Boys Basketball: Indiana State recruit Robbie Avila, Oak Forest turn away Lemont late rally

OAK FOREST – Oak Forest senior center Robbie Avila took two giant steps toward the padded wall behind the basket late in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

The Indiana State recruit had just scored a decisive basket against Lemont, causing him to scream a few words while doing a flex pose with his arms extended down.

The 6-foot-9 Avila put together a Herculean effort on both ends of the court, scoring a game-high 23 points, pulling down 14 rebounds, blocking seven shots and tallying three assists in a 65-50 win over Lemont in South Suburban Blue action in Oak Forest.

[ Photos: Lemont vs. Oak Forest boys basketball ]

Still, Lemont nearly pulled off a stunning comeback, trailing by 16 points in the third quarter, but watched its eight-game winning streak come to a screeching halt because of a cold fourth quarter.

“I definitely wanted to leave that game with a statement,” Avila said. “I didn’t get the ball in the beginning (of the second half), so I had to make myself known in the paint.”

Senior guard Fred Robinson scored 20 points and Drew Pagnusat added 12 points for the Bengals (18-5, 8-3). Lemont sophomore guard Nojus Indrusaitis was bottled up most of the game, not scoring his first points until the 7:10 mark of the second quarter. He collected 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals and made two 3s, although he did not score in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Matas Castillo almost brought Lemont (17-5, 8-1) from a large deficit, burying two 3s in the third quarter to end with 13 points and three 3s.

“We exerted a lot of energy to get to that [one-point game], but they still had something left and it turned out we didn’t,” Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. “We had two guys that we split time to guard [Avila] and load up on the weak side against him. It’s tough to get ready for a guy like that, having our guys play a different way. They had kids that make plays.”

After scoring 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting and tallying eight rebounds, six rebounds and two blocks to spark the Bengals to a 36-23 lead at halftime, Avila attempted only two shots in the first 11-plus minutes of the second half. Not surprisingly, Lemont managed to wipe out a double-digit deficit, cutting the margin to 42-41 after Gavin Kelby’s 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter.

Four Bengals possessions later, Avila, the leading scorer in Oak Forest program history, started a scoring surge that transformed a close game into a rout.

“We knew they were going to send double teams or I was going to get it [freely] in the paint,” Avila said. “I had to work down low, and if it wasn’t open, I had to trust my teammates.”

Avila was unstoppable for segments of the game, especially when the Bengals’ moved the ball and funneled their offense through the multidimensional threat.

Still licking their wounds from a 68-56 loss to Lemont on Feb. 19, 2021, Avila said his team was hungry for the victory. Avila broke open the game, scoring points five times in a six-possession stretch that started midway through the fourth quarter.

“We did definitely have motivation and wanted that game back because we didn’t have Fred last year,” Avila said. “It was a totally different game.”

The Bengals scored 23 points in the fourth quarter to gain a key conference win.

“They’re a great team, a top team,” Oak Forest coach Matt Manzke said. “We’re a good team, and we’ve been kind of needing that marquee win to validate who we are. We’ve had some good wins, but a win against a top team like that is huge for us. We made some mistakes and gave them some easy shots. We took the punch, came back and calmed ourselves down and made the plays we needed to down the stretch.

“The goal was to make [Indrusaitis] take tough shots all night, and try make the the Castillo twins take tough shots. That was the goal, and I think our guys did a nice job buying in.”