More Top Picks Best Gazebo Replacement Canopies For Windy Areas
player ready...St. Joseph’s starting senior guards came from three different places, but now they have one thing in common — a Class 3A boys basketball state championship.
Thanks to AAU basketball, Jordan Ash, Joffery Brown and Glynn Watson were familiar with each other before they first walked through the doors of the Westchester school as freshmen. Ash, from Bolingbrook, and Watson, from Bellwood, were AAU teammates with the Illinois Wolves. Brown played for Derrick Rose’s Team Rose AAU squad, and won the IESA eighth-grade state boys basketball championship with Burr Ridge Middle School.
“When I first came in [to St. Joseph], I knew we would have a good group of kids playing together,” Brown said.
Ash, Brown and Watson became the clear leaders of this year’s St. Joseph team and made an impact when the Chargers needed it most in Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game, which St. Joseph won 67-63 over Belleville Althoff.
The Nebraska-bound Watson scored a team-high 19 points in the final while the unsigned Brown added 15 points. Ash, a Northwestern recruit, had nine points, but added eight assists and four steals to lead all players in those categories. St. Joseph 6-foot-11 junior Nick Rakocevic, who as a seventh-grader played on the Burr Ridge championship team with Brown, added 18 points.
“It’s a great feeling when you play with four guys or five guys on the floor that could score,” Watson said. “It makes my game a lot easier.”
The three senior guards were involved in a key six-point scoring burst in the fourth quarter. Watson’s driving layup, Brown’s layup and another Watson driving layup gave the Chargers a 58-50 lead with 2:24 remaining in the game. Ash stole the ball and fed it to Watson for his second layup during the run. St. Joseph led by at least four points the rest of the game.
The Chargers (29-6) outscored Belleville Althoff 24-6 on fastbreak points with help from Watson’s four assists as the point guard.
St. Joseph used only seven players in the state final and four of the five starters received the bulk of the playing time. Ash and Brown were on the court for every minute while Watson was credited with 27 minutes played.
“I will do whatever it takes to win,” Ash said after the game.
Twitter: @geomwilcox