Cooper Bladow did all he could to lead El Dorado to an upset of #21 Villa Park on Friday night, but the Spartans would find a way to pull off a thrilling 71-66 double OT victory over the Golden Hawks. Villa Park would take a 15-14 lead after the 1st quarter behind Jack Sharar’s 5 points. Led by Sharar’s 10 points the Spartans would take a 32-30. Michael Archer scored 7. Cooper Bladow scored in a variety of ways to lead El Dorado with 15.

Villa Park would continue to play through Sharar, who scored 5 more points to help the Spartans maintain a 43-42 lead going into the 4th. Bladow would score on a fadeaway out of the post with 1:10 left to cut Villa Park’s lead to 50-48 and followed that up with a 3 with :21 left to tie it at 51. Villa Park would hold the ball to take the last shot but Erik Eng came up with the defensive play of the game for El Dorado, taking a charge with 4.3 seconds left to force OT.

Villa Park almost won the game in OT but Ethan Chi took a missed Spartan FT coast-to-coast with 5.4 left and beat the buzzer to force a second OT. The Spartans would open the 2nd OT on a 7-0 run, including a monster breakaway dunk from Jayden Baude, and would hold off a late flurry by El Dorado to improve to 14-7.

Leading Scorers & Player Evals

Villa Park

Jack Sharar (23): Skilled, powerful stretch 4 who scores out of the post w/ solid footwork, off the drive w/ a nice spin move & can shoot the 3.  Plays under control, doesn’t force it, & commands the boards.

Michael Archer (15): Scoring guard who plays w/ a lot of emotion. Does a great job getting to his inside foot on mid-range pull up, has a quick release & scores on all 3 levels.

El Dorado

Cooper Bladow (32): One of the leading scorers in the county, Bladow is the perfect point forward for El Do’s Princeton offense. A tough, physical player that stretches the court from NBA range, attacks the rim in a variety of ways & is a crafty finisher who scores in traffic. Savvy player who knows how to get to his spots

Nate Natividad (11): True PG who controls the Princeton offense. Skilled, patient, shifty player who can knock it down from 3.