St. Joseph senior Glynn Watson is not yet fully recovered from an ankle injury, but it would have been hard to tell after the Nebraska-bound guard scored a game-high 25 points in Monday’s quarterfinal win of the 54th annual Proviso West Holiday tournament.
The Chargers led by two points at halftime, but pulled away from 10th-seeded Hillcrest in the third quarter Tuesday for a 76-58 victory.
Watson missed two games when he sprained his right ankle Dec. 9 in a win over Hales.
“I feel better, but I’m still not 100 percent,” Watson said. “I’m about 80 percent. I still watch a little bit about how I cut. The floor is slippery.”
“He’s still not 100 percent,” St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore said. “You can tell he’s getting better tonight.”
Watson’s scoring and another 20 points from Northwestern-bound Jordan Ash helped propel second-seeded St. Joseph to its 18th semifinal appearance at Proviso West at 7:30 p.m. Friday against third-seeded St. Rita. Junior Nick Rakocevic added 12 points and five rebounds for St. Joseph.
St. Joseph (10-1) took advantage when the Hawks (9-2) were without their top two scorers on the floor in the third quarter. Toledo-bound Taylor Adway (16 points) picked up his fourth foul with 6:11 to go in the third quarter and DeAngelo Isby (12 points) came out after collecting his fourth foul with 2:50 remaining in the quarter.
The Chargers outscored Hillcrest 20-12 in the third, converting three 3-point plays.