Roby sparks Proviso West past Hinsdale Central

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Hinsdale Central's Brad Anlauf tries to steal the ball away from Rolling Meadows' Brian Nelms. | Jerry Daliege~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: January 20, 2012 10:51AM

Proviso West junior Dominick Roby was mistakenly left out of the starting lineup Friday.

Instead, the 6-foot-4 forward provided a big spark off the bench to help the Panthers rally from a huge early deficit and beat Hinsdale Central 74-68 in a West Suburban Silver game in Hillside.

Roby scored a team-high 25 points to help his team overcome a 20-0 first-quarter deficit.

“He was supposed to start, but I screwed up the lineup,” Proviso West coach Tommie Miller said. “I just tell kids to be ready. Roby has the ability to do that every night. He just has to know he can do it, he has to get his footwork together and just come with it.”

Hinsdale Central (8-5, 3-2 in Silver) looked as if it was going to win the game in a laugher.

Proviso West (6-7, 3-2 in Silver) missed its first 10 shots from the field and didn’t score until Anthony Arceneaux’s layup with five seconds left in the opening quarter made it 20-2.

Hinsdale Central, meanwhile, connected on 7 of 12 shots, including three-pointers by Brian Owens and Brad Anlauf.

Proviso West, which trailed 30-10 at one point, bounced back strong in the second quarter, closing the half on a 14-1 run to pull within 31-24 at the break. The bench provided all of the scoring in the quarter for the Panthers, who also forced 13 turnovers in the period.

Roby, who scored all of his career-high points in the final three quarters, tallied 11 points in the second quarter to change the momentum

“I was confident I could bring my team back,” Roby said. “We’re used to fighting and fighting and fighting and tonight we got the victory. Coach was real mad, but he stuck with us and we worked as a team and kept working hard. I love the game of basketball. I’m proud of what I was able to do and help the team win.”

Roby scored to give Proviso West its first lead of the game at 38-37 with 3:09 left in the third quarter and the contest was close the rest of the way with eight lead changes.

Hinsdale Central enjoyed its final lead at 62-61 with 1:45 remaining, but the Panthers closed the game on a 13-6 spurt to seal the victory.

“It was a great comeback,” Miller said. “We put ourselves in a hole by playing bad. We came out flat, but my bench got in there and gave us a boost of energy. Those were third and fourth string kids in the game in the second quarter and they gave us energy. I gave the team a little tongue lashing at halftime and they came back and played some aggressive defense. Once the momentum changed it was a good game.”

Wasted in the loss was a monster game from Hinsdale Central’s Tom Garvin, who had 33 points, 14 rebounds and four steals.

Owens added 14 points, Rigas Pappas had seven points and eight rebounds and Anlauf contributed eight points for the Red Devils.

Proviso West also received key contributions from Lawrence Moore (13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), Taylor Watkins (13 points, 5 rebounds) and Jaquan Lewis (11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals).

“Proviso West played great,” Hinsdale Central coach Nick Latorre said. “Their pressure really got to us. The kids are disappointed. We buckled under to their pressure and didn’t do the things we did in the first quarter to build the lead. Give them credit, they were able to maintain and stick with all that pressure. We’ll see how resilient we are.”

Hinsdale Central had 28 turnovers, thanks mostly to the full-court pressure applied by the Panthers in the final three quarters.

“Hinsdale Central is a real good team, but I noticed that in the last couple games they played, they don’t like pressure,” Miller said. “If you can survive that first half, they can shoot, and keep the pressure on them, you have a chance. That’s what we did.”