BLOOMINGTON - Normal Community High School had a 14-point lead with six minutes left. The game against Unit 5 rival Normal West seemed under control. That's the thing about rivalries. Rarely is anything as it seems. | Box scores, schedules and stats

Fueled by two spectacular dunks from senior forward Troy Walls, West charged to within 52-50 with a minute to go Saturday night in the Intercity Basketball Tournament at Shirk Center. It was at that point NCHS guard Kedric Williams had a message for his teammates.

"As a senior I had to tell them we're still in this game, we're still up, let's just make our free throws, play good defense and finish the game out," Williams said.

On cue, Williams and senior guard Kevin Bischoff combined to sink 7 of 8 free throws and the Ironmen held on for a 59-52 victory.

Williams completed a superb opening week with 23 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Bischoff added 16 as the Ironmen improved to 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference.

NCHS was 3 of 8 from the line in the fourth quarter before Williams hit 4 of 4 and Bischoff 3 of 4 in the final minute. Shaquille Florez and Nathan Haynes added nine points each for the Ironmen and Haynes grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.

"West did a great job of pulling within two and our guards really handled the press and knocked down some big free throws," NCHS coach Dave Witzig said. "We learned a lot about our team this week. To play a close game against West and have to kind of toughen up and close it out was a great start to our season."

Senior forward Christian Baker had 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead West (1-2, 0-1). Walls added 10 points, all in the second half.

"We dug ourselves too big of a hole against too good of a team," Wildcats' coach Brian Cupples said. "I thought Williams kind of weathered the storm for them. I give us credit. We fought back. It was nice to see Troy Walls get aggressive like that. That's the way he has to be."