With 7.6 seconds remaining and down two points, Prairie Ridge’s Michael Bradshaw set his feet at the top of the 3-point arc and let the ball fly.
The shot went in and unleashed a ripple of emotion through the crowd, giving Prairie Ridge a 60-59 win over Crystal Lake South.
The final shot of the game, which missed, came from South’s Eric Schiller, who landed awkwardly on an opponent’s ankle and fell to the floor injured as time expired.
Bradshaw said the play was not designed for him specifically and that, in all actually, he didn’t even run the play drawn up by his coach.
The Gators’ (9-14, 4-7 FVC Valley) defensive pressure set the tone early resulting in a one-point halftime lead. The second half of the game was all about runs. The Gators jumped out to an eight-point lead early, with many of their points coming from the free-throw line.
With 23 seconds left in the game, South senior guard Nick Geske hit an athletic putback layup through three Wolves (8-15, 5-6 FVC Valley) defenders putting the Gators up 2. Bradshaw erased that deficit on his game-winning shot.
Grayslake Central 75, Crystal Lake Central 71 (OT): At Grays-lake, the last-place Rams (4-17, 1-10) shocked the FVC Fox-leading Tigers (21-3, 9-2) in overtime.
Crystal Lake Central, which led Hampshire by one game, jumped to an early 13-4 lead, but the Rams got hot behind guard Danny Reed and pulled off the upset. The Tigers have remaining division games with Grayslake North and Johnsburg, while Hampshire (8-2 FVC Fox) has games with Johnsburg, Woodstock and Woodstock North.
“We got out to that lead and kind of relaxed and they outplayed us,” Tigers coach Rich Czeslawski said. “We’re in a tough spot. We still have to win two games against good teams. We have to play better than we did tonight.”
Cary-Grove 64, McHenry 58 (OT): At Cary, the Warriors used a 28-point second half to draw overtime, but Cary-Grove captured the FVC Valley Division win.
Dean Lee scored 21 points, with three 3s, and Jason Gregoire added 17 points including 9 of 10 free throws for the Trojans (11-13, 3-8).
Damian Zaleski (18 points) and Shane Varvil (17) led McHenry (9-15, 2-9).
Grayslake North 55, Woodstock 49: At Woodstock, A.J. Fish scored 33 points to lead the Knights (14-11, 4-7) past the Blue Streaks (17-8, 7-4) in their FVC Fox game.
Jordan Turner scored 29 for Woodstock, which was playing without 6-foot-7 center Damian Stoneking, who is out with a sprained ankle.
Rockford Christian 46, Harvard 28: At Harvard, Justin Nolen scored eight points to lead seven scorers in a Big Northern Conference East Division loss for the Hornets (7-16).
Richmond-Burton 62, Genoa-Kingston 61: At Richmond, the Rockets rallied to overcome a three-point halftime deficit and snag a BNC East Division win to keep their title hopes alive.
Brian Wells (21), Chris Vlasak (14), Michael Kaska (12) and Dan Rygiel (10) all reached double figures for R-B (9-15, 7-2).
Burlington Central 63, Marengo 57: At Marengo, Adam Rogutich scored 22 points on eight buckets to lead all scorers, but the Indians (10-16, 5-5) took the BNC East Division loss.
Faith Lutheran 69, Keith Country Day 43: At Crystal Lake, Ben Boyer scored 24 points and pulled down 15 rebounds and Matt Van Antwerp added 19 as the Saints (6-19) rolled.
• Chris Burrows, John Plazak and Joe Stevenson contributed to this report.
