Shots weren’t falling for Isaiah Fuller and Oak Park-River Forest on Friday, but neither were spirits.
The Huskies struggled to score early in their Pontiac Holiday Tournament quarterfinal against Bloomington, as they fell behind by 10 points in the second quarter and again early in the third.
But OPRF stormed back and survived a wild final minute to win 61-60 and advance to Saturday’s semifinals against Curie.
Fuller scored 24 points on 9-of-22 shooting to tie Bloomington’s Chris Payton for high-scoring honors. Chase Robinson added 15 points and six rebounds for the Huskies (9-0), and Anthony Roberts had 11 points and five rebounds.
Fuller couldn’t do much more than shake his head regarding OPRF’s shooting issues, which included a 10-of-32 showing in the first half.
“I can’t even tell you (why),” he said. “I don’t know.”
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Payton, a 6-foot-6 junior committed to Illinois State, had something to do with it by blocking four shots. But that wasn’t the whole explanation.
“Sometimes he would block our shot and sometimes we would miss,” Fuller said. “It comes along with the game. You can’t make every shot. But we’ll get better at that.”
The Huskies did get better in the last two quarters, making 13 of 28 shots.
“At halftime, we came back to the locker room and Coach (Matt Maloney) just sat us down,” Roberts said. “He told us, ‘What do we want to do? Do we want to win it? How much do we want it?'”
Bloomington led 40-30 in the third quarter when Oak Park started chipping away. The Huskies were down 57-52 before taking their first lead since the first quarter, 58-57, on two Fuller baskets sandwiched around Roberts’ steal and layup.
It was 60-59 Bloomington when Roberts drove the left baseline for what proved to be the decisive basket with 42.5 seconds left.
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Bloomington had several more chances but couldn’t convert. Payton was called for an offensive foul to end one possession, and time ran out as players scrambled to corral a missed shot by the Purple Raiders.
Through all the drama, Fuller tried to rally the Huskies.
“I had to keep the team positive,” he said. “‘Never put your head up, we’ll win the game.'”
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The Huskies did, with contributions from a variety of sources.
“Chase Robinson, I thought he was the MVP of the game,” Maloney said. “When we were down 8-10 points, he had a couple huge plays, a steal and bucket and he came back with another (basket).
“We rebounded the ball better in the fourth quarter. That was a point of emphasis. Charlie Hoehne, in the fourth quarter, came up with a bunch of big (rebounds).”
Twitter @mikeclarkpreps