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CARPENTERSVILLE – Huntley guard Aiden Wieczorek, exhausted and smiling, praised Dundee-Crown for its effort in one of the longest games in Fox Valley Conference boys basketball history.
“They’re a tough team,” Wieczorek said. “They play really hard. At the start we did not match their intensity. They’re a good team. That was a gritty win, probably one of the grittiest wins I’ve ever been a part of.”
The Red Raiders trailed most of the game. They needed defensive stops at the end of regulation and the first three overtimes.
Finally, Wieczorek hit a pair of free throws and Ben Ahmer swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key to pull ahead by five points early in the fourth overtime. The Raiders hit 8-of-10 free throws in that period to hold on for a 68-62 win over the Chargers Friday night.
“They were playing me tight the whole game,” Ahmer said. “I finally got a little glimpse there and let it fly. It felt good. We kind of took a deep breath and it was just get stops there.
“And (D-C’s Kennon) Cook was out, so that was huge. We could not guard him, man. Our biggest thing is competitiveness. We stuck together, mental toughness and fought our way through it.”
Huntley (15-2, 7-1 FVC) led 5-3 early, then did not lead again until Ahmer hit a 10-footer in the second overtime.
Somehow, despite playing from behind all night, the Raiders got the job done.
“I was really proud of our response,” Huntley coach Will Benson said. “We were down 11, middle of the second quarter, hostile environment and got back in it. We made plays down the stretch. Three different times we had to get a stop or we were going home. It was just awesome for them to find a way.”
Ahmer finished with 20 points, Wieczorek scored 18 and Adam Guazzo added 17 with a game-high 18 rebounds. D-C (11-5, 6-3) was led by Cook with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Jason Huber with 23 points and four 3s.
“No disrespect to Huntley, but I thought we controlled the game through regulation,” D-C coach Lance Huber said. “We had chances in regulation, first overtime, second overtime, third overtime and couldn’t put the nail in the coffin. When you give a team as good as Huntley chances it’s going to be difficult.”
Cook had 15 points and seven rebounds at halftime, but picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and had to sit. The Chargers still had the lead, 45-40, when he returned in the fourth quarter.
Wieczorek hit a jumper in the lane with 2:00 remaining in regulation. Then, Ahmer hit his first 3 of the game with 50 seconds remaining on an out-of-bounds play coming out of a timeout to tie the score at 45-45.
As it turned out, both teams were just getting warmed up.
Jason Huber hit a 3 with 1:20 remaining in the third overtime for a 57-54 lead, but Wieczorek converted a three-point play to tie it back up.
“I’ve never played in a game like that,” Wieczorek said. “That was crazy. It was never giving up, no matter how many errors or turnovers or missed shots. We never gave up.”
Ahmer even lost count of the overtime periods.
“Was that five or four?” he said. “Definitely the craziest game I ever played in.”
Huntley 68, Dundee-Crown 62 (4OT)
HUNTLEY (68)
Ahmer 5 8-11 20, Wieczorek 6 5-5 18, Guazzo 5 4-4 17, Andrews 0 0-2 0, Ravagnie 1 2-4 5, Only 0 0-0 0, Kramer 3 0-0 8, Dzik 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 19-26 68.
DUNDEE-CROWN (62)
Huber 5 9-11 23, Rivera 1 0-0 2, Ryza 2 2-4 6, Cook 9 6-10 24, Z. Randl 1 0-0 3, Guyon 0 0-2 0, Schultz 0 0-0 0, Di Silvio 0 0-0 0, Jackson 2 0-0 4, D. Randl 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 17-27 62.
Huntley 11 11 14 9 4 3 5 11 – 68
Dundee-Crown 20 9 10 6 4 3 5 5 – 62
3-point goals: Huntley 9 (Guazzo 3, Ahmer 2, Kramer 2, Wieczorek, Ravagnie), Dundee-Crown 5 (Huber 4, Z. Randl). Total fouls: Huntley 19, Dundee-Crown 21. Fouled out: Cook Rivera, Only.