Spearman, Simeon advance to meet Redwings

Simeon coach Robert Smith doesn't need to motivate Brandon Spearman with a seat on the bench in March.

The thought of a bus ride back to Chicago will do.

"He doesn't want to go home," Smith said. "This is his last chance to play."

Spearman pointed the Simeon bus one step closer to a return to Peoria Friday, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the second half of a 55-47 win over Mt. Carmel at the Class 4A Lyons Township sectional.

Simeon (22-9), the Class AA champ in 2006 and 2007 and 3A runner-up in 2008, plays Benet on Tuesday at the Hinsdale Central supersectional.

As important as Spearman's offense was his defense on Mt. Carmel's Tracy Abrams. Tywon Pinckney started guarding the Illinois recruit, but the Dayton-bound Spearman drew the assignment in the fourth quarter.

Abrams was held to 9 points on 3-of-13 shooting, his only fourth-quarter field goal a meaningless layup in the final seconds.

"We put our best defender on him," Smith said. "We put Brandon on him and told him, 'He's your man for the whole fourth quarter.' I think we wore them down."

Abrams, averaging 16 points per game, had rescued Mt. Carmel in Wednesday's semifinal win over Bogan with a last-second steal and score, part of a 20-point effort. It wasn't to be Friday.

"Nothing special they did," Abrams said. "It was pretty much our effort."

An Abrams 3-pointer with 2:22 left in the first half pushed Mt. Carmel ahead 26-20, and an Abrams score off a steal made it 28-26 a minute into the third quarer.

But Simeon went on a 6-0 run from there, a Pinckney jumper giving the Wolverines the lead for good at 30-28.

Rashawn McElrath had 9 points and 12 rebounds for Simeon, with 3 of the team's 11 offensive boards. Ahman Fells, a 6-foot-6 junior, came off the bench with 2 stickbacks in the fourth quarter, the second a three-point play to make it 43-36 with 5:27 left.

"Second half we really made an effort of blocking out and going to the glass," Smith said. "They killed us in the first half.

"We were thirsting for someone to come in and give us a boost and (Fells) came in and got two big plays. It came at the perfect time."

Freshman Jabari Parker also scored 9 points for Simeon. Adonis Filer scored 10 for Mt. Carmel (26-5), denied a bid to make its first state tournament appearance since the Caravan's 1985 Class AA championship.

"They got a lot of second shots off misses and tips," Abrams said. "That pretty much killed us. After all that the game was still close.

"Sometimes games like this happens. It happened at the wrong time for us."