Boys Basketball: Troy Hogan a hero in Dwight’s win over Wilmington

A voice from the Wilmington bench yelled “shooter’’ as Dwight’s Matt Hooker made a quick baseline move to the basket for two of his nine second-quarter points.

Hooker got Dwight moving in the first half, but it was Troy Hogan who provided the key plays and points in the fourth quarter Monday night as the Trojans earned a 48-47 quarterfinal victory over Wilmington in the Class 2A Seneca Regional.

Dwight (10-18) will face No. 1 seed Herscher at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the first semifinal.

“This was a good win for us,’’ Hogan said. “We get to play Herscher again. We really want to upset them.’’

Hogan scored eight of his game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter, including four free throws in the final 21 seconds.

“Sometimes games come down to that, hitting the free throws,’’ Hogan said.

The last two that put Dwight ahead 48-44 with 7.6 seconds left were especially important because Wilmington’s Basil Hicks hit a three-pointer from the corner with .8 to play.

“We didn’t capitalize with the free-throw percentage I wanted, but we hit the big ones down the stretch,’’ Dwight coach Chris Gibson said.

Hogan’s key three-pointer in the fourth quarter expanded a two-point edge into a 38-33 lead with three minutes left.

“He’s been an outstanding player for us this year, certainly a consistent player all year long,’’ Gibson said. “He’s got a pretty cool stroke out there.’’

Hooker finished with 11 points, and Carson Banks and Aaron Boma each had six points. All of Boma’s points came in the third quarter.

“We didn’t do as good of a job closing out the fourth quarter as we did closing out the third quarter,’’ Gibson said.

Brennan Bryan led Wilmington (9-20) with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Dan O’Leary had nine points and nine rebounds and Lee Oehmen contributed eight points and 10 boards for Wilmington.

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