Aurora Christian runs into Hales buzzsaw
If you can’t win the state championship, you might as well lose to the team that does.
Hales Franciscan still has two games to win, but Aurora Christian couldn’t help but leave Joliet Central’s old-school gym Tuesday night after their first supersectional appearance since 2000 thinking they had just seen the best Class 2A has to offer.
While the Spartans got out and ran with a couple SportsCenter-worthy dunks, it was their defense that completely suffocated Aurora Christian for a 67-35 win.
“They are really good,” Aurora Christian coach Steve Hanson said. “You are going to have to be pretty good to beat them. I’d be shocked if they don’t win it (state).”
Hales (26-4) will play Rockford Christian, a 53-51 winner in overtime over Illinois Valley Central, at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Peoria in the state semifinals. The Spartans finished third in the state a year ago, losing to Meyers Leonard-led Robinson by 3 points in the semifinals.
“You had a lot of guys who had that experience last year so it was kind of a driving force for these guys,” Hales coach Gary London said. “They have been focused all year long.
“There are only eight teams in the state playing tonight and they (Aurora Christian) are one of them. We respect them totally, I don’t care what their record was, we took them seriously.”
The Eagles (15-17), who had scored over 70 points in each of their four postseason wins, only had 15 in the first half. They shot 29.7 percent for the game and committed 24 turnovers.
“They were a lot better than we thought,” Aurora Christian junior Nick Marema said. “They were quick, they got their hands on the ball, they are just a great basketball team overall.”
Eddie Alcantara led the Spartans with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 7 steals and 4 assists. Aaron Armstead added 14 points, Cameron Johnson 12 and Aaric Armstead 9.
Eagles’ leading scorer Dean Danos, averaging 20.3 points entering the game with 36 Friday night in the sectional final, finished with 6 on two 3-pointers late in the third quarter.
“At halftime one of my assistants said ‘he doesn’t have any points,’” London said. “I was really surprised.
“We knew Mr. Danos was a guy that was putting up numbers. He had our utmost respect. He got our attention and our guys listened to our game plan and executed.”
The Eagles led just once, 5-4 on Marema’s 3 at the 6:12 mark of the first quarter. Trailing 28-15 at halftime, the game really got away from the Eagles in the third quarter when the Spartans went on a 19-0 run to make it 49-17.
The problems started early with 9 turnovers in the first quarter. Only some nifty moves by Marema, who scored 8 first-quarter points, kept the Eagles within 14-10 after one quarter.
While Aurora Christian took better care of the basketball in the second quarter with 3 turnovers, it only hit 2 of 16 field goal attempts. All the misses helped the Spartans start their fastbreak.
Alcantara went end-to-end with a steal and tomahawk 2-hand jam to make it 21-14. Two minutes later, Armstead blocked a 3-point attempt by Danos, got possession of the rebound and took the ball other way for another thunderous slam.
Hanson tried taking a couple timeouts to no avail.
“We didn’t do anything on offense all night,” Hanson said. “You just have to be good for 32 minutes to beat them and we weren’t.”
Marema led the Eagles with 12 points. All five starters and their top reserves are back next year, and now the Eagles know just what they need to do to take another postseason step.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Hanson said. “They pretty much showed us our weaknesses. The expectation next year is we want to be at state battling for that big trophy.
“We’re not going to forget our record. We’ll use that to fuel us in the off-season. We put it together at the right time.”