ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY -- — Although Conor McCaffrey is one of the best finishers in the AAU, he was more of a decoy late on Saturday night.
Sasha Vanderkecha hit a 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds remaining and McCaffrey scored 36 points, sending Springfield to a 129-128 victory over the Illinois Wolves for the Falcons' first win of the season.
With the Wolves defense focused on the sharp-shooting McCaffrey, Vanderkecha inbounded the ball to Ben Chambers with 5 seconds left and then ran over to receive a handoff with McCaffrey drawing a crowd on the left wing. Vanderkecha fired from a few feet beyond the top of the 3-point arc for the game-winner.
Vanderkecha was the third option on the play behind McCaffreu and Jaime Marquez.
“It just shows how much the coaching staff and my teammates believe in me,” Vanderkecha said. “I'm going to enjoy it. The main thing is we got the win.”
Vanderkecha finished with 6 points on 2-for-5 shooting on 3s.
McCaffrey was 11 for 25 from the field, including 5 of 15 on 3-pointers — a day after missing 9 straight against Wisconsin.