West Aurora parlayed a virtually flawless first quarter into an 11-point advantage and dismantled No. 14 Oak Park 70-51 in a Pontiac tournament semifinal Saturday afternoon.
The 20th-ranked Blackhawks (10-2) went 12 of 14 from the floor and hit four of five three-pointers en route to a 29-18 first quarter lead. Jason Passley scored 11 of his game-high 24 points in the quarter.
Dustin Burrell scored 13 and Andre Newson added 11. Trevis Williams had eight points and four assists and limited Oak Park guard Jason Ayers to six points on 3-of-14 shooting.
“I wanted to take away (Ayers’) penetration,” Williams said. “We didn’t want to let him break us down off the dribble. He’s left-handed, so we wanted to make him go right.”
West Aurora shot 62 percent (27 of 44) in the game, highlighted by 18 of 25 (72 percent) shooting in the first half. Oak Park never cut the lead under double figures in the second half. Jeff Wojtowicz had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies.
“We pride ourselves on playing good half-court defense, (and) they made it look as if it didn’t exist in the first half,” Oak Park coach Al Allen said.
In the second semifinal, Simeon (6-2) upended top-seeded East Peoria 59-50 behind 22 points and eight rebounds from Bobby Simmons. The Wolverines capitalized on poor East Peoria shooting and used a 12-4 run at the end of the second quarter to take a 29-21 halftime lead.
More Top Picks Best Diaper Pails For Odor Control
Simeon shot 56 percent (24 of 43), while the Red Raiders shot just 33 percent (17 of 51). Simeon led by as many as 12 though East Peoria got within six with two minutes to play.
West Aurora and Simeon met in Saturday’s late title game.
Oak Park (9-3) dropped the third-place game 48-38 to East Peoria (9-3). East Peoria’s Jeremy Piquard had 19 points, and Larry Sanders tallied 12 for Oak Park. James Williams and Mike Ryan led four players in double figures with 14 points each as Warren (8-4) claimed fifth place with a 58-55 victory over Curie (6-4). Barron Thelmon, who missed two games earlier this week because of the flu, led Curie with 18.
Centralia: Public League entries Carver and Julian both survived exciting semifinal contests to advance to Saturday night’s championship contest. It will be the second straight year in the final for the second-ranked Challengers (8-0), who won the title last season.
Carver edged Alton 86-84 as Nick Irvin hit the winning shot with 1.6 seconds remaining. Irvin finished with 27, Roderick Thompson added 23 points and 16 rebounds and Lamin Johnson contributed 16 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
“Nick is our leader and we were going to go to him,” said Carver coach Willie Simpson of Irvin’s last-second heroics. “We knew they would double-team him, but he broke through and made a big-time shot.”
Alton (11-3) had a chance to tie, but Mark Miller’s shot rimmed out at the buzzer.
Julian (9-1) earned an equally tough 89-87 victory on Centralia’s home court. Centralia (6-2) was playing without its star guard Ty Moss, who hurt his ankle Friday, and was led by Greg Storm’s 33 points, including 15 on three-pointers, while Luke Sharp added 25 points and 10 rebounds.
Watra Banks led the Jaguars with 20 and Tommy Rush added 19. Julian hit 11 of 14 free throws in the last three minutes to preserve the victory.
“We had about nine kids who left their hearts out there,” said Centralia coach Rick Moss, who formerly coached at Argo.
Rockford Classic: No. 17 Providence-St. Mel pulled out a 68-65 third-place triumph over Rockford East as Jerrell Dantzler scored 25 points and Reggie Hall added 17.
Lincoln-Way: Morgan Park (8-1) rode the big shoulders of LeDaryl Billingsley to advance to Monday’s championship game against Sandburg by holding off Leo 66-63.
The 6-7 Billingsley, who suffered from the flu Friday night, tallied 22 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and blocked two shots after missing the team’s warmups. Billingsley, along with Corey Brown (21 points and eight rebounds), helped the Mustangs control the boards, with a 47-24 rebounding advantage.
The Mustangs led 50-39 in the fourth quarter. But Leo (7-4), led by Ken Philpot (20 points), put together a run, tying the score at 57 with four minutes to play. But the Mustangs blanked the Lions the rest of the way.
Sandburg will make its third straight title-game appearance, hoping this is its charm after losing to Thornton the last two years. Sandburg (9-2) beat Brother Rice (9-2) 60-55 as guard Zak Kustok (29 points) drilled four free throws in the last 14.7 seconds to seal the win. Brother Rice was led by Beronti Simms (18 points).
Derrek Yerkovich (14 points) put Sandburg up with 31 seconds left when he hit a layup on a back-door play.
DeKalb: DeKalb’s Chad Mazanowski (17 points) led DeKalb past Sycamore 72-52 for third place.
East Aurora: Wheaton Academy took third with a 61-55 victory over Aurora Christian, paced by Mike McAlister’s 17 points.
Elgin: Andre Duncan hit one of two free throws with three seconds remaining giving Fremd (9-3) third place with a 62-61 victory over Benet Academy (8-4). Eddie Hebert scored 15 points to lead three players in double figures for Fremd. Brian Eshoo, who missed a last-second shot at victory, led the Redwings with 25. . . . Jim Waichulis had 16 points as Leyden beat Elgin 65-57 for fifth place. Kevin Jarm scored a career-high 31 points for Elgin (8-5).
Lemont: Plainfield (7-4) finished third in Class AA, beating Morris 76-65 behind Kevin Sepulveda’s 18 points. Morris (7-2) was led by Joe Lombardo’s 34 points. . . . Burlington Central (6-5) took third in Class A with a 69-59 defeat of Chicago Christian (5-4). Caleb Lamz sparked the victors with 21 points.
Luther North: Zion-Benton advanced to Monday’s championship game against Mather with a 64-49 victory over Steinmetz. Joe Maitland led the Zee Bees with 14. . . . Mather advanced with a 76-62 victory over Walther Lutheran. Jameel Pledger led the Rangers with 25 points.
Kankakee: Driscoll, powered by Adam Ackerman’s 21 points and 13 rebounds, won the Class A title 63-44 over Tolono Unity. . . . Bishop McNamara finished third in Class A with a 75-65 victory over St. Anne as Shan Sullivan scored 29 points. . . . South Shore used 13 points from Chris Green and 12 from Calvin Moore in its 51-39 Class AA third-place victory over Bradley-Bourbonnais.
Wheeling: Mike Howland scored seven of his 14 points in the fourth quarter as St. Viator (8-2) edged Prospect (6-6) 51-46 to advance to Monday’s final.
More Top Picks Best Heavy Punching Bags
York: Travon Davis scored 35 points, giving him 132 for the tournament–10 points off the tournament record–as Nazareth (7-5) captured the consolation title with a 75-60 victory over St. Ignatius (6-6). Mike Gilmartin led the Wolfpack with 31 in defeat. . . .