Somonauk, H-BR to meet in Little Ten finals

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Updated: March 24, 2012 11:26PM

With a potential game-winning three by Newark’s Brett Anderson bouncing off the rim at the final buzzer, this year’s Little Ten Conference tournament will not include a three-peat by the Norseman.

Tourney host and No. 3 seed Somonauk (13-10) started the night on fire when it came to shooting from beyond the arc, and the Bobcats withstood the opposite touch from the free throw line to squeeze past No. 2 Newark 52-50 in order to face top-seed Hinckley-Big Rock in Friday’s 8 p.m. championship.

It was a much more notable upset since Somonauk lost scoring leader Cody Passero to a season-ending knee injury.

The No. 1 Royals (18-6) countered a third-quarter surge by No. 4 seed Indian Creek (10-12) for a 50-38 victory in the other semifinal of the 93rd annual tourney – the state’s longest running continuous league event. The Timberwolves face Newark (11-11) in the 6:30 p.m. consolation game.

The Norsemen boast the most LTC crowns with 17, however, the Bobcats seek their 11th tourney trophy and third within the past five years while H-BR aims for its sixth since last winning in 2001.

Bolstered by 6-of-7 treys in the opening half, Somonauk upped a 15-11 first-quarter lead into a 10-point edge prior to a 25-20 intermission tally and a 41-35 lead entering the final eight minutes. Newark pulled to within three (50-47) to set up a nerve-racking final two minutes.

The Norsemen were unable to capitalize on the Bobcats missing the front end of three consecutive one-and-one opportunities as well as both sides of a two-shot chance before Adam Shorkey made it a 50-49 contest with 8.2 seconds left. Colin Stahl hit the back half of two free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining before the Bobcats got whistled for a foul on the inbounds play.

Newark’s Taylor Wright was only able to hit the second of two at the charity stripe to make it 51-50 before Stahl capped off a team-best 17-point performance with the back half of two free throws with 5.2 on the clock. Then came Anderson’s fateful miss that left the Newark standout with a game-high 19 points.

“Not having Cody is a big loss for us and someone had to step up,” Stahl said in regard to being the lone Bobcat in double figures bolstered by four treys. “I have to give credit to my teammates for making their share of threes (five others as part of the team’s 9-of-11 showing) and for finding me open. You also have to give credit to Newark for taking advantage of our troubles at the line. Fortunately I was able to get back my concentration for the second attempts.”

“In a game like this, having the last shot for a win is really all I could ask for,” Newark coach Rick Tollefson said.

“We’ve been kind of like Martin and Lewis at the free throw line lately … 4-for-12 one night, 8-for-10 the next, and what, 5-for-17 tonight,” Somonauk coach Ron Hunt said. “Fortunately we talked about moving the ball and attacking the basket and we did that well in the first half. They changed their defense in the third quarter and we sputtered a bit, but in the end we gutted out a win.”

In the opener, Hinckley-Big Rock turned an 13-6 first-quarter lead into a 25-13 halftime edge only to have Indian Creek pull to within six (31-25) in the third quarter before H-BR’s Mitchell Hemesath got a crucial putback to spur the Royals into a 9-0 spurt and a second win over the Timberwolves.

“It took a lot of energy for us to get to within six, but they got a big offensive rebound putback and making the lead eight instead of us getting to four made a big difference,” Indian Creek coach Joe Piekarz said. “It’s a frustrating loss because we played hard, but didn’t come up with enough loose balls and enough consistency for 32 minutes.”

H-BR coach Bill Sambrookes was glad his squad withstood the challenge.

“We’ve still got two more (regular-season) conference games to go, but we’ve already played everyone else in the Final Four of the tourney, which says a lot,” he said. “Every time you a play a team, it always gets closer. They stepped up in the third quarter and we gave them way too many boards. Thankfully we switched from a man to a diamond zone and our pressure got to them.”

As did Bernie Conley with game-high 16 points backed up by eight from Mitch Ruh and seven from Hemesath. The Timberwolves were led by Shaquille Crayton’s eight points off the bench as the senior made his second appearance since returning from a broken wrist.

“We knew we needed to keep them from making too long of a run, so we picked it up on defense since a big part of our game is transition buckets. That plus hitting three-pointers always helps open the inside,” Conley said.