MONTEZUMA – Shooting stars were visible in Montezuma on Monday evening, Dec. 8.
No, not the meteor showers that have lighted up local skies in recent weeks. These you had to go into the local gymnasium to see.
Montezuma’s Brady Boulton, who scored 42 points, and Pekin’s Cole Millikin (36 points) tried to light up each other’s basketball teams in a game that wound up close at the end.
Pekin won 70-67 and dominated play for three quarters. But Montezuma got more pressure on the ball in the fourth quarter, after trailing 56-42 after three periods.
It helped the Braves’ cause that two of Pekin’s better ballhandlers fouled out, and that the Panthers struggled to make free throws all night. They missed eight of those in the fourth quarter alone.
Pekin led 19-17 after one quarter and already had started knocking down three-point shots. That continued into a big second quarter – 24-14 for the Panthers – and a 43-31 halftime lead.
Montezuma’s ball pressure didn’t have a lot of visible impact right after it began in the third quarter. The Panthers led 56-42 after three.
But then the Braves’ pressure started getting traction and Montezuma starting clawing its way back. It came all the way back at about the 3:50 mark, when Montezuma’s Dane Strong made a shot in the lane. That gave the Braves their first lead at 58-57, and completed a 16-2 Montezuma run to start the fourth quarter.
It was a fight to the finish and Montezuma had a chance to win it until very late.
Millikin made two free throws in the closing minute for a 69-65 Pekin lead, but Boulton scored a two-pointer with 15 seconds left to cut Pekin’s lead to two points.
Easton Hudnut stole the ball for the Braves and passed to Boulton, who rose for a winning three-pointer with two seconds left. But the ball carried to the left of center and bounced deep.
Montezuma recovered a wild pass and had enough time for a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer, but the ball hit the board, then the rim, and that was it.
Pekin built its first half lead with rapid ball movement and some uncanny three-point shooting.
Boulton had 21 points at halftime, but just two other teammates scored: Dane Strong with 6 and Talen Holland with four.
Millikin, meanwhile, scored 24 of his eventual 36 by halftime, and got more scoring help from his teammates.
Montezuma had problems guarding Pekin’s dribble drive tactics.
But you never know when a close basketball game will break out, and one surely did in the fourth quarter.
The night’s results left both teams with 2-1 records.
JV score: Braves 63, Pekin 26.
GAME NOTES: The two scoring leaders, Montezuma’s Boulton and Pekin’s Millikin, were teammates on a summer team earlier this year.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Pekin 19 24 13 14 – 70
Montezuma 17 14 11 25 – 67