Boys basketball: Dundee-Crown holds off Ottawa comeback for 47-41 triumph at Kingman

OTTAWA – For most of the evening, Saturday’s nonconference game at Kingman Gym between the visiting Dundee-Crown Chargers and the host Ottawa Pirates felt like, well, just another Saturday nonconference game.

But after 3 1/2 quarters of the teams running somewhat on fumes – Ottawa playing its third game in four nights, Dundee-Crown coming off a quadruple-overtime loss the night before – fans at Kingman were treated to an exciting finish.

The Pirates rallied back from down 16 points early in the fourth quarter to draw as close as three, but a pair of Kennon Cook free throws with 1:10 remaining and Jason Huber’s free throw with 7.7 seconds left broke the Chargers’ scoring drought and powered them to a not-as-comfortable-as-it-once-looked, 47-41 victory.

“It felt good,” Cook said, “because yesterday I made some free throws, but I wasn’t making as many as I should have. Going [5 of 6, including 4 of 4 in the fourth quarter] from the line today, it felt good and kind of woke the team up and gave us energy.”

Cook finished with 11 points and a team-high six rebounds, Huber scored a game-best 15 points on 4-of-8 3-point shooting, Zach Ryza scored nine to go with four rebounds, Zachary Randi scored eight points, and point man Gabriel Rivera handed out four assists for the Chargers (12-5).

For the Pirates (9-7), Payton Knoll had a big third quarter on his way to a team-high 10 points to keep his team in long arm’s reach before its late rally. Anthony Miller and Braiden Miller (eight rebounds, three steals) added eight points apiece, with Luke Cushing and Javarius Whitfield contributing five each in the comeback effort.

“We looked like we were a tired team tonight,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said, “and [the Dundee-Crown lead] got up to 16, but I thought we showed a lot of fight, did some good things and gave ourselves an opportunity in the last 30 seconds.

“I’m disappointed in the result but not disappointed in that we didn’t lay down.”

Huber drained a 3 from the wing just before the first-quarter buzzer to put the Chargers ahead, 12-9, after one quarter, and from there Dundee-Crown slowly but steadily built its advantage. The score was 23-14 at halftime, 40-26 through three and, at its zenith, 42-26 in the opening minute of the fourth.

Instead of playing out the string waiting for the final buzzer, however , the Pirates clamped down, holding the Chargers scoreless for the next half dozen minutes while performing their own slow-and-steady act to climb back in the game led by a pair of Braiden Miller buckets, two Trace Roether free throws, 3s off the hands of Cushing and Anthony Miller, and three late points from the comeback’s spark plug, Whitfield.

It was an Anthony Miller 3-pointer with 17.4 seconds remaining off one of Levi Sheehan’s three assists that, at 44-41, returned it to a one-possession game for the first time since the opening minutes of the second quarter. Forced to foul, however, the Pirates sent sharpshooter Huber to the line. He only made the front end, but that was enough to make it a two-possession game, and after Ottawa failed to score, Cook added two more successful free throws to account for the final.

“We had a tough game last night, an emotional, four-overtime game [vs. Huntley], and when you lose one of those, that makes it tough to come back the next night,” Chargers coach Lance Huber said. “They were trapping us, and we had a little fatigue mentally not realizing what was going on.

“But we got to the line, and they wanted to foul Kennon. He missed some big ones last night, but he was 4-for-4 down the stretch tonight, which was nice to see. ... It was nice to close one out. We’ve been struggling in these kind of games.”

Dundee-Crown is scheduled to return to action Friday at home against Crystal Lake South.

Ottawa is set to host Morris on Wednesday as the nightcap of a girls-boys twin bill, then host archrival La Salle-Peru on Friday before visiting Sycamore on Saturday.