As one of just three seniors on the Manteno boys basketball team, Braden Campbell knows that in addition to leading the Panthers with his play, he sometimes has to do so with his voice too.

“I try to go with the flow,” Campbell said, “but there’s times where I have to put my foot down and bring them in the right direction.”

Campbell did both of those things in Friday’s trip to Illinois Central Eight Conference co-leader Wilmington, tallying a game-high 24 points, including the game-clinching free throws, to lead a young Manteno team to a 51-47 over the Wildcats.

“It was big for us,” Manteno coach Zack Myers said. “We’ve talked about our youth before and being able to finish games. This is such a defensive team with Wilmington. They’re capable of making really big stops and they did that to us tonight. We were able to bounce back with a couple really big 3s for us.”

In terms of game time, the Panthers (9-9, 4-3) led for a healthy chunk of the game, but the Wildcats (12-5, 5-2) never trailed by more than three possessions as the teams exchanged nine lead changes.

The last of those came when, right after Brysen Meents had put the Wildcats ahead 29-28, sophomore forward Dylan Polito hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a 34-29 affair with three minutes left in the third, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half.

“Those were some of the biggest shots, probably of the season,” Campbell said. “He brought us back in the game and it was greatly needed.”

The Wildcats tied their largest margin of the game at 37-29 after the third quarter, a margin that was quickly halved when Ryan Kettman scored four points, all off of Manteno turnovers, in the first 70 seconds of the quarter.

The Wildcats forced nine of Manteno’s 14 turnovers in the second half and got to as close as three points when Meents drilled a clutch triple that made it a 48-45 tilt with 1:50 left. But the Panthers went 3-for-4 from the line down the stretch, including Campbell’s pair in the closing seconds that capped off his 10-for-10 day from the stripe.

Whether it’s at the free-throw line, anywhere on the offense or leading by example with his defensive effort, there’s no doubt Myers knows he can rely on Campbell.

“I really push on him and lean on him hard as our biggest returner off of last year’s team,” Myers said. “We rely on him a lot for his leadership to bring these sophomores on. We throw him in the post, we throw him at guard, we make him handle the ball, and he just never complains about anything.”

While Myers saw his young team get some great leadership down the stretch, Wildcats coach Doug Krop also saw some of his experienced players make big plays, particularly from Kettman, who scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and seasoned juniors Meents (19 points) and Declan Moran (12 points).

And although he saw the same grit and determination from his Wildcats that he’s used to towards the end of the game, Krop felt a lot of that was missing over the first three quarters.

“I thought our energy in the fourth quarter was great,” Krop said. “It’s a credit to the guys to battle back like that, but at the same time we needed that sort of desperation from the tip off and all four quarters.

“That’s how we’ve been successful the last few years and all this year,” he continued. “We’re not the greatest ‘basketball players’ but we’ve got heart, we’re athletic. We’ve done it the majority of the year, just didn’t have it from the tip off today.”

Both teams will quickly return to the hardwood for nonconference action Saturday, with the Wildcats hosting Westmont and Manteno facing Mendota at the Seneca Shootout. They’ll both hit the road for conference play Tuesday, Manteno at Herscher and Wilmington at Reed-Custer.