked off Metro Suburban Conference rival Elmwood Park 55-51 on Friday night in Elmhurst.

That streak came after a timeout with 4:37 left in the second quarter and was part of a 16-3 run that included a pair of threes from junior forward Tyler VanderBrug (nine points).

Senior guard Chris Ridolphi led Timothy Christian with 17, and junior guard Danny Leach scored 13 points.

Elmwood Park’s senior guard Julian Molina led all scorers with 26.

“We just tried to refocus and look for the next pass, be in the right spots, and share the ball a little bit,” Timothy Christian head coach Jack LeGrand said regarding the key timeout. “We had good balance scoring tonight, but I don’t think we closed well in terms of making good decisions.”

Timothy Christian (9-8, 2-3) took the lead for good when Ridolphi hit the second of two straight baskets with 1:22 left in the second quarter making the score 25-23. They built it to as much as 13 with 6:45 left in the contest.

“We needed to push the ball and start running,” Ridolphi said. “We work better when we push the ball and pop passes around. We keep moving and get open shots.”

Elmwood Park (8-6, 1-3) roared back in the fourth quarter as Molina went to the basket more scoring 6 of 8 free throws (11 of 14 overall) and eight of his 26 points in the final quarter.

The Tigers would got within five points with 2:08 left on a pair of Molina foul shots. Senior guard Alec Gomez hit a three with 36.7 seconds left to cut the gap to just four points. He finished the game with 14 points as he hit another one as time expired.

“I’ve always been an aggressive player, and now I’m taking advantage of it more,” Molina said. “It’s not just for me, but driving helps my teammates get open.”

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