Losses usually provide only moral victories, but that was not the case for Evanston on Saturday at Lane. Despite a 62-59 setback to Oak Park, the Wildkits won the Lane tournament title on point differential.

Evanston (4-1) appeared to have the game under control when senior Deon Thompson hit a free throw for a 55-50 lead with 2 minutes 59 seconds left. But Oak Park won it with a 12-4 run in the final 2:24.

"We should have won this game," said Wildkits center Nicaro Golding, who scored a team-high 14 points. "Coach (Robert Locke Jr.) talks about this all the time--we don't have that killer mentality yet."

Daniel Barnes led the Huskies' rally, knocking down 10 points and three three-pointers. The winning three-pointer came with 3.2 seconds remaining.

"I was just in the flow of the game," said the junior, who finished with 12 points in the fourth quarter and 22 for the game. "We needed to take it to the basket; we couldn't hit any outside shots [early]. The defense started to shift to the baseline and that left the outside open."

Jamis Nelson added 12 points and Phil Gary 11 for the Huskies (4-1). Evanston got an additional 13 points from DiPanjoe Singh. Eric Hilbring scored eight in his first game back from foot surgery.

Zion-Benton also finished the tournament with one loss. But its double-overtime win over Oak Park was negated by a double-digit loss to Evanston.

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dsurico@tribune.com