Anna Filosa’s big shot, late block lift York by Lyons in OT: Suburban Life sports roundup for Friday, Dec. 15

GIRLS BASKETBALL

York 50, Lyons 46 (OT)

York junior guard Anna Filosa wrote on her hands for Friday’s important West Suburban Conference Silver girls basketball game at two-time defending outright champion Lyons Township.

The words were Score and No Fouls.

She achieved both when they were desperately needed.

Filosa made the go-ahead three-pointer and with four fouls blocked the potential game-tying basket in the closing seconds as the Dukes pulled out a 50-46 overtime victory in La Grange.

”A huge win because we (graduated) our top two scorers. Everyone’s been working really hard to help the team out,” said Filosa, last year’s first player off the bench now averaging 16 points. “We had just enough points but we had a good start, good energy. We had the mentality helping each other out, telling each other we’ve got this.”

Filosa and senior guard Hannah Meyers each had 20 points and helped York (8-3, 4-0 in Silver) survive a gamut of emotions after leading by 20 in the second quarter. Stella Kohl and Olivia Silkaitis each had eight rebounds and Kohl added four assists. For LT (8-4, 4-1), 6-foot-2 junior Nora Ezike had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Elin O’Brien (9 points) and Avery Mezan (8 points) each had two threes.

Kennedy Wanless had seven points and nine rebounds. Meyers had five of the Dukes’ 11 threes, all in the first half. Filosa had her four all after halftime. Filosa’s final three put York ahead for good 47-46 with 1:49 left in overtime and Meyers hit one of two free throws with 27.0 seconds for a two-point advantage. Mezan then made a great inside lob to Wanless, but Filosa blocked the shot, got the rebound and was fouled. Filosa made both free throws with 6.7 seconds left to seal the victory.

”(Blocks by me) not that much. I just saw the girl and help-side defense,” Filosa said. “(Shooting those free throws) was nerve-wracking but to keep up the lead was good.”

”It’s a huge win. They’ve had our number for a couple of years,” York coach Brandon Collings said. “We got the big boards when we needed it. We hit the free throws when we needed it. For us to have the lead, lose the lead and then win it in overtime is huge.”

The Dukes owned a 31-11 lead but the Lions closed to 31-20 by halftime. After increasing its advantage to 39-23 on Meyers’ basket with 5:58 left in the third quarter, York scored just 11 points the remaining 14:02 and fell behind 46-44 early in the overtime.

”We talked about getting a good start,” Collings said. “The last few times, they’re the ones that hit the threes early. We finally got that good start ourselves, got some confidence.”

Ezike scored on a move in the lane for LT’s 46-44 lead with 2:29 left in overtime. Ezike also scored on a putback with 1:00 left in regulation to force overtime at 44-44. York played for the final shot but Kohl’s drive and pass was knocked out of bounds and the ensuing inbounds pass was deflected as regulation time expired.

”We turned it around in the second half for sure,” LT coach Meghan Hutchens said.”The bottom line is York deserved it more. They came out and went for those rebounds and shot well and we didn’t stick to our game plan. I give (our players) a lot of credit. They fought back but we can’t dig ourselves that big of a hole because we’re just not willing to pay attention to the details.”

The Lions also lost in overtime to Whitney Young 46-45 Dec. 3. Ezike was coming off a personal-best 32 points Tuesday against Glenbard West.

-- Bill Stone

Willowbrook 65, Downers Grove South 63 (2OT)

Elle Bruschuk had 27 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and four steals to power the Warriors to a double overtime win. Lillian Vish and Ayanni Gusman added 13 points each for Willowbrook. Allison Jarvis poured in 30 points and nine rebounds with six 3-pointers for Downers South in the loss.

Downers Grove North 43, Proviso West 29

Hope Sebek scored 14 points and Kaitlyn Parker 10 for the Lady Trojans.

Montini 56, St. Francis 34

Nikki Kerstein scored 18 points and hit four 3-pointers for the Lady Broncos (8-4). Victoria Matulevicius added 14 points and Shea Carver 10.

BOYS BASKETBALL

York 59, Lyons 34

AJ Levine scored 18 points to pace the Dukes.