Second leaves Warren blue
PEORIA — Warren senior Jeremiah Jackson did his best to hold on tightly to the latest addition to the Blue Devils’ boys basketball trophy case.
A badly swollen elbow from a fall the night before, along with a few tears shed because Warren did not finish the season the way that he and his teammates had hoped, accompanied Jackson and the trophy to the locker room.
In the final game of the high school boys basketball season, Warren played with visions of earning the school’s first state championship. This was the spot the Devils had hoped to reach all along, but the ending was not what Jackson or Warren had wanted.
“This is just real hard,” Jackson said as he struggled to keep the tears back. “This has been real fun, this right here. Getting to this game — all of this has been real fun.”
Simeon, though, had the last laugh, beating Warren 48-39 in the Class 4A championship game at Carver Arena. The win earned the Wolverines their second straight title and eighth in school history.
The Blue Devils still had a season that was successful by any measure. They finished with a school record 31 wins against just 4 defeats — two coming against Simeon. The second-place trophy matches the effort of the 1999 team that fell to St. Joseph in the title game that year.
“This has been a great experience but it’s just hard to end it this way,” said Warren senior Brandon Ferguson. “Simeon is a real good team and they came out and outplayed us tonight, so give them all the credit.”
Simeon (30-2) got ahead of Warren early and led by as much as 10 points in the first half. That prompted Warren’s first sustained offensive run of the night, and an 11-5 spurt to close the first half put the Blue Devils well within reach at 24-20 at halftime.
“I think you have to credit Simeon for their defense,” said Warren coach Chuck Ramsey. “We had a lot of good looks at the basket — looks that we typically have made throughout the season. Sometimes there is a slim margin between made and missed baskets.”
Only 11 of 43 shots found the net for the Devils in the championship game. Warren’s own defense was nearly as stingy, and Simeon made 37 percent of its shots — and just 28 percent in the second half.
“Defensively? We were good defensively,” Ramsey said. “We just weren’t able to score.”
When the Wolverines re-established a 10-point lead early in the second half at 35-25, the two-time champions proceeded to go with their signature stalling style, which limited Warren’s ability to get any rhythm offensively.
“We knew they would slow things down some, but I don’t think we expected it quite like that,” Jackson said. “They controlled the tempo.”
“That’s the style of ball we play at Simeon,” said Simeon coach Robert Smith. “We knew that when we got up on Warren we would go into our stall and not let them get going. I have a ton of respect for Warren and coach Ramsey.”
With the pace of the game the way they wanted it, all-state sophomore Jabari Parker of Simeon weaved through the Warren defense for the points the Wolverines needed.
“That’s just Simeon basketball,” said Parker, who led all scorers with 12 points. “We play disciplined and under control, and that’s what Simeon ball is.”
Warren closed within 40-34 with 1:44 to go on the final 2 points of Jackson’s Warren career. But the Devils got no closer.
In very much the same way that the season started — with a loss — the year ended that way as well for the Blue Devils. In between, Warren amassed a record season and earned a memorable trip to the state finals for only the second time in school history.
“This has been a lot of fun, and a real fun week for us,” Ramsey said. “I want to enjoy this moment with these kids.”
Junior Darius Paul, one of three starters that will return next year, was the only Blue Devil in double figures with 11 points. Darien Walker had 10 points for Simeon.