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Blue Devils can't hold back Tide

EDGERTON — The fourth quarter turned into an oasis for Edgerton High’s boys basketball team Friday night.

After struggling to score all night, including an 11-minute second-half drought without a basket, the Crimson Tide finally hit paydirt with a 15-2 fourth-quarter rally to overtake Evansville, 34-32.

The win kept Edgerton (9-1, 5-1) in second place in the Rock Valley North, a game back of East Troy (6-0). Evansville (7-4) fell to 5-2 in the conference.

“It doesn’t matter how good our two teams are, it always comes down to the end,” said Edgerton center Bryan Gregory, who led the Crimson Tide with 12 points. “We never lost our composure, and we just kept battling.”

Trailing 30-19 after three quarters, Edgerton was forced to battle back. The Crimson Tide didn’t make a field goal after Josh Eastman’s layup with 2:01 left in the first half until Gregory made a leaner in the lane with 6:57 left in the game.

Evansville failed to take advantage of the Crimson Tide’s drought and paid for it, as Brek Perry and Adam Gregory followed with consecutive three-pointers to cut the deficit to 30-27 and flipped the switch on the Edgerton offense.

“We missed some good shots in that stretch,” Edgerton coach Mark Wanless said. “But there is such competition between the two teams, neither one is going to let the other walk all over them. We just tried to limit our mistakes.”

Andrew Keister, who also had 12 points to lead Evansville, answered with a nifty pass behind his head, which led to an Eric Nieman layup that pushed the Blue Devils’ lead to 32-27 with 4:15 left.

But that was the last Evansville basket as Edgerton closed with a 7-0 run.

Bryan Gregory started the run with back-to-back baskets underneath. and Adam Gregory added another three-pointer after Evansville missed its second consecutive front-end free throw attempt to give Edgerton a 34-32 lead with 45 seconds left.

“Give those kids credit. They stroked the three-pointers,” Evansville coach Chris Wagner said. “We executed what we wanted to do, but we just couldn’t make the last few shots. It was right there.”

Evansville had three opportunities in the final seconds, but Keister had his driving layup rim out, and Jesse Deinger misfired on a contested layup and fall-away three-point attempt as time expired.

“It was nice to finally get some points, but everyone stepped up,” Bryan Gregory said.

EDGERTON 34, EVANSVILLE 32

Evansville (32)—Deininger, 2-0-5; Lunde, 1-0-3; Keister, 4-3-12; Wieman, 2-0-4; Erickson, 1-0-3; Moseley, 2-1-5. Totals: 12-4-32.

Edgerton (34)—A. Gregory, 2-0-6; Eastman, 1-2-4; Perry, 3-0-9; Pallett, 1-1-3; B. Gregory, 4-4-12. Totals: 11-7-34.

Evansville 12 13 5 2—32

Edgerton 7 9 3 15—34

Three-poimt goals—Evansville 4 (Lunde, Erickson, Dieninger, Keister), Edgerton 5 (Perry 3, A. Gregory 2). Free throws missed—Evansville 7, Edgerton 5. Total fouls—Evansville 13, Edgerton 15. Fouled out—Keister, Johnson.

Junior varsity—Edgerton 54, Evansville 49 (OT).