North Lawndale handles Grant, adversity

A little bit of adversity in a basketball game is going to be no big deal for the boys of North Lawndale College Prep this season.

They've already faced one of the biggest adversities that life deals us.

The Phoenix, who were playing from behind for most of the first half Friday but rallied to defeat host Grant 62-47 in the Grant Thanksgiving tournament, lost their longtime and beloved head coach just before the start of the season.

In late October, Lewis Thorpe went to sleep one night and never woke up. He died at the age of 56. Not only had he turned North Lawndale into a serious basketball program, one that won a Class 2A state title in 2008, he also closely mentored hundreds of young kids who moved through his program. He had been the only boys basketball coach in the history of the school.

"He was like a father to me," North Lawndale senior guard Demetrius Douglas said of Thorpe. "My father wasn't in my life and I did everything with my coach. When I heard about what happened to him, I was heartbroken. I cried a lot. I was real sad. Everyone was.

"We're doing everything for our coach this year. Everyone plays hard for him."

Douglas thinks Thorpe had something to do with North Lawndale's double overtime win over Rockford Boylan in Tuesday's tournament game at Grant.

"I think he really kept us in that game," Douglas said. "He was really watching over us."

North Lawndale is now 3-0 in the tournament and will play Carmel (2-1) in the championship game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Carlos Toliver, who was Thorpe's assistant coach for the last seven years, took over as head coach in October. He is coaching one of Thorpe's sons. Jalen Thorpe is a senior guard on the team.

"Losing Coach Thorpe was so tough for all of these kids, and for his own kids and for me. He was like a brother to me," Toliver said. "We put it all on the line for Coach Thorpe. We know we're going to hit some hard times. It's basketball. But knowing that coach is looking down on us and knowing that we're doing it for coach and that we've got a lot to play for, I think when we do reach adversity we're going to come back strong."

The Phoenix was strong in the second half against Grant, turning up the intensity on defense to take control of the game.

North Lawndale, which forced 21 Grant turnovers on the game, went on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter. Douglas, who led the Phoenix with 13 points, had 5 points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer.

"We came out (after halftime) and played tough defense and we switched it up on them," Douglas said. "And on offense, we shared the ball better."

Guard Marquise Earskines also scored in double-figures for North Lawndale with 10 points. But the Phoenix was balanced, with scoring from nine players.

For Grant, guard Hunter Waszkowski finished with a game-high 16 points.

"We had mental issues, mistakes, and we just couldn't figure it out. We weren't talking at all," Waszkowski said of Grant's turnovers. "And our transition defense was horrible in the second half. They just kept scoring off our turnovers."

Grant is now 1-2 in its own tournament, with its other loss to Rockford Boylan and its win over Carmel.

"We did a nice job for 25 to 26 minutes with them tonight, but we weren't able to handle the pressure down the stretch," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "And we weren't able to always shoot the ball with confidence. And our transition defense wasn't very good down the stretch even though our defense overall has been pretty darn good all season so far."