Dukan, Deerfield answer the call vs. Libertyville

It was late in the first quarter of the Class 4A Deerfield regional final final between the host and No. 2-seeded Warriors and No. 10 seed Libertyville when the Warriors' star, Wisconsin bound-senior Duje Dukan, picked up his second foul.

Just 3:44 remained in the quarter and the score was tied at 3-3, but the foul prompted a new chant from the large Libertyville contingent. Chants of "over-rated" came cascading down from the Libertyville side while the even larger Deerfield fan base chanted "Wisconsin."

All the while, the normally mild-mannered Dukan burned inside.

"I love it when other fans chant that," Dukan said. "It really gets me going and gets the rest of our team going."

Instead of heading for the bench with his second foul, coach Bret Just left Dukan on the floor - and Dukan proceeded to floor the Wildcats.

"I even turned around at our fans and was like 'Don't get him mad,'" said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil. "Quietly we were hoping for three fouls, too."

Dukan scored seven of the next 12 Warrior points and was simply unstoppable after that. In the final game on his home floor, Dukan scored 18 of his 28 points in the first half and the Warriors rolled to their first regional title in 8 years with a 56-37 thumping of Libertyville.

"I think once we settled down, we settled in and took control," Dukan said. "With the big crowd and all the energy in the gym it took us a whole to get control of things."

Deerfield (25-3) advances to the Waukegan sectional where the Warriors will face No. 13 seed Schaumburg, a 44-30 winner over Hoffman Estates at the Schaumburg regional, Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.

"I thought this season we had a chance to be good but you just never know how everything will come together," Just said. "If things go right, guys stay healthy and we get a few bounces you never know."

Libertyville (14-14) never seemed to regain the bounce in its step that the Wildcats had in their regional win over Mundelein this past Wednesday. The 12-3 spurt to end the first quarter blew up to a 23-10 advantage halfway through the second on a bucket by David Panter (4 points).

The Warriors opened the game up to start the second half with five quick points to put the game out of reach at 32-14. A short burst by Libertyville got the Wildcats as close as 32-19 with five minutes to go, but that was close as the Cats got.

"We felt like if we could get a couple of stops and convert maybe we could get back into it," Bogumil said. "But they are just too good. I mean, we had one day to prepare and I am not sure if we had a week that it would be enough."

Senior Hobie Herberger battled through a tough shooting night to lead the Wildcats with 10 points and 5 rebounds.