Late free throw shooting carries Bolingbrook to win

THE SKINNY

Bolingbrook overcame a slow start and pulled away for a 60-45 win over host Lincoln-Way East to remain in first place in the SouthWest Suburban Blue. The Raiders are now 17-4, 10-1. The Griffins fell to 6-16 and 1-10.

TURNING POINT

Clinging to a 32-29 lead, Prentiss Nixon went to the line and hit a pair of free throws to close out the third quarter. That started a 12-2 spurt, which put the Raiders ahead 44-31 with 4:48 to play in the game. Starting with Nixon’s two free throws at the end of the third, Bolingbrook went 20-of-25 from the line the rest of the way – after starting 4-of-20.

THE STAR

Nixon. The junior guard finished with 20 points and hit all 10 of his free throws from 15.5 seconds left in the third quarter and on. He was 10-of-11 total from the line in the game.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Griffins led 13-5 with 3:03 left in the first quarter, but turned the ball over 12 times the rest of the half and 22 times in the game. Bolingbrook closed the half with a 15-1 burst, despite going 4-for-16 from the free-throw line in that span, to lead 20-14. Joshua Dillingham and Shakur Triplett each added 11 points for the Raiders. Austin Winkler led Lincoln-Way East with 12 points and Josh Jones added nine points. Tommy Dinaso left the game in the third quarter for the Griffins after having his nose broke.

QUOTABLE

“We work on [free throws] everyday in practice and we turned it on at the end of the game, but we have to be able to hit them all the time. When our shots weren’t falling early, we were able to pick it up on defense.” – Nixon.