Boys BASKETBALL: Johnson’s jumper lifts St. Joe past Fenwick

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Oak Park, 01/27/12--St. Joseph's Denzel Patton and Fenwick's Thomas Planek battle for a rebound. Fenwick HS hosted St. Joseph HS in boys basketball Friday evening. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media

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Updated: February 2, 2012 4:10PM

St. Joseph senior Reggie Johnson put up a high-arcing floater from the free-throw line, and all eyes in the gymnasium followed the ball on its downward flight. The net barely moved as the shot swished through at the buzzer to give the Chargers a 47-46 victory over host Fenwick Friday night in Oak Park.

After a less-than-spectacular first half, Johnson came to life and scored 18 of his 20 points after the break to bring St. Joseph (12-8, 4-3 Chicago Catholic North) back from a 28-20 halftime deficit. The Friars (5-11, 2-5) also held a five-point advantage after three quarters at 38-33, but a refocused Johnson and Chargers defense helped pave the way for the dramatic comeback victory.

“We weren’t playing in the first half,” Johnson admitted. “It was a matter of intensity. They (Fenwick) were playing hard coming off a big win (at St. Rita) and we might have taken them too lightly. We had to pick it up. It wasn’t X’s and O’s, it was intensity and we had to find some way to pull it out from there and play hard.”

Johnson said the game-winning shot wasn’t quite as easy as it might have looked when he got the ball with 5.3 seconds left to play.

“When I got the inbounds pass, I fumbled it and I thought, ‘Oh boy,’ “ he said. “I wanted to drive deeper, but luckily I got to the free-throw line, put up the shot, and it went in. It was a blessed shot, a lucky shot.

“Coach told me earlier to stop shooting the floaters because they kept going too hard, they kept going short, but luckily the right one went in at the right time.”

With the score tied 42-42, St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore tried to get Fenwick out of its zone defense and put three players near half court, who passed the ball back and forth for over two minutes before the Friars came out and forced a drive to the hoop by Johnson, who missed a layup attempt.

“We wanted to extend their zone and attack the middle,” Pingatore said. “It somewhat worked, but we just missed the shot.”

At the other end, Fenwick senior Sam Ainsworth (20 points, 13 rebounds) put back his own missed shot to pull the Friars ahead 44-42 with 1:16 remaining.

Johnson was fouled on St. Joseph’s next possession and he hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to make it a one-point game. Fenwick turned the ball over the next time it got the ball and its was Johnson again as he took a pass and banked in a jumper at with 35.3 left to give the Chargers the lead at 45-44.

Ainsworth was fouled underneath with 20.7 to play and he hit two free throws to put the Friars back in front 46-45.

Johnson’s shot on St. Joseph’s next possession went in and out and Ainsworth pulled down the rebound and was fouled. This time he missed the front end of the 1-and-1 with 6.8 seconds left and the Chargers pulled down the rebound and called timeout with 5.3 seconds to play.

Johnson made his move and the Friars suffered another heart-wrenching defeat.

“We were really down the first half,” Pingatore said. “We didn’t play as hard as Fenwick. They wanted it more than we did, and we were doing a lot of dumb things. Reggie was very bad the first half, taking bad shots, standing around. We needed to change all that. One of the ways was the full-court press, which gets their adrenaline going and increased their intensity.”

Free throws also played a key role in the contest as Fenwick hit only 8-of-16 while St. Joseph was good on 11-of-19.

Fenwick coach John Quinn said he was disappointed with his team’s defense on the final shot.

“We knew he (Johnson) was going to get the ball, we had it defensed, but you never let the teams best player get the ball. We tried to deny him the ball but he got it, and he’s not going to give it up there. But he got the shot off from the free-throw line. We’ve got to make him shoot that from the top of the key. We’ve got to come out and stop him, and we didn’t.

“But I’m seeing growth with this team,” he added. “It’s the fourth time we’ve lost a game like this. If we make our free throws and don’t zone out at key times the outcomes might have been different.”

St. Joseph sophomore Paul Turner added nine points, junior A.J. Patty chipped in six while sophomore Karriem Simmons had seven. Fenwick junior Tom Planek pitched in seven points and six rebounds.