Before a second had ticked off the clock, Harper College’s men’s basketball team took a 2-0 lead when Brandon Bolger converted two free throws that were awarded when Oakton was assesed a technical for dunking during warm-ups. From there, the Hawks cruised to an 84-66 victory.
“We played well enough to win, but we won’t get any style points for tonight’s game,” said Harper Head Coach Tony Amarino. “Our guards played well and we were solid inside, but our defense was not exceptional.”
The Hawks were lead by Avery Roach with 21 points and Brandon Bolger with 20 points.
“We were missing some players tonight and Avery stepped up,” adds Amarino. “Brandon did what we expect of him – he put up good shots and gave us solid play.”
At several points in the game the Hawks led by 14 points, but they could not put away Oakton as the oppenents would close to with 7 points before the Hawks would regain their considerable lead.
“We had several sizeable leads, but we would relax and let [Oakton] back into the game,” said Amarino.
With Harper leading 78-64 with 0:53 remaining in the game, the victory was sealed on succesful free throw shooting by the Hawks. Oakton was called for multiple personal fouls and technical fouls in the closing minute, and Harper added the final 6 points on free throws to close out the game.
The Hawks are now 6-7 and will host the College of Lake County on Thuirsday, December 17th with a 7:00 PM tip-off.