Proviso East’s Jacob Pullen hasn’t lost a conference game in his three-year varsity career, and he wasn’t in the mood to experience one Friday.
The senior guard poured in 25 points, including eight in overtime, to lead the Pirates to a come from behind 62-57 road victory over Downers Grove South to keep their West Suburban Gold streak alive.
“There’s a standard now where I just can’t see us losing in conference, no matter what we have to do,” said Pullen, whose 11-for-12 effort from the line offset an otherwise stale 7-for-20 performance from his teammates.
The No. 3 Pirates (21-3, 10-0) trailed by six points on two occasions in the second half, the last time coming after Robert Odumuyiwa’s basket gave the Mustangs a 45-39 lead to open the fourth quarter. A 9-2 Pirates run tied the game 47-47 with five minutes left and neither team seized control down the stretch.
Mustangs point guard Kevin Ongtengco split two free throws on consecutive trips to the foul line in the final two minutes–South’s only misses from the stripe on the night–to erase a 51-49 East lead that came on a three-point play by Jamal Jones with 2:34 left. Ongtengco’s second free throw came with 29 seconds left, and Nathan Fuqua’s jumper missed with five seconds left to force overtime.
The Pirates forced the Mustangs (14-8, 6-3) into four overtime turnovers and several empty possessions. After trailing 55-54 midway through the extra session, the Pirates seized control with six straight points.
“Every time a big man caught the ball down low, it was like a war zone,” said Jones, who had 12 points. “It was like three-on-one down there because they had a long guy trying to block it every time you’d pass it out.”
The long guy was Downers South center Dan Schouten, who had a team-high 16 points.
