Lincoln-Way East overcomes slow start to down Lincoln-Way West on senior night

FRANKFORT -- Friday night’s rumble between the Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln-Way West boys basketball teams was always going to be significant.

In addition to being a Southwest Suburban Conference battle and a rivalry game, it was also senior night for the Griffins. Tack on that it was possibly the last game against the Warriors in Griffin coach Rich Kolimas' career.

If it was, he went out on one heck of a high note thanks in large part to one of those seniors being honored Friday.

After the Griffins fell behind by double digits early, senior Brenden Sanders caught fire late in the second, finishing the game with 24 points to power Lincoln-Way East to a 67-55 victory on its home court.

“It feels good, but it was truly just my teammates getting me the ball in the right spots,” Sanders said of his big night. “Hopefully this puts us in a good position heading into the playoffs. Hopefully we can go on a run.”

Lincoln-Way East (14-8, 8-4) obviously wanted the night to go well for the six seniors being celebrated and give Kolimas one final senior night victory as he prepares for retirement. Early on, it looked like that would be difficult as the Warriors controlled the opening quarter and the start of the second.

The Warriors jumped out to an 8-3 lead, and even after the Griffins tied the game at 10-10 on a Sanders layup, Lincoln-Way West closed the quarter on an 8-0 run. It became a 10-0 run 44 seconds into the second when Luke Gouty’s layup made it a 20-10 advantage for the Warriors.

An 8-0 Griffin run was followed by a 9-2 Warriors run to set the score at 29-22 with 2:05 left until halftime.

That was when Sanders and company flipped the script, closing the quarter on a 10-2 run in just two minutes, including eight points in the final minute. Sanders' layup with three seconds to go gave Lincoln-Way East a 32-31 halftime lead.

“The pace of the game was in (Lincoln-Way West’s) favor early and we needed to get it uptempo a bit more,” Kolimas said. “We turned it up a little defensively. It cost us some baskets, but at least it got the pace of the game going in our favor. ... Our defensive pressure helped us through this game.”

The Warriors managed to tie things up at 34-34 on a 3-pointer by Drake Been, but Sanders went on a 6-0 run by himself to get it up to 40-34 midway through the third. Back-to-back Warrior baskets got it back to one possession, but treys by Sanders and Cooper Johnson extended the lead to eight points.

Been hit a 3 with 36 seconds left in the third to get the Warriors within five before Jaymon Hornsby’s hook shot put the Griffins up 48-41 entering the final period.

The Warriors (11-12, 5-7) pulled back within 55-50 in the fourth, but they got no closer as Lincoln-Way East closed things out.

“I was proud of our effort,” Warriors coach Tanner Mitchell said. “I thought we played really well. A couple of things go our way in the fourth and I think that one is going down to the final few possessions. ... We went zone and coach Kolimas did a great thing pulling us out of zone by delaying the clock to force us to go man and we just didn’t have an answer.”

Aside from Sanders, Lincoln-Way East got great performances out of Hornsby (11 points) as well as Will Buchanan and Johnson (nine points each). The Warriors were led by Been’s 18 points and Wyatt Carlson’s 13 points.