D-C's leader calmly answers in the clutch
When it was time to take the biggest shot in Dundee-Crown boys basketball history, the Chargers turned to the coolest cat in the building.
D-C senior guard Jeff Beck is the opposite of emotional, a personality trait that served him well with nearly 3,000 people standing and screaming as time wound down in the final seconds of a tied championship game at the Class 4A Elgin sectional on Friday.
"He's the most mellow guy I've ever met in my life," said starting guard Justin Strzelczyk, Beck's friend since the sixth grade at Algonquin Middle School. "He never shows emotion - ever. I've never seen him be mad. I've never seen him be sad. He's always mellow. He's so calm about everything and always has been since I've known him. He's the person you want to take the shot at the end of the game."
Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber was thinking the same thing.
After St. Charles North senior Zach Hirsch tied the game at 49 on a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, Huber opted not to call timeout.
"We weren't going to use it," Huber said. "We wanted the ball in Jeff's hands and we wanted him to take the last shot. He's been our heart and soul all year long, and we were going to win it or (go to overtime) with Jeff. Fortunately, Jeff made the shot."
Seconds earlier it looked as though Beck might not be on the floor in the final seconds at all. Both of his calves started cramping due to dehydration in the game's final minute as he chased after a loose ball. But Beck pushed any pain he was feeling to the back burner after Hirsch hit the 3-pointer to tie the game.
The 6-foot-1 senior dribbled the ball up the right side of the court as his teammates settled into an offensive set. The play allowed the third-year varsity performer to go one-on-one against St. Charles North standout guard Jonathan DeMoss (6-3), whose physical defense throughout the night contributed greatly to Beck's lack of hydration in the waning seconds.
With eight seconds left Beck drove toward the free throw line, stopped, gained a half-second of separation from DeMoss as the defender took a step back, and he calmly sank a jump shot from the right elbow to give Dundee-Crown a 51-49 lead with 3.5 seconds left in the game.
The North Stars (22-9) ran a heady full-court play and got a good look at a 3-pointer that could have won the game, but the shot didn't fall and the Chargers (23-5) celebrated the first sectional boys basketball title in school history, not to mention a school record for single-season victories.
"The fact that he was cramping, too - I was amazed when I saw that shot go in," said D-C senior Marcus Henry, who scored 14 points to support Beck's team-high 15. "He's a great player. He wanted to have the last shot. It went in and it was great."
DeMoss, a four-year varsity player who scored 19 points to lead all scorers, tipped his hat to Beck, who had made just 4-of-16 shots before he took and made what proved to be the game winner.
"He had 1 three all night, and two nights ago he just wasn't hitting," DeMoss said. "I wasn't going to just let him shoot, but he put a move on me and I kind of backed up and he got space and knocked it down. It was a good shot, it was a good shot. You have to respect a guy's midrange jump shot, especially when he's a big player like that.
"I thought it was a great matchup," DeMoss added of the individual matchup. "We didn't say much. We just played basketball, really. After the game I told him he's a (heck) of a player, and he told me the same thing. It was just a good battle. Unfortunately, he got the best of us."
Beck said it was the first shot he had made at the end of a game since he was in eighth grade.
Afterward, as he posed for pictures with four of his five sisters, something unusual graced the face of the Chargers' stoic, unflappable, unemotional leader: Jeff Beck flashed a broad, happy smile.
BEGIN_ATTRIBUTIONjfitzpatrick@dailyherald.comEND_ATTRIBUTION