Beck, Dundee-Crown stop North Stars in sectionals
Everyone in a near-capacity Chesbrough Field House knew who was going to take Dundee-Crown's final shot Friday night.
But that didn't stop Jeff Beck from taking it.
After St. Charles North's Zach Hirsch tied the game with 15 seconds left with a 3-pointer, Beck came down the floor, starting to drive and pulled up at the free-throw line. The shot hit nothing but net with 3.5 seconds remaining and gave the Chargers their first sectional championship with a 51-49 victory in the Class 4A Elgin sectional title game.
"I just let it go," said Beck, a senior. "It felt good."
"If he passed it, I would have been (upset) with Jeff for passing it," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "We wouldn't want the ball in anyone else's hands."
Dundee-Crown (23-5) will play Neuqua Valley at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Northern Illinois University supersectional with a trip to Peoria and the state semifinals at stake.
The Chargers nearly didn't get that opportunity thanks to poor free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter. They went 5-for-14 from the foul line in the final five minutes, allowing the North Stars (22-9) to hang around. North senior Jonathan DeMoss hit a pair of free throws with 43.6 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 48-46. Beck hit 1 of 2 from the foul line with 42.3 seconds to make it 49-46. After North missed a 3-point attempt but forced a D-C turnover, DeMoss and Hirsch played a two-man game. Hirsch set a screen for DeMoss and floated to the left corner. DeMoss found Hirsch, who hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to tie the game at 49-49.
"To be honest I threw it up there and hoped it went in and it did," Hirsch said. "Beck from Dundee-Crown is tough, got to give him credit for knocking down the shot."
"We weren't able to get that one last stop," North coach Tom Poulin said. "We've been saying this tournament is about getting one stop at a time. We just weren't able to get that one last stop."
Huber had a timeout, but didn't want North to be able to set up its defense. Beck, who leads the Chargers by averaging 17 points, didn't hesitate even though he was 4-for-16 from the field before hitting the game-winner.
"There was no play. We just went down and tried to get open," said Beck, who finished with a team-high 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
The North Stars had one last chance, drawing up a play similar to Bryce Drew and Valparaiso in the 1998 NCAA tournament. Hirsch threw in a long pass to DeMoss, who shuffled it off to David Johnson. Johnson bobbled the pass, recovered, took a dribble and lofting a high-arcing shot that would have given the North Stars the win. The shot hit the glass and the rim, but did not find the net.
"We got a good look. We got a look to win the game," Poulin said. "(The play) went off fine other than not going in."
The North Stars started quick and had the game's biggest lead, 15-6, at the end of the first quarter. They led 25-18 at halftime. D-C did not take have a lead until Justin Strzelczyk's 3-pointer with 2:35 left in the third quarter gave the Chargers a 36-33 lead. North never led again.
Aaron Reams sparked the second-half rally for the Chargers, scoring 8 points in the first 31/2 minutes of the third quarter.
"My job really is defense and rebounding," said Reams, who finished with 10 points. "I don't know where the offense came from."
Marcus Henry added 14 points for D-C.
DeMoss scored 19 points in his final game with the North Stars. Nick Neari, a four-year varsity player and the team's leading scorer, battled foul trouble in the first half and scored 9 points in 21 minutes.
"They had a great game plan, they defended our ball screen real well," Neari said.
Neari picked up his third foul of the first half on a charge with 4:44 left in the second quarter. He fouled out with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter.
"With charges you can flip a coin," Poulin said. "It was a charge because it was called a charge. In hindsight you need to pull up.
"Nick is usually one who stays out of foul trouble and uses his fouls wisely. It definitely effected some things. You've got to play through that."
St. Charles North sophomore Josh Mikes added 8 points and a game-high 9 rebounds.
"It seems like we almost got too sped up," Mikes said. "We had too many mistakes in the third quarter. We were going too fast, we needed to slow ourselves down but we couldn't do it."