Palatine stuns Riverside-Brookfield at the buzzer

For Palatine, the trek to the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School has been an annual event since 1982.

The reason for competing in it according to coach Eric Millstone is a very simple.

"This is, I think, the best tournament in the state and to be able to come here every year is a privilege for us and is not something you take lightly,“ Millstone said. ”We want to play good teams because you want to see what you need to work on and you're going to get (at least) four good teams regardless where you're at in the (tourney) bracket."

Thanks to their ability to withstand all that was thrown at them, Palatine has put themselves in position to possibly get a fifth game.

On Wednesday, the Pirates advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Tosh for the second consecutive year with a 53-51 win over Riverside-Brookfield on a Connor May layup off a give-and-go pass from Tommy Elter at the Campbell Gym buzzer.

The Pirates (11-3) now face Yorkville (6-5) Thursday evening in a 6:30 round of eight match.

The Foxes bested Lyons Township (3-7) 64-55 in their second round bout.

Palatine got a second chance at the win after both teams missed opportunities to take the lead after a 4-point play from Bulldogs sophomore swingman Cameron Mercer knotted the score at 51 with 86 ticks left.

It was during a timeout with 3.6 seconds left as Millstone diagrammed the winning play, May spoke with his teammates about keeping both their patience and poise.

"We tried to tell each other to stay calm. We've done that play 100 times. We just did it fundamentally and executed it. That's what we did."

Millstone returned the favor to his players.

"Beautiful execution by the guys on the play,“ the coach said. ”We needed a game like this to be tested and we put ourselves in pressure situations (that) you could try and mimic at practice, but nothing's going to replicate it like being in a game situation. So, I thought our guys handled themselves really well at both ends of the floor and played with a tremendous amount of poise and composure."

That began for Palatine as it rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second quarter by outscoring the Bulldogs 13-6 in the remaining 5:51 to pull within 29-28 at the break.

It would set the stage for second half which featured seven lead changes and three ties.

May added 12 rebounds for Palatine followed by 5-10 junior guard Carter Monroe's 10 points and Elter's 9 points and 6 assists.

Mercer's 21 points which featured a 6-for-9 effort from beyond the arc paced R-B (11-2). The Bulldogs will face Lyons Township in York's South Gym Wednesday at 6 p.m. Seven-foot senior Stefan Cicic added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

"We talked about how a game comes down to more than just a final play," Bulldogs coach Mike Reingruber said. "There's a lot throughout the game that we need to get better at. Obviously we'll look at film and see what happened at the end and (see) was there a breakdown in communication. You’ve got to learn from your mistakes."