'Brook takes the battle of Valley View

Raiders snap 3-game losing streak with win

ROMEOVILLE -- Coming off of conference losses on Friday night, both the Bolingbrook and Romeoville High School boys basketball teams were looking for better efforts Saturday.

While both teams got what they were looking for, it was Bolingbrook -- behind a game-high 21 points from junior forward Troy Snyder, that came away with a 68-61 victory in the annual nonconference battle of Valley View School District 365U.

The win snaps a 3-game skid for Bolingbrook (15-7) which was coming off a 68-57 SouthWest Suburban Conference Blue Division loss at Joliet Township.

"I'm proud of the kids," Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. "We kept our composure when the game got close and came out with the win.

"We've played some good teams recently (Homewood-Flossmoor, Lockport and JT), but we believe we're a good team, too."

Bolingbrook led 50-43 after 3 quarters, but Romeoville (13-8) quickly cut the lead to 50-48 a minute into the fourth on a 3-pointer by senior guard Harryl Avery.

However that was as close as the Spartans would come. Bolingbrook junior forward Russell Burns canned an 18-footer and senior guard Kennedy Jones scored on a coast-to-coast layup to restore the Raiders lead to six.

The closest Romeoville got after that was 62-59 on a layup by freshman center Devon Hodges with 1:07 to play and then 64-61 on a layup by junior guard Demarius Miller (6 points) with 55 seconds left.

Trailing 65-61, the Spartans came up with the ball after a mass scramble with just under 30 seconds remaining. Miller put up a quick shot from 13 feet that found nothing but air. Bolingbrook then hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final 24.2 seconds to secure the victory.

"It would have been nice to have a time out then," Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. "It was a mad scramble there, but it wasn't a bad shot, just a rushed play.

"Still we played much better then we did last night (a 69-54 Southwest Prairie Conference loss at home to Oswego East). We didn't play with a good effort there, but we played with much more intensity today."

Romeoville scored 8 straight points to grab an early 8-3 lead. Bolingbrook tied it at 8-8, but two consecutive baskets by Hodges capped a 6 point Spartan spurt which put them ahead 14-8.

Bolingbrook countered with 6 points in the final 55 seconds of the first quarter to tie it at 14. Sophomore guard Ryan Walker hit a 3-pointer to open the second and Burns scored on a rebound basket to cap an 11-0 Raiders run that put them ahead for good.

With Bolingbrook leading 29-26, Snyder scored 3 points as the Raiders reeled off 5 points in the final 39 seconds of the first half to take a 34-26 halftime advantage. Snyder then had a slam and a layup to start an 8-2 spurt that gave Bolingbrook its largest lead at 42-28 with 5:31 to play in the third.

"After (Friday's) loss we came out with a lot of intensity," said Snyder, who added 10 boards. "The guards kept feeding me the ball and I was able to knock down the shots.

"We knew Romeoville would come out playing better than the last time we met them. Both teams played well today, but coach told us we had to come out ready and that's what we did."

Burns finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds. Walker and Jones added 9 points apiece and senior guard David Crooms had 6 points for the Raiders.

Avery led Romeoville with 16 points, while Earl Bell had 13 points and 7 rebounds, Hodges finished with 12 points and 7 boards.