Scouting the Waukegan sectional
CLASS 4A WAUKEGAN SECTIONAL
No. 5 Stevenson Patriots vs. No. 1 Waukegan Bulldogs (23-4)
When: 7:30 p.m., today
Where: Waukegan High School East Campus Gym, 1011 Washington Street
Road to the sectional: Stevenson defeated Warren (49-44) and Hersey (48-39) to win the Warren regional in two hotly-contested games. Waukegan defeated Rolling Meadows (90-60) and Buffalo Grove (73-52) to win the Buffalo Grove regional. The Bulldogs won their games by an average of 25.5 points per game.
Sectional history: Stevenson last appeared in a sectional in 2007, the last season of two-class basketball in Illinois. That year, the Patriots won the Prospect sectional and defeated Warren in the Sears Centre supersectional to advance downstate for the second time in school history. Stevenson placed fourth in Peoria. Meanwhile, Waukegan won its own sectional last year by defeating Warren on a halfcourt shot at the buzzer. The Bulldogs then advanced all the way to the Class 4A state championship game, where they came up just short against Whitney Young (69-66).
Probable Stevenson starters: Nate Johnson, Kevin Earl, Jeff Levitt, Mark Swanson, Brad Tivin.
Probable Waukegan starters: Jereme Richmond, Quan Connor, Akeem Springs, Mike Springs, Aaron Johnson.
What to watch for: So, what gives? That's the key question in this matchup of two very different teams.
Fifth-seeded Stevenson boasts one of the best defenses in Lake County while top-seeded Waukegan is one of the highest-scoring teams around.
Waukegan is averaging 81.5 points in the tournament so far while Stevenson is giving up only 41.5 points. On top of that, the Patriots are allowing opponents to shoot just 43 percent from the field.
Talk about a clash of styles.
"We always pride ourselves in keeping other teams down, in terms of scoring and field goal percentage," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. "It was our defense in the regional. We were able to take key actions against both Warren and Hersey, and they were different things. We defended Hersey's shooters well and we defended inside against Warren."
Of course, the Patriots will be in for a test like they've never seen in Jereme Richmond, a 6-foot-7 ball of excitement who will be playing at Illinois next season.
Richmond is the one who hit the halfcourt shot at the buzzer to lift Waukegan over Warren in last year's sectional title game.
Of course, that's not typical of his range, but he can score from the perimeter. He can also do plenty of other things, not the least of which is revving up the crowd with his exciting dunks. His bread-and-butter is getting to the basket and scoring quickly in transition.
"We're just going to have to limit his touches, crowd him and be aware of where he's at," Ambrose said of Richmond. "We've got to take away the easy looks, the fastbreaks. We've got to make him work a little bit.
"He's a player like no other, but we can't let him dominate the game."
Richmond had just 12 points against Buffalo Grove, but the Bulldogs didn't need a huge scoring outburst from him because they also got double figures from Akeem Springs (17 points), Mike Springs (15 points) and Quan Connor (12 points).
Meanwhile, Stevenson's offense runs through Nate Johnson, who scores about 16 points per game. Johnson (12 points against Hersey) is dangerous around the basket and can also hit 3-pointers.
Kevin Earl, who finished with a team-high 14 points against Hersey, is also a solid scoring threat in the paint.
"We just have to play within ourselves," Ambrose said. "We don't have to play error-free. No one can do that. But we're going to have to play very well on a very good team's home floor. We're going to have to limit our mistakes because Waukegan feeds on that and that's how they get their fast break going. Whenever you have the ball, they're looking to speed you up and make you make mistakes. We can't do that."
Winner gets: A berth in Friday's sectional championship game against the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between No. 2 Deerfield and No. 13 Schaumburg.