Rock Island claims 3A crown
PEORIA — While Chasson Randle looked for a little divine assistance, Royce Muskeyvalley just relied on routine.
Rock Island hit its free throws late, sealing a 50-40 double-overtime win against Centralia in Saturday’s Class 3A championship game of the boys basketball state finals.
After teammates missed 4 straight free throws late in the first overtime, Muskeyvalley knocked down 2 with 12 seconds remaining that forced a second extra period. Then the Rocks made 8 of their last 10 from the line, including 5 more from Muskeyvalley, to seal the school’s first boys basketball title.
“I prayed like four or five times,” Randle said. “I had confidence in them all going in, but it couldn’t hurt.”
The Rocks (30-3) did it without Randle, the team’s leading scorer. The Stanford-bound guard fouled out with a minute left in regulation and had to watch his team battle at the end. He still led the team in scoring with 13 points.
“That was real hard. It was tough sitting there watching,” he said. “I was sure my teammates could do it, but I would have felt a lot better out there on the floor.”
The Orphans led by 5 points in the first half, and had the lead five different times but could never put away the Rocks.
“We had a lot of chances to throw the dagger, we just couldn’t get it done today,” Centralia coach Lee Bennett said. “All season long we’ve been able to throw the dagger and finish games. We just couldn’t do it today. They had a lot to do with that. They are so long and athletic and they made rebounding just look easy. It’s tough because we were so close.”
Led by Denzel McCauley’s 17 boards, the Rocks commanded the glass, 38-24.
R.J. Kwiatkowski scored 15 and Bryan Betts 13 to lead Centralia (30-5). Betts also grabbed 6 rebounds, as did Tyler Obermeier.
Romal Davis chipped in 13 points and McCauley added nine points for the Rocks.
“What a great way to end it all,” Muskeyvalley said. “State title, baby.”
Third place: Chicago Brooks got 20 points from Mike Powell and 19 from George Marshall and pulled away from North Chicago in the fourth quarter to claim a 66-52 victory.
Aaron Simpson led the way for North Chicago (17-15) with 20 points, but the Warhawks shot 20-for-58 from the field.