Indians, Bridwell Deliver with Game on the Line

The longest shots Lemont’s Evan Bridwell hit on Tuesday night were from the free-throw line, and he drained a pair with 28.7 seconds left to give the Indians a two-possession lead against visiting Argo.

Bridwell scored a game-high 19 points to lead Lemont past Argo, 46-45, in a South Suburban Conference crossover game.

Driving layups and a put-back accounted for 14 of Bridwell’s points, while the remaining five came from the charity stripe.

“I jokingly told them that all we need to do is have Evan score 30 points to win, and tonight it’s nice to win and Evan didn’t have to score 30,” Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. “They laughed about it, and we had contributions from a lot of people.”

Lemont (7-9) led 34-27 after Germantas Valionis drained a three-pointer from the corner with 2:35 left in the third quarter. But Argo fought back, pulling to within 40-39 with 1:19 remaining in the fourth quarter when Demarco Macklin (12 points) scored his only basket of the second half.

“Anytime you’re looking at a 2-3 zone, you need a kid to step up and hit a shot,” Argo coach Pat Maietta said. “But who is that for us? We’re still trying to find that person.”

Argo (2-14) fouled Lemont’s Joe O’Brien at the 1:14 mark of the fourth quarter. The junior pushed aside any nervousness and converted both shots.

“I told Joe when he missed earlier during the game … “You’ll get another chance and when you do, you’ll make them,’ ” Runaas said. “He proved me right.”

Argo’s Jalyn Turner split a pair of free throws to make it 42-40 before Bridwell’s free throws put the Indians up 44-40.

The Argonauts closed the gap to 44-42 on a second-chance bucket by Tamone Littlefield, but Bridwell’s layup with 8 seconds remaining sealed the game. A three-pointer from Cordell Binns as time expired made it a one-point difference.

“We lost a lot of close games last year, but the last two we’ve won have been by one point,” Runaas said. “That tells me the kids are mentally tough and doing things in critical situations.”

Lemont’s defensive pressure helped force 20 turnovers, providing the Indians with plenty of opportunities to score in transition.

“They’re kind of like us in struggling to score,” Maietta said. “They have one kid who scored 19 and we take three guys to score 19 together. They scored in transition and we had defensive breakdowns.”

Bill Luzzo, Paulus Otruskevicius, and Valionis each contributed five points, and O’Brien, Matt Lipowski and Martin Sosinski each netted four. Bridwell also had a team-best six rebounds.

“We’d like to have more wins, but looking at us, I think we’re doing OK,” Runaas said.

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