North Chicago hangs on, stops Grayslake C.

Like any good husband, North Chicago boys basketball coach Gerald Coleman listened to his wife.

Coleman’s bench includes Cheryl Coleman, who after coaching North Chicago’s freshman boys this season, recently joined her husband on the varsity bench.

During Tuesday night’s Class 3A Ridgewood sectional semifinal between top-seeded North Chicago and No. 5 Grayslake Central, Cheryl Coleman, whose coaching credentials include a stint in Belgium, where he coached her husband, had some advice to give.

“The offense that I had them in wasn’t working,” Gerald Coleman said. “She made the call, and we switched (offenses). (Grayslake Central) couldn’t respond, and that’s why we went up (by 11 in the second quarter).”

Then, like any typical husband, Coleman didn’t listen to his wife.

“The third quarter, me being stubborn, I went back to doing what I wanted to do,” he said. “And Grayslake got back in the game.”

Chalk one up for basketball wives. And chalk up another victory for Team Coleman.

“No comment,” Cheryl Coleman said with a laugh.

North Chicago held off Grayslake Central 64-60, advancing the 15-13 Warhawks to Friday’s 7:30 p.m. sectional final in Norridge against the winner of tonight’s game between host Ridgewood and Fenton.

Grayslake Central (17-13), which trailed by 11 points three times in the second quarter, outscored North Chicago 42-37 in the second half but never led.

Jordan Taylor led the Rams with 16 points. Savonte McWilliams tossed in 12 points off the bench, and sophomore Danny Reed added 11 (three 3-pointers).

“We stopped playing scared (in the second half),” Rams coach Brian Moe said. “I told our kids at halftime, ‘You’re not going to get calls when you’re playing scared, when you’re getting shoved underneath and you’re not boxing out, when you’re not stepping out and taking charges, and when you’re attacking the basket and avoiding contact.’ We stepped up the second half and, for lack of a better word, played like men.”

At halftime, four of Grayslake Central’s starters had a combined 1 point (by Kyle Shepard), and the Rams trailed 27-18.

“Coach told us at halftime that we could have only 16 minutes left in our season, so we just took that mentality,” said center Casey Boyle, who had 9 points (all after halftime), 6 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. “We just really gave it to them in the second half.”

North Chicago had another 11-point cushion (31-20) after Aaron Simpson (game-high 24 points) hit 2 free throws with 6:14 left in the third. But Grayslake Central responded with a three-point play by Boyle, a baseline bank shot by Reed, 2 free throws by Tim Abbott and a 3-pointer by Reed.

Reed’s second 3 eventually pulled the Rams even at 36-36 with 2:41 left.

But Daryle Pearson’s putback — 1 of 23 offensive rebounds by North Chicago — had the Warhawks up 44-42 entering the fourth.

Grayslake Central was still within two after 2 foul shots by McWilliams with 10.6 seconds left, but Simpson’s pair of free throws sealed the win for North Chicago.

“I thought we played great for probably 2½ quarters,” Gerald Coleman said. “I thought the third quarter was not us. We slowed it down. We played with no defensive intensity. The fourth quarter we played partial North Chicago basketball. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t pretty. But like I told the kids, at this point, we don’t care if it’s a 1-point or a 30-point win. We need a win to advance.”

Despite the loss, Grayslake Central won 15 of its last 21 games. Since losing 56-40 at Grayslake North on Feb. 7, the Rams went 6-3, with the losses by a combined 13 points.

“It was a great season overall,” Boyle said. “Our seniors really worked their butts off. I have the utmost respect for all of our seniors, especially C.J. (Stempeck).”

Stempeck went down with mono and missed the Rams’ last five games.

“Our juniors have really come along,” Moe said of a group that includes Taylor, Boyle, McWilliams, Sean Geary and Tyler Smith. “Our whole team, really, has improved leaps and bounds, especially over the last few weeks. If you would have told me after we lost to North that we were going to win a regional, I would have said you’re crazy. To get our stuff together, and get to where we got to, was a great accomplishment.”