Mike Lipnisky just keeps on rolling. With him, so do the Rolling Meadows Mustangs.
Lipnisky scored 26 points, sinking 10 of 10 free-throw attempts, to lead Rolling Meadows to a 55-42 victory over host Conant Friday. The victory moved the winners into first place in the Mid-Suburban League South.
Lipnisky`s feat ran his consecutive free-throw streak to 60, moving him into second place on the all-time Illinois list.
”We`re trying not to say anything much about the record,” said Mustangs coach Dave Brown. ”He definitely could do it.”
Lipnisky, who passed Matt Margenthaler of Macomb (51) on the list, needs 17 free throws to break the record of 86 set by Glenbrook South`s Brad Niemann in January, 1987.
”Sixty in a row means nothing,” said Lipnisky. ”I`ll miss sooner or later, and it will be all over. I thought I was going to miss one out there tonight. I had an off shooting night.”
A good night for most players but so-so in the mind of a player averaging just under 30 points per game. Lipnisky was 7 of 19 from the floor, faring not much better than the entire Mustang team. Yet, Conant (10-4, 3-1)
was colder, thanks in part to the staunch defense of Rolling Meadows (13-2, 4-0).
Brian McIntyre, who scored 11 points, had nine of those in the first half and earned Brown`s praise for keeping his team in the game.
”They let us shoot the outside shot,” said McIntyre. ”Most teams don`t do that. It was nice to beat them because they`re always bad mouthing us in the papers.”
Said Brown: ”We said we were going to deny Conant the passing lanes, and our kids did a good job. This was probably our best defensive game of the year.”
Both teams seemed quite tight coming out of the box, with Rolling Meadows holding a 12-9 lead after one quarter. The Cougars trailed 28-20 at the half, but were outscored 14-10 in the third period to trail by 12 points
(42-30).
”This was our worst offensive performance,” said Conant coach Tom McCormack. ”I think it boils down to we did a lot of things very poorly. We just didn`t put the ball in the basket when we had early opportunities. We had kids trying to block Lipnisky`s shots instead of taking a charge on him. And at that point (with 4:33 left in the game), he had four fouls. Not that him fouling out would have made a big difference.
”We had a lot of turnovers (21). Maybe the magnitude of the game had something to do with it, but we really can`t use that as an excuse for our performance.”
To Brown, the game wasn`t exactly what he anticipated.
”I thought it was going to be a dog fight to the end,` he said. ”I figured it would be a lot closer. If we got really hot, I thought it could be pretty lopsided.”
Matt Maras led Conant with 14 points, while teammate Vaurice Patterson had 10.
