Reed leads St. Pat by Proviso E., barely
By Drake Skleba
St. Patrick senior 6-foot-3 senior G Julian Reed scored 26 points to lead the Shamrocks past Proviso East 54-53 in a fifth-place semifinal Tuesday.
With the score deadlocked at 52 with 8.9 seconds left in the game, Reed buried two free throws to give the Shamrocks the lead over the valiant Pirates.
With 0.04 seconds left, Pirate senior Marc Jones was fouled in the act of shooting. Jones made the first before St. Patrick head coach Mike Bailey called a timeout to ice the senior Pirate.
The strategy worked. Jones missed the free throw. St. Pat will face East Suburban Catholic rival St. Joseph (7-4) for fifth place at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.
"I had to help my team get this victory," said Reed. "I was in a good offensive flow tonight and I had to knock down the game-winning free throws."
Proviso East (7-3) was led by senior Lamar Moss, who scored 21 points to lead the Pirates.
"We knew Proviso East was going to make a run at us," said Bailey. "Julian had a good game on offense and more importantly from a leadership standpoint."
