West Aurora headed to regional finals
The record will show West Aurora never trailed, but Wheaton Warrenville South certainly made the Blackhawks take notice.
The league rivals met in the Class 4A Naperville Central boys basketball regional semifinals on Wednesday night, and West Aurora appeared in control in the teams' rubber game.
The Tigers cut the Blackhawks' 14-point third-quarter lead to a mere point early in the fourth and had possession of the ball.
But West Aurora rebounded behind seniors Jamal Blackmond and Markus Cocroft to turn back the Tigers' rally 53-41 in Naperville.
West Aurora, the seventh seed, reached 20 victories for the first time in three years by knocking No. 10 WW South out of the playoffs for the second year in a row.
The Blackhawks (20-7) advanced to the championship game on Friday night to face Naperville Central (25-2), which not only defeated West Aurora twice in DuPage Valley Conference play but also holds the No. 2 seed in the Oswego East sectional.
WW South concluded its year at 16-11.
With WW South sophomore guard Riley O'Toole leading a resurgence, Cocroft and Blackmond spearheaded the decisive stretch of the contest.
The Blackhawks were nursing a 33-32 lead when Cocroft rebounded his own miss and completed a 3-point play.
On the ensuing possession, Blackmond, who scored 14 of his team-high 16 points after the intermission, drained a 3-pointer from the left wing.
When WW South subsequently turned the ball over after the Blackhawks' back-to-back 3-point possessions, Blackmond found Bryson Hughes all alone for a layup.
"As a senior, I didn't want to be one and done in the state tournament," Blackmond said. "We kind of took a back seat (defensively during the Tigers' run). (Hughes) was in the right spot, and I got him the ball."
"That was pretty much (the ballgame) right there," WW South coach Mike Healy said of the Blackhawks' 8-point burst.
West Aurora converted all seven of its fourth-quarter free throws, and Blackmond beat the Tigers' pressing defense for two late scores to seal the victory.
West Aurora opened the game with a lockdown defensive mentality.
WW South could only muster a single field goal in the first quarter, and the Tigers did not reach double digits until O'Toole had the first of his five 3-pointers with 13 seconds to play before the break.
"They are so good defensively," Healy said. "We were shooting the ball quickly because we were too afraid of turning the ball over."
Cocroft finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, while freshman Juwan Starks added 11 points and 7 rebound for West Aurora.
"I thought our defense was excellent in the first half," said West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman, who has 19 20-win seasons in his career. "It wasn't a 12-point ballgame. It was much closer than that. (WW South) played with more intensity than we did (in the second half)."
O'Toole and Dan Hohenstein paced WW South with 17 and 9 points, respectively.