James Jopes did not hesitate.
The Naperville Central senior guard caught the pass from teammate Jonah Hinton and immediately rose up and launched a 3-point shot from 23 feet out on the right wing.
The ball tickled the twine as time expired, giving the host Redhawks a thrilling 61-58 comeback victory over Waubonsie Valley in a DuPage Valley Conference opener on Friday.
Naperville Central’s fans stormed the floor like a scene from the days of yore after watching their team storm back from a nine-point third-quarter deficit.
“It was great,” Hinton said. “When I passed to him, I already knew it was going in. If you look on the film, you can see me walk away with my hand up. It was so exciting.”
Hinton, a senior guard, had already made four 3-pointers, including one from NBA range that tied the game at 58-58 with 2:19 remaining.
After the Warriors (3-2, 0-1) missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1:38 left, the Redhawks (6-0, 1-0) held for the last shot, which nearly everyone assumed Hinton would take.
“I actually thought that too,” Jopes said. “We had Jonah up top because he’s our best ballhandler and one of our best passers.
“We wasted enough time, and he drew my guy over a little bit, and as soon as he saw that, he kicked it over to me. I just had enough room, and I put it up. As soon as I caught it, I knew I was going to put it right back up. As soon as I shot it, I knew it was going in.”
It was the sixth 3-pointer of the game for Jopes, who finished with 18 points, and the 14th for the Redhawks, who made 14 of 27 from beyond the arc.
Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer didn’t tell any particular player to take the decisive shot, but he said he knew it would be Jopes. Hinton, who scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, appreciated the fact that Kramer trusts his players.
“Our coach gave us the freedom to make the decision,” said Hinton, who led all players with five assists. “He knew we would make the best decision, so I just read the defense, and when the guy helped over, I saw Jopes slide open. So I hit him, and I trusted he was going to make that shot. And that’s what he did.”
But first the Redhawks had to take Waubonsie Valley’s best shot. The Warriors led 52-45 at the start of the fourth quarter. Before Jopes’ decisive shot, the Redhawks had led only once, on a 3-pointer by Hinton that made it 42-40 with 3:53 left in the third quarter.
“During halftime, Jonah made a good point that we can’t get down on each other, we gotta keep the ball moving,” Jopes said. “We’ve never been down at the end of a half or any quarter.
“We need to make sure that we stick together and battle through adversity to get this win.”
For the Warriors, Shoi Rathi scored 13 points, Jackson Langendorf had 12 points and six rebounds, and Eric Chtilianov had 11 points.
“I don’t think a lot of people have been talking about us, but we’ve played what I consider two really good teams in the area right down to the wire,” Waubonsie Valley coach Andrew Schweitzer said. “We’ve got five juniors and two sophomores in our rotation. We know every time we step on the floor, we’re going to get better.”
But so can the Redhawks.
“We can explode for points,” Kramer said. “We have kids who can shoot it.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
