On Feb. 13, in the crowded Bishop Gym, the WEGO boys’ basketball team celebrated Senior Night and faced off against the Elmwood Park Tigers.
The Wildcats started the night off on the right foot and had an early lead. Two minutes into the first quarter, senior Ryan Slattery broke away, wove through the opponents’ defenders, and gave the Wildcats a 2-point lead.
“I felt like I had a decent game to start off as I was making the majority of my shots until I got into foul trouble which took me off the court for a while,” Slattery said.
After that, sophomore Evan Trushov was substituted in. Then, with 3:10 remaining in the first quarter, Trushov opened up at the corner of the court, received a pass, and drove the basketball into the basketball hoop, gaining 3 points. This led to a timeout from Elmwood to discuss their defensive strategy. Soon after, with 2:38 left in the first quarter, Trushov struck again with another 3-pointer, making the score 11-2 in favor of the Wildcats.
“I definitely think I shot the ball good throughout the majority of the game, but I just didn’t knock down shots in the fourth quarter, which would’ve really helped us out” Trushov said.
After regrouping and getting a break, the second quarter started. The Wildcats continued to focus on offense and moved the ball around, looking for an opening to score. With 7:08 left in the second quarter, senior Tristan McWilliams scored a 3-pointer after a counterattack, making the score 20-15 in favor of the Wildcats. After a timeout was called and the game resumed, Elmwood’s offense picked up traction, and the gap between the scores steadily evened out. This resulted in the halftime score being 20-19, with the Wildcats only having a one-point lead.
At the start of the third quarter, Elmwood took an early lead and quickly pulled ahead of the Wildcats. With 5:08 left in the third quarter, and a score of 22-25 in favor of the Tigers, a timeout was called by the Wildcats to address defensive flaws and new offensive tactics. Within minutes of the timeout being over, once again Evan Trushov came through and scored 3 points, tying the score up at 25-25. What started out as a strong point differential lead from the Wildcats suddenly turned into a very competitive and evenly matched game going into the fourth quarter.
After a series of turnovers, fouls, and small offensive mistakes from the Wildcats, Elmwood Park had a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter, with the score being 35-25 in the final five minutes of the game. Both teams kept scoring, but then the Wildcats made a slow yet steady comeback after several timeouts called by coach Ramos. At 29.2 seconds left in the game, the Elmwood Tigers were up 39-38, but were awarded two free throws that both went in. All hope seemed lost for the Wildcats with little time left. Suddenly, junior Jonathan Ocampo saw an opening after the ball was possessed, and tied the game in the last 7 seconds with a 3-pointer.
The crowd erupted with students jumping up and down with excitement – Ocampo had just sent the game into overtime.
“After hitting the three to send my team into overtime, I felt pretty good about the shot, knowing that we were still in the game and had another chance to win” Ocampo said.
Unfortunately, with overtime came a new level of aggression and competition, resulting in Elmwood being awarded several free throws and fouls being called on WEGO’s senior players. Many of the seniors were forced to come off after the fouls, and underclassmen Evan Trushov and Ashon Hollin were subbed in. Despite the drawback, the Wildcats fought on, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.
The final score was 47-51.
“I want to shout out Evan and Ashton for stepping up this game when some of our seniors started getting into foul trouble. They really helped us out and contributed in big moments” Ocampo said about his underclassman teammates.