North Chicago makes history

North Chicago did not match up with Chicago Crane size-wise or record-wise in Tuesday night’s Class 3A boys basketball supersectional at Hoffman Estates High School.

But the Warhawks’ desire and determination to make it to Peoria wasn’t matched by Crane until it was too late to make up an insurmountable deficit.

North Chicago used a big first-half run to build a 27-point third-quarter lead and won a supersectional game for the first time in five tries 78-66.

“This is history for North Chicago,” said coach Gerald Coleman, who played on the 1972 team and led the 2008 and 2009 teams that lost in supersectionals. “We used to go to the supersectionals at 24-5 and 25-4 and get blown out because we didn’t play good competition.

“When the playoffs came (this year) we had faced everything.”

That included a 74-68 loss to Crane (25-4) on Jan. 17, which the Warhawks (17-13) avenged to move into Friday’s 2 p.m. semifinal at the Peoria Civic Center’s Carver Arena. They will play Centralia (29-4), a 48-44 winner over Morton in the Springfield supersectional.

“I told coach when I first came in as a freshman I would take him downstate,” said North Chicago senior guard Maurice Gordon, who had 16 points and 5 assists. “I kept my word.”

Gordon had 8 points as North Chicago ran the last 18 points of a 26-2 tear to take a 26-7 lead 6:35 before halftime. Senior Jaylen Linson, the tallest starter 6-foot-3, and sophomore Marzhon Bryant also scored 16 points apiece.

Senior Daryle Pearson had 11 points and 8 of the Warhawks’ 34-28 rebound advantage. They led 49-22 with 2:17 left in the third quarter even though 23-point averager and junior all-state candidate Aaron Simpson had scored only 4 of his 12 points.

“Teams say if you stop Aaron Simpson, North Chicago is nothing,” Simpson said. “The whole North Chicago team stepped up and got the victory. I don’t need to score 30 points to win.”

North Chicago also had only 2 of its 11 turnovers in the first half and scored 22 second-chance points.

Kory Billups and Willie Conner led Crane with 19 and 18 points respectively. But Kieran Woods, its smallest starter at 6-2, had 15 points on 4-for-12 shooting after scoring 33 the first time against North Chicago.

“They played their hearts out and played harder than us,” said Crane coach Tim Anderson. “They beat us to all the 50-50 balls. They wanted it more than us.”