Boys Basketball: Raiders Win Despite Sloppy Play

The Bolingbrook Raiders basketball team bent, but never broke Tuesday against the Lockport Porters. 

Bolingbrook head coach Rob Brost would prefer the Raiders not bend at all.

The Raiders squandered a 21-10 point lead in the first quarter, but held on to squeak out a 63-59 win over Lockport at .

"I was disappointed with how we played and disappointed in how we competed," Brost said. "The caveat is we got a W when we didn't play well. I told our guys that a sign of a good team is when they don't play well and still win."

The Porters played catch up nearly the entire game. Lockport came within three points of the Raiders four times in the second half—twice within the final minute of regulation—only to have Bolingbrook pull away with a key basket.

Senior point guard Cam Burnett connected on two clutch free throws with 34.1 seconds remaining in the game to give Bolingbrook a 59-54 lead. Then, less than 30 seconds later, junior forward Ben Moore scored on a layup that put the Raiders up 61-56.

The Porters (3-2) never recovered, despite a last-second 3-pointer to end the game.

Winning in the final minutes of play, Brost said, was a character flaw for teams of Bolingbrook past.

"We toughed it out at the end, but it shouldn't have got to that point," Brost said. "This team, when compared to other teams we've had in recent history ... we would fall apart at the end of the game. We stepped up and hit some free throws and (Moore) hit the layup towards the end."

The Raiders (4-2) nearly emptied their bench in the first quarter looking for a spark, Brost said. After taking a 21-14 lead into the second quarter, Bolingbrook didn't score until halfway through the period.

Two 3-pointers—one by senior forward Nick Malonga and another by senior guard Alec Boyd—and a three-point play by Burnett, though, helped the Raiders to a 33-30 lead after the first half.

Lockport would eventually claw back in the next period and trailed by just one point with 5 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter. 

But again, Burnett came up with some timely shooting, scoring seven of his 14 total points to close out the quarter.

"They are a very talented ball club with nice guard play," said Lockport head coach Lawrence Thompson, Jr. "They have the ability to go into spurts and not let you maintain anything."

Leading 51-46 with one quarter remaining, Bolingbrook looked to its leading scorer Moore to seal the victory. Moore, who scored a team-high 18 points, scored five points in the final frame. 

Burnett and Malonga each finished with 14 points. Lockport guard Courtney Cole finished with a game-high 20 points.

Bolingbrook, which sits atop Southwest Suburban Blue Conference standings, returns to action Friday at 7 p.m. with a road game at Sandburg.