Senior guard Crishawn Cook has been a consistent force for the Niles North boys basketball team all season — his average is up to 19.7 points per game — and he had yet another big game on Friday, Jan. 8, as the Vikings routed Central Suburban North rival Deerfield 67-40.
Cook shot 9-for-12 from the field en route to a 23-point night in Skokie as Niles North handed Deerfield its first division loss. It also avenged the Vikings’ 62-55 loss to the Warriors at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic on Saturday, Dec. 26.
“Crishawn has scored 23 points three other times this season, too,” Niles North coach Glenn Olson said. “So this effort tied his season-high, again. We’re a work in progress, but this win was a huge boost for our team’s confidence.
“We studied a lot of film on Deerfield to see what we did wrong the first time we played them. We got hammered on hi-lows. We allowed a lot of flash cuts to the basket. To the kids, seeing is believing. I think tonight, they learned how critical it is to make adjustments and study your opponent. We didn’t allow flash cuts tonight. We didn’t get destroyed on hi-lows. And we played really good team defense.”
Cook was a big part of that. He had five of Niles North’s 12 steals, and seemed to have a sixth sense in the passing lanes at times.
“A big reason I was able to force so many turnovers was how much I studied and prepared for this rematch,” Cook said. “But the other reason was just effort. I felt like I was trying harder out there, hustling more, doing everything I could to make the end result different this time.”
The 6-foot-2 Cook guarded 6-4 Deerfield reserve forward Joshua Maize in man-to-man coverage in the lane in small spurts. He also drew the challenge of going up against Deerfield’s best player, Jordan Baum, during other parts of the game. Baum was limited to just six points, a team-high, and five assists.
“When I looked at film of myself the last time we played Deerfield, I wasn’t happy with what I saw,” Cook said. “I got beat too many times. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.”
The Vikings (11-4, 3-1) fell behind 5-0 to start the game, but went on a 17-4 run the rest of the first quarter. They took a 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Vikings then outscored the Warriors 26-8 in the third quarter. Niles North’s dominance eventually ballooned into a 31-point lead midway through the fourth.
Sophomore guard Damaria Franklin and freshman guard DaMone Williams-Gray helped the Vikings limit their turnovers to single digits (nine). The Vikings shot 56.5 percent (26-for-46) from the field. Franklin scored 16 points and Williams-Gray added six rebounds. Niles North also finished with a 33-17 edge in rebounds against Deerfield (11-3, 3-1).
The big win against Deerfield came on the heels of a 70-64 victory over Prospect on Tuesday, Jan. 5. It was the first time since Dec. 11 and 12 that Niles North won back to back games. After starting the season 7-1, the Vikings are just 4-3 since then.
“Until recently, we haven’t handled success well,” said Olson. “We’ve won some games, then let it go to our heads a little bit a few times. But that’s changing quickly, and Crishawn’s senior leadership on a roster that’s loaded with newbies is a big reason why. We’re maturing in a hurry.”
This story has been changed to reflect the following correction:
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The Niles North nickname was misstated near the end of the article. The school nickname is the Vikings.
Tim Froehlig is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @TFroehlig