NEW BERLIN, Ill. -- - Our Savior's held on without Jace Easley.
Not even an amazing outburst from New Berlin's Gannon Dodd could stop the Eagles from completing the school's first victory at New Berlin since 2009.
Conor McCaffrey scored 41 points and No. 5 Our Savior's topped No. 23 New Berlin 74-69 on Saturday.
Easley missed a second straight game after breaking his nose Sunday in an 71-62 loss at Chatham Glenwood.
“I could not be prouder of this group of guys and their toughness and ability to step up,” Our Savior's coach Phillip Heppe said. “Grit was a big part of it today.”
Our Savior's (23-6 15-4 CIL) has won its last three meetings with New Berlin (19-9, 10-8) since a 15-game losing streak in the series.
Dodd and New Berlin pushed Our Savior's right to the very end.
After New Berlin trailed by 13 points with less than three minutes left, Dodd nearly brought the Pretzels all the way back by scoring 19 points in the final 2:12. Dodd's sixth 3-pointer cut Our Savior'’ lead to 70-69 with 6.7 seconds left.
“I honestly don’t even know what was going through my mind,” Dodd said. “I just knew that we needed to hit some shots and make some buckets and make some plays down the stretch to be able to come back and be in the position we were in.”
Our Saviors’ Lucas Schmidt sank two free throws with 5.7 seconds remaining to make it 62-59. Our Savior's then fouled Lucas Bixby before New Berlin could attempt a tying 3-pointer, and an exchange of words near the New Berlin bench resulted in offsetting technical fouls.
“One of their players came into the (New Berlin) huddle, which was not supposed to happen,” New Berlin coach Greg Allen said. “The officials took care of that and I thought handled it the right way.”
Bixby missed his first free throw. New Berlin still could have attempted a desperation 3-pointer if Bixby missed his second attempt and the Pretzels got the offensive rebound. But the rebound went to Eagles’ Logan Allen, who hit a pair of free throws to cap the scoring.
Dodd finished with 29 points. Lucas Bixby had 15 points for New Berlin .
Jeremiah Perkins scored 12 points and Logan Allen had 12 for Our Saviors, which committed a season-high 20 turnovers.
Our Savior's never trailed, capitalizing on New Berlin's shooting woes. New Berlin was shooting (27.4%) before making its last seven attempts of the game.
Our Savior's led by as many as 14 in the second half before Dodd got New Berlin back into the game and nearly put the Pretzels over the top. Our Savior's survived by making its final five field-goal attempts and going 10 of 10 from the free-throw line over the last 44 seconds.
“You just got to make sure you do your job at your end,” Heppe said. “And we did with our last five field goals and our last 10 free throws – and a lot of prayer.”
BIG PICTURE
Our Saviors: Playing its third game in five days, Our Savior's was in command from the start, but Easley's absence was notable down the stretch. The road doesn’t get any easier for the Eagles, who close the season with road games against No. 3 Christ Lutheran and No. 4 Bethel Morton.
New Berlin: The Pretzels are shooting poorly, particularly against quality teams. Pretzels remains in good shape to make the IESA Regional Tournament, but it’s hard to imagine the Pretzels staying there for long unless their shooting improves.