With a little over three minutes to play in Tuesday night’s Southwest Prairie Conference matchup between Bolingbrook and Joliet West, the host Raiders looked very much in danger of losing their first regular-season game to a league opponent since joining the conference in 2024-25.

Elijah Anderson wasn’t interested in letting that happen.

Anderson, a reserve forward, basically took over the game in the last few minutes of regulation, including securing rebounding position and drawing a foul with 1.2 seconds left in regulation and sinking a pair of free throws to send the game to overtime.

Once there, his teammates did the rest to secure an 83-74 victory that looked impossible only minutes before.

“I just felt like I needed to step up and make big plays,” Anderson said of his breakout effort, where he finished with 18 points. “I stayed ready, and I was able to play a big role in the game tonight.”

A pair of Aamir Shannon free throws with a little over three minutes to play pushed a surprising Joliet West (9-8, 5-2) lead to 62-52.

But Bolingbrook (11-5, 7-0) stayed within contact, getting baskets from T.J. Williams (19 points) and Anderson to pull itself back from the brink.

Joliet West’s Brandon Goehrke split a pair of free throws to stretch the lead to seven points, but Mason Williams delivered a critical three-point play, and a Joliet West turnover led to Anderson stepping into the spotlight once again on a tough putback where he was fouled.

Anderson even had to change uniforms after his blood was found on his uniform. After the delay, Anderson promptly stepped to the line and drained the free throw to unexpectedly put the Raiders up 64-63.

“I noticed the blood was there,” Anderson said of the required uniform change. “I just didn’t tell anyone, because I didn’t want to come out of the game.”

Goehrke answered with an absolute clutch 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down to give Joliet West a 66-64 lead and needing one stop to get a win and hand Bolingbrook its first loss in SPC play in 23 games.

And it looked for a moment that they may have gotten it.

A rushed shot from 10 feet didn’t go down, and in the scrum for the rebound, it was determined Anderson had been held and was sent to the line with 1.2 seconds to play and an opportunity to tie the game. Seemingly unconcerned in the moment, Anderson knocked down both free throws to breathe new life into the Raiders.

Anderson started the OT scoring with a bucket. Then Brady Pettigrew (19 points) took over, scoring nine points in the extra frame. Joliet West never got any kind of a foothold again.

The Tigers also started to run out of players. Three starters fouled out by the end.

Joliet West got a , spectacular effort from Ryan Lipke, who finished with a game-high 23 points.

“Before we get into our guys, you have to give Joliet West a ton of credit,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “They came in well-prepared, and they, quite honestly, made some shots I hadn’t seen some of their kids make in previous games.

“At the end of the day, you just want to get better. We have plenty of things to work on, as we showed, but on the other hand, we showed that we can be pretty good, as well.”