Brian Costin used all of his 6-foot-7 frame to grab a rebound and promptly can a pair of free throws with 3 seconds remaining to lift host Conant to a 57-56 Mid Suburban League crossover win over Fremd.
The Vikings’ Andre Duncan barely missed a desperation shot from midcourt that bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
Fremd built an 18-7 advantage after one quarter and led until 6:21
remained in the game, when Pat McCormack hit the last of his three three-point field goals to put Conant up 48-47. The Vikings rebounded on a pair of buckets by Eddie Hebert, one a three-pointer from four feet beyond the arc. Hebert also scored the next four Fremd points to give the visitors their final lead, 56-55 with :32 remaining.
Conant coach Tom McCormack called timeout three seconds later.
“We wanted to be aware of the score and time,” McCormack said. “Also,
would they be playing a man-to-man or zone? After going over the possibilities, we sent in a couple different plays.”
After working the ball around the perimeter, Russ Michna drove into
the Fremd zone defense and made contact with Duncan. The whistle sounded, and after a momentary pause, a blocking foul was called. Michna missed the front end of a one-and-bonus, but Costin snuck in for the clutch rebound followed by his free throws.”I just spun around and slipped in,” Costin said. “They (Fremd)
called timeout before I shot the free throws, and I m glad they did. I needed that extra time to clear my head.”
The Cougars (11-4) weren’t thinking with clear heads early in the game. Seven first-quarter turnovers helped Fremd (9-3) race to an early 16-2 lead after scoring 14 consecutive points. Hebert, who finished with a game-high 29 points, scored seven in that spurt.
Each team scored 18 points in the second quarter, including a late
8-0 run by the Vikings to make the halftime score 36-25.
Conant’s defense began to take charge in the third quarter when the Cougars outscored the visitors 17-7. Pat McCormack opened and closed Conant’s third-quarter scoring with three-pointers.
Fremd coach Mo Tharp noticed a momentum swing early in the third
quarter when Conant’s defense stiffened.
“We wanted to come out hard in the third quarter, but they came out
harder,” Tharp said. “They took better care of the ball than we did.”
Ahead by one point midway through the fourth quarter, Fremd stalled for nearly two minutes before Hebert finally went to the line and canned two free throws.
“We spread out a little bit because we wanted to run our offense,”
Tharp said. “No problem there. What hurt us was missing a pass to McCormack and him hitting a three early in the fourth quarter. That, and our bench let them back in the game twice.”
Michna paced the Cougars with a 12 points. Two other starters,
McCormack and Costin, chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively. The Conant bench, led by Eric Laube with nine points and Sean Harrison with eight, turned the tide, outscoring the Viking subs 20-0. Harrison added five rebounds.
Duncan finished with nine points, and Roy Pederson added eight for Fremd.
