Youth Basketball: St. Luke outlasts Brooks to place third in Village tourney

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:41AM

Successful free throws are an important part of achieving success in basketball — on any level.

The St. Luke eighth-grade boys basketball team learned that charity tosses are particularly significant when the game is on the line. The Bearcats shot 10-for-13 from the stripe in the final quarter to help the outlast Brooks Middle School 44-37 in the third-place game of the third annual Al Allen Village Tournament, held at the Oak Park-River Forest Field House last week.

The Bearcats withstood a frantic comeback attempt by the Eagles, led by Bleshawn Wilkerson and Deandre Enoch. The two All-Tournament selections combined for 21 second-half points, before St. Luke’s Gavin O’Brien connected on four straight free throws down the stretch — and buried a big three-pointer with 2 minutes, 50 seconds left to play, breaking a 32-32 tie and giving his team a lead it would not relinquish.

O’Brien (13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals) also swiped a Brooks pass and passed it to All-Tournament team member Sean Flannery for an easy layup moments later, increasing the St. Luke advantage to 37-32.

“I was just playing as hard as I could, trying to get my teammates involved, taking the open shots when I had them,” O’Brien said. “I really concentrated on my free throws in the second half, and I should make them. We shoot them all the time in practice, so it should be no big deal. It feels great to get third place, even though first would have been nice.”

Brooks made it close after scoring just nine points the first half, posting 13 in the third quarter and holding St. Luke to seven.

“We mixed it up a little in the second half with a 1-3-1 trap and forced some turnovers, and were able to get out on the break and score some points out of that,” said Brooks coach Ryan Gates. “But we also gave up some easy baskets out of that, too, and that helped them stay in it in the second half.”

St. Luke coach Fran Roche agreed his team had problems when first presented with Brooks’ trapping defense.

“We were fortunate to finally be able to finally contain their halfcourt trap,” Roche said. “They had some success with it in the second half and we lost our composure. Fortunately, we regained our composure and they started to foul us, so we made some free throws and they gave us some openings we were able to take advantage of. We both had some shots that wouldn’t drop, and in the first half I think they lost their composure a little bit, but we were able to hit some big free throws.”

But Brooks wouldn’t go away, as a basket by Wilkerson (10 points, 4 steals) closed the gap to 37-34. That’s when Kelly Frank contributed his only points of the game — and they were huge. Frank popped in a two-pointer with a minute to go then went 1-for-2 from the foul line with 30 seconds left, putting the Bearcats up 40-34.

The Eagles still weren’t ready to throw in the towel.

Jalen Mack hit 1-for-2 from the charity stripe for his only point of the game to pull Brooks within five points, and Enoch made it 40-37 after he drained a shot with 15.6 seconds.

But when the Eagles were forced to foul, the Bearcats showed they could be clutch in a crunch, as Flannery calmly sank two free throws with 8.1 seconds left, and Sam Francis (12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, All-Tournament) put the finishing touch on the victory with two more from the line for St. Luke, which finished 22-for-33 from the stripe, compared to just 6-for-12 for Brooks, which didn’t shoot a free throw in the first half.

“Foul shooting for us can be a strength,” Roche said. “It’s not always a strength, but we work on it in practice every day, as every team does, and we were fortunate ours went in. Sometimes, luck is the residue of hard work.”