The Kewanee Boilermakers escaped with a 49-48 home win over the Riverdale Rams Saturday to move to 6-4 on the season, while handing Riverdale just their second loss at 8-2.
In a non-conference matchup in which the Rams held a slim lead throughout most of the game, Kewanee was able to gut out a one-point win.
“Give credit to our players,” said Kewanee Coach Matt Clark. “There were many times throughout the game we could’ve folded, but when we were down 46-42 with under two minutes left, I think we executed at a high level that we hadn’t all season,” Clark added.
“We’ve played well at times at one end of the court, but I think the last few minutes of the game was our best all-around performance.”
The buildup to the final 43 seconds of play…
The Boilers got off to a sluggish start and spotted Riverdale a 5-point first quarter lead at 15-10. Kewanee bounced back by outscoring the Rams 13-9 in the second frame, but Riverdale held a slim 24-23 halftime lead.
“We started the game making some mental mistakes in the first quarter that caused a slow start for us,” noted Clark. “We seemed to be out of sorts against their zone and didn’t shoot the ball well from the perimeter in the first quarter. We did a little better in the second quarter,” he added.
Braden Clark scored seven points in the second quarter and Kewanee connected on three treys (Clark, Catrelle Reed and Colson Welgat). Riverdale’s Jake Willems was the recipient of several Kewanee second quarter fouls and he made good on seven of his eight free tosses en route to scoring 12 first half points.
“We committed too many fouls that allowed Riverdale to shoot 10 free throws in the second quarter. Heading into halftime being down one was good to see since we were a little disjointed in the first half.”
After the break, the Boilers again struggled to get into an offensive flow. Riverdale held Kewanee to a single point for the first six minutes of the third quarter. The Boilers then went on a 12-1 run at the end of the third that carried over into the beginning of the final quarter.
Clark added seven more points in the third quarter to lead the Kewanee charge. Still trailing 34-32, Kewanee would need a fourth quarter push to get a win.
“That run was key for us,” said Clark. “I thought our defense and hustle, getting on the floor for loose balls and rebounding was better. Limiting them to one shot was huge.”
Kewanee got that much-needed push and outscored Riverdale 17-14 in the fourth quarter. Clark and Willems were willing their teams to win in the deciding fourth quarter. Each player scored 10 points down the stretch.
With the Boilers down 46-42 with 1:53 left to play, Coach Clark called a timeout. After the timeout, Clark drove the basket and missed, but he hustled to get his own rebound and made an acrobatic putback for the 46-44 score.
Riverdale’s Brody Clark answered with his own rebound bucket and the Rams were back up by four, 48-44. On Kewanee’s next possession, Blaise Lewis fired a three and missed, but Colson Welgat retrieved the rebound and quickly got it to Catrelle Reed at the top of the key. Reed’s smooth 3-pointer hit nothing but net to move the Boilers within one, 47-48.
With 43 seconds left, Coach Clark called a key timeout to instruct his team. Riverdale then brought the ball up the court and Kewanee’s defense pounced. Welgat knocked the ball loose and then dove for the ball. Welgat was fouled on the play and Coach Clark called another timeout with 20 seconds left to draw up a play.
Welgat inbounded the ball to Lewis. Blaise took a couple dribbles and fed it to Clark. Clark drove into the lane, did a spin move and banked in the 49-48 winner.
“I drew up a play we’d worked on this week in practice (as we changed a few things offensively),” said Clark. “It was great execution. Brady got to his right hand and finished through contact to put us up by one with 8.6 to play.”
Riverdale had a couple opportunities to score, but Kewanee’s defense held.
Braden Clark scored 17 second-half points on his way to a game-high effort of 24 points. Reed contributed eight and Welgat added seven in the win.
Willems dialed up 22 points for the Rams and Jackson Tegeler had eight in vain.
