DEERFIELD, Ill. – The Roosevelt men's basketball team led for most of Saturday's contest at 18th-ranked Trinity International, and after the Trojans stormed back to tie the game, the Lakers made clutch plays late to leave Van Dixhorn Arena with an 82-80 victory.
Adam Alexander scored a career-high 20 points, while Jake Ludwig tallied 17 points and handed out nine assists for the Lakers, who improved to 17-4 and 8-3 in the CCAC thanks to securing their fifth straight win.
Grant Gibson scored 13 points, including the tiebreaking free throw with 38 seconds left, and grabbed six boards. Chandler Fuzak scored 11 points in 13 minutes among the bevy of big performances by the Lakers.
Jeremy Carlyle led five players in double figures with a game-high 22 points for the Trojans (13-7, 6-4 CCAC).
The Lakers shot well from the floor all game, finishing with a 55 percent clip (30-for-55) from the field and connecting nine times on 20 attempts from downtown.
That hot shooting and a defensive effort that forced the potent Trojan offense to shoot just 29 percent in the first half propelled Roosevelt to a lead as large as 11 points in the opening period.
Roosevelt did not relent in the second half, making tough shots and growing the advantage to 17 early on.
Trinity International rallied to get within one with seven minutes left on the clock, but Gibson and Fuzak hit back-to-back threes to quiet that storm.
TIU wouldn't go away on its home court, getting to within two moments late before Ludwig shushed that rally with a long-range trey.
With Roosevelt nursing a one-point lead after a Carlyle jumper with 2:35 remaining, Ludwig sent a long pass to Bumbalough in the left corner for an open three he connected on that pushed the lead back to four.
Carlyle made a bucket on the other end, and a steal by Greg Carlyle lead to a game-tying bucket off a rebound by O'Shae Williams.
Undaunted, the Lakers came out of a timeout and ran offense that allowed Gibson to get a pass for a close-range look that elicited a foul by Williams. Gibson rebounded from a first-shot miss to make the second free throw for the 81-80 advantage with 38 ticks left.
With TIU running offense and aiming to take the lead, the Lakers played superb team defense and Gibson picked up the steal on the other end to find Ludwig and force the Trojans to foul with the shot clock turned off.
Ludwig made the first and missed the second, and with time running out on the Trojans, Jeremy Carlyle drove to the rim for a game-tying try but met his match as Joshua Dillingham blocked his shot and swatted the ball into Alexander's arms to let the Lakers walk off with a gutsy win that will go down as one of the biggest in the program's modern eight-season era.
"TIU is a team that brings out the best in you, and we brought our best today," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said. "This was another pivotal win as we only play TIU once this year so this gives us a tiebreaker. What a performance all the way around with numerous big-time plays by several of our guys. Ludwig's deep three, Kyle's big corner three and Josh's game-winning block iced it.
"The depth of our bigs and our running game really helped us persevere and get easy baskets," Griffin continued. "Adam's career high paced us along with his senior leadership. They made their run in the second half, but we stay composed and made the right plays at the key moments."
Roosevelt gets a break from CCAC play until next Saturday but will look to stay sharp with a Wednesday exhibition at Illinois Tech.
Joshua Dillingham made one of the biggest plays of the game with his last-second block of the game-tying layup attempt.
(Photo: Steve Woltmann)
