Eneogwe, Maine West top Maine East in overtime

Missed free throws help Blue Demons rally from 14-point deficit

While Maine East star point guard Nus Khan torched the Maine West defense with 37 points, the host Warriors’ lanky 6-foot-3 guard Odera Eneogwe made the most of his size advantage pulling down a career-high 25 rebounds in a 74-69 overtime win Friday night in Des Plaines.

“I just knew I could get the boards over guys like Khan because he’s a much smaller player,” Eneogwe said. “I’m a leaper and I have long arms. That obviously helped my game out a lot tonight.”

Maine West (9-17, 2-8 in Central Suburban League North) knew they had to take advantage of the Blue Demons in overtime as Khan, who scored 17 in the fourth, fouled out late in the quarter. 

“Khan fouling out was big,” Maine West coach Erik McNeill said. “We just made it simple. We really tried to focus on getting the ball inside to Alex (Samuelson) and Odera against their zone, and we had some easy opportunities.”

Without their top scorer and time running out against Maine East (5-20, 0-10), the Blue Demons made smart fouls to save time down the stretch against a Warriors team that went 21 for 43 from the line, including 1 for 8 within the final two minutes of the fourth.

While the Warriors were able to pull away in overtime, their struggles at the line continued as they converted 9 of 16 in the extra period.

“We just weren’t making our free throws,” McNeill said. “That’s not what we want to do at the end of games.”

Maine West was up 54-40 early in the fourth, but Maine East was able to mount a comeback thanks to an 11-2 run led by Khan, whose three-point play brought the Blue Demons within 62-60 with just over 40 seconds remaining in regulation.

Maine East took its first lead of the game at 63-62 since the opening minutes of the first quarter after junior guard Nikhil Desai sank a three-pointer from the corner with 15 seconds left.

Khan committed his final foul of the night on Eneogwe, sending the Maine West guard to the line with 10.6 seconds left. Eneogwe, who was already 0 for 4 on his previous two trips, sank 1 of 2 to tie the game at 63-63.

Maine East had an opportunity to win even after forward Michael Szczapa’s three-point attempt bounced off the rim. But Eneogwe blocked an Aaron Shannon shot, sending the game into overtime.

Even though the Warriors  snapped a four-game losing streak, Eneogwe wasn’t thrilled that the game had to be decided in overtime.

“It’s a tough win and a win’s a win,” Eneogwe said. “I didn’t really want to go into overtime because I felt we could have won this in regulation. Unfortunately, we didn’t make as much free throws (in the fourth quarter) as we wanted to, but it was still good to get to the line and get their best player to foul out.” 

Despite his team not having a few key starters and being down for most of the game, Maine East coach Huey Crawford said his team’s comeback from a 14-point deficit spoke volumes about what his players are capable of.

“We didn’t give up,” Crawford said. “That’s something to build on heading into the state playoffs. The fact that we didn’t give up shows that they have a lot of character. That’s something that we’re proud of. They’ve continued working hard in practice despite the won-loss record and that’s the testament to the type of kids we’ve got.”

Senior guard Zeeshan Rauf stepped up for Maine East with 20 points, followed by senior guard Jigar Patel (6) and junior forward Willy Gandy (4).

Samuelson led the Warriors with 22 points, while sophomore guard Conor Hart finished with 21, followed by Eneogwe (16), junior guard Matt Jordan (5) and junior guard Emmett Turner-Jackson and junior forward Paul Solka (4 apiece).