Waukegan finds right direction to Peoria
A year ago the Waukegan boys basketball program appeared to be headed in the wrong direction.
A tumultuous first season at the school for star Jereme Richmond and coach Ron Ashlaw didn't have a happy ending.
But on Tuesday night the Bulldogs continued a turnaround that has them headed to Peoria. They pulled away to beat Central Suburban League rival Glenbrook North 68-46 before 6,226 in the Hoffman Estates Class 4A supersectional at the Sears Centre.
"It always means a lot, especially coming from a season like last year," said Richmond, the 6-foot-7 Illinois-bound junior who had 16 points and 13 rebounds. "It was really hectic for everybody and the team.
"To turn it around and be in the final four - is something special. I have a better group of guys around me who keep me grounded. Now the reality is we have a chance to do something special."
Waukegan (25-4) is headed to the state tournament for the third time and first since 1969. It will play in Friday's 6:30 p.m. semifinal at the Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena against Dundee-Crown (24-5).
Glenbrook North (23-5) had beaten Waukegan in overtime in the CSL title game and lost by 3 points in December.
"I told my teammates I wanted to come and play our kind of basketball that would put this team away early," said Richmond, who still had some lingering effects from the flu that kept him out the first 31/2 minutes of the third quarter.
It took a litte longer as the Spartans, who had a 14-game winning streak snapped, got within 43-37 on a floor-length drive by Alex Dragicevich (14 points on 6-for-17 shooting, 9 rebounds).
Waukegan reeled off 11 straight points as Richmond hit a tough driving baseline turnaround and had a pair of dunks. Another 7-point run capped by a rebound basket by Colin Nickerson (17 points on 8-for-10 shooting, 6 rebounds) put the Bulldogs up 61-39 with 3:18 left.
Austin Weber scored the last of his game-high 15 points for the Spartans on 5-for-7 3-point shooting just 27 seconds into the second half.
"They're playing better and we just forgot what got us here," said Spartans coach Dave Weber. "We played selfish basketball and we haven't done that all year.
"Whenever we got the ball we went 1-on-1 and we couldn't slow ourselves down to run our offense. I've never coached a game at Glenbrook North where I had a team play like that."
And Ashlaw is coaching a much different team as Aaron Johnson scored 14 points and Quan Conner added 12 points and 9 rebounds.
"It's a product of a process we started last year," Ashlaw said. "It's a group of guys I said before the game love each other and will do anything for each other."