Orr's pace too much for Timothy Christian
Inevitably, Timothy Christian's boys basketball team had to tip its cap to the Spartans of Orr Academy.
The twice-defending Class 2A champions overpowered the Trojans 68-39 Tuesday in a Class 2A Aurora Christian sectional semifinal.
"I felt like we were prepared coming in. The guys had some good focus," said Trojans coach Scott Plaisier.
"We knew they were going to come right at us," he said, "and they came at us a little harder than we were prepared to handle. I give them a lot of credit, they play at a pace that if you don't see on a regular basis you can't simulate it."
No. 1 seed Orr (22-11) moves to Friday's sectional final against fellow Chicago Public League Red-West/North foe Uplift, a 72-60 winner over Aurora Christian in Tuesday's second semifinal.
"Our motivation is to keep the other teams on their heels, just switching up defenses. And tonight we were really good behind it," said Orr coach Louis Adams.
Facing a trapping, 2-2-1 full-court press, No. 2 seed Timothy Christian (20-11) turned the ball over five times and missed three shots before Danardo Jones scored inside from a Zach Orange pass to get the Trojans on the board, down 8-2 nearly four minutes in.
On a dunk and then second- and third-chance putbacks - Orr grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the first quarter - Tujuatae Williams led the Spartans to a 16-4 first-quarter lead.
"To see that pressure and to have them basically ride you out all the way to half-court and try to do any offense from that line is really difficult," Plaisier said. "Then when they're hitting the glass as hard as they are, and then making some shots on top of that it makes them really hard to defend."
Timothy made slight second-quarter headway, Jack Baldridge draining a 3 to cut the gap to 25-11 at 3:06 of the second quarter. Orr's Terry Williams then hit three straight 3-pointers and Sherif Kenney swished a jumper for a 36-11 halftime lead.
Early in the third quarter A.J. Vos' lay in from Matt Owens' high-low pass got overrun. Tujuatae Williams' tomahawk slam drew oohs and ahhs and helped the lead jump to 52-18 with 2:06 left in the third quarter.
Tujuatae Williams scored a game-high 17 points. Baldridge scored 14 and Jones 11 for the Trojans, who aced this season's chemistry test.
"Since the beginning of the season we knew it was going to be something special. To drive us for next year we know that we don't want to feel like this again," said Vos, to return with such key players as Owens, Orange, Baldridge and Josh Harris.
Jones, Matt Bootsma, Andrew Petrulakis and Chris Brooks played their last game in the red and white.
"It's meant a lot to me, honestly, watching these guys grow, develop. Me getting to grow and develop with them, it's been a true honor," Brooks said.