Proviso East stops Wheaton North

Ivory Crawford couldn't remember ever playing Fantasia Vine in AAU ball and didn't seem to recognize the Wheaton North guard's name.

“She doesn't worry about who she's playing against,” Proviso East coach Ezra PridGeon said of Crawford. “She just likes to play ball.”

Illinois recruit Crawford matched her personal high with 29 points Saturday, and Proviso East handled Wheaton North and Bradley-bound Vine 61-44 at the McDonald's Shootout at Willowbrook High School.

Crawford sank a baseline jumper four seconds into the game. She was just getting started.

“This year we've played against a lot of different types of teams,” Crawford said, “but they're all the same to me. I don't care who you are. I'm just going to play my game.”

Vine and Wheaton North put on an electrifying show in their shootout debut last year. But they were outmatched against Proviso East (17-2), whose only losses this year came to Fenwick and Trinity by a combined 6 points.

Vine missed 6 of her first 7 shots, the only make an NBA-range 3-pointer that gave Wheaton North its only lead at 8-6. Proviso East answered with a 10-0 run, and it was 32-16 by halftime. Crawford herself outscored Wheaton North with 18 points by half.

“Proviso East is obviously a very good team,” Wheaton North coach Dave Eaton said. “I thought we had a pretty good game plan going in and we executed our press break early and got a couple layups off of it. I don't know what happened, but we stopped executing and it got out of hand in a hurry.”

Wheaton North (11-6) was bothered all game by Proviso East's length, quickness and fullcourt pressure.

The Falcons turned the ball over 32 times, and Proviso East scored 22 points off those turnovers.

Vine finished with 9 points on 3-of-14 shooting. Sydney Sharkey also scored 9 points.

“We rely on our defense. We've had some good players that we've had to shut down in other games,” PridGeon said. “We don't take anybody for granted.”

Eaton did praise Jaquala Hillman for her hustle off the bench that he pledged would earn her a starting nod next game.

“We got to get better. Teams like (Proviso East), those are people we want to beat,” said Eaton, whose team could draw the Pirates in a regional down the line. “They got every loose ball, they beat us to the punch on everything. I think we're going to have to shake up our starting lineup a little bit. We need some of our senior leaders to step up and play like leaders.”