Bolingbrook Guard Cooke's LW East Defense

In his first year of varsity competition, Chad Cooke delivered at critical times for the Bolingbrook boys basketball team Friday night.

The junior guard hit four 3-pointers, made a key steal in the final minute and helped the Raiders secure a 47-42 Southwest Suburban Blue victory over Lincoln-Way East with two key free throws.

The junior led all players with 16 points in Frankfort.

"They came out playing a 2-3 zone, and that leaves the wings open," said Cooke, who hit two field goals from beyond the arc in each half. "I was just lucky that my shots were falling. My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball in position to shoot."

Bolingbrook improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The Griffins fell to 2-4 and 0-1.

"(Cooke) is our best shooter," Bolingbrook coach Rob Brust said. "He has really grown since last year, both emotionally and maturity-wise. He has a great skill set."

The Griffins came in determined to neutralize Bolingbrook post Latree Russell, coming off a monster 27-point, 12-rebound performance in the Raiders' Thanksgiving tournament at Decatur.

"That's the thing about this league; you get scouted, and then everybody knows about you," Brust said. "They knew they had to take (Russell) away."

Both teams struggled to find an offensive fluidity as neither squad could exploit the schools' matching zone defenses.

Bolingbrook shot out to an early 8-3 lead, but Lincoln-Way East rallied to take several leads in the second quarter.

Michael Thompson, who tied Jelani Yancy for team-scoring honors with 10 points, had a conventional three-point play to give the Griffins their third first-half lead at 17-14 early in the second quarter.

Jeremy Jones' inside score enabled Lincoln-Way East to take a 22-20 lead into the intermission, but the Griffins' offensive woes returned in the third quarter.

Joel Magrum had the Griffins' lone field goal in the quarter as Cooke hit the last of his four shots from beyond the arc to spark a 12-2 Raiders' run in the frame.

"We did not execute our offense well," Lincoln-Way East coach Rich Kolimas said. "We failed to do the fundamentals of the game. There were a lot of phases of the game offensively where we came up short."

Bolingbrook had another 10-2 spurt early in the fourth quarter to extend its lead to a game-high 42-30.

Lincoln-Way East would respond with a last-gasp flurry at the end, but Cooke and Alex Boyd hit four free throws in the last half-minute to seal the victory.

Nick Malonga was also in double figures for Bolingbrook with 10 points.

Russell was limited to two points.