When all else was failing Friday night, Bloom went back to basics. That meant back to big man Jawan Nelson.
The 6-foot-8-inch junior center’s layup with 18 seconds left in the second overtime gave the visiting Blazing Trojans a 56-53 SICA crossover victory over Crete-Monee.
“[Larry Dumas] made a great inbound pass underneath their basket so I could make the easy bucket,” said Nelson, who had a game-high 19 points. “They were triple-teaming me throughout the second half, and it was hard for me to get good looks.”
Bloom (13-3, 5-0 SICA East) took a 12-0 advantage to start the game, thanks to six points from Nelson, and held the lead until late in the fourth quarter.
With Crete-Monee down 46-39 and 1:59 left in regulation, Keenan Hardy (14 points) scored five of the next seven points as the Warriors (8-7, 2-4 SICA South) forced overtime.
Then, with the score tied 51-51 after the first overtime, Crete-Monee grabbed a 53-52 advantage on Tony Powell’s floating baseline jumper with :38 to go.
After Nelson gave Bloom the lead again, the Warriors still had a chance to win, but Tim Johnson missed two free throws with :05 left.
Bloom’s Brian Conway (14 points) then was fouled on the ensuing rebound and converted both ends of a one-and-one.
