There is a difference between driving and being driven.
Illiana Christian did one of those things Friday. Chicago Christian was the other.
“They came into our place a month or so ago and beat us pretty bad,” Knights forward Trevor Wolterink said. “We had extra motivation.”
Behind Wolterink’s 15 points, Chicago Christian turned aside Illiana 57-43 in front of a raucous crowd in Lansing, forging a tie atop the Metro Suburban East with four league games to play.
Jay Spencer added 13 points and three blocked shots for the Knights, who also got eight points and 12 rebounds from Bradford Fitzpatrick and 10 points from Dalon Washington. Illiana got 11 points from Chandler Kimmel and nine from Zack Pruim.
On Dec. 12, the Vikings (15-5, 6-2) topped the Knights ( 9-10, 6-2) 52-37 by consistently getting to the basket.
“We talked about that,” Chicago Christian coach Kevin Pittman said. “We talked about being too stationary when guys dribble the ball at you. We thought if we could get in front of them, we could force them to take bad shots.”
Early, the Vikings got to the line, making 16-of-20 first-half free-throws to stay within 32-27. But, when they weren’t being fouled, they weren’t making many shots.
Illiana finished 11-of-53 (.207) from the floor, and the Knights blocked eight shots.
“We missed a ton of shots,” Vikings coach Tom Roozeboom said. “We put our heads down a little too much, we didn’t look for the open guy. When you drive too deep, leave your feet, you don’t have a lot of options.”
After trailing early, the Knights took the lead for good on a Fitzpatrick free throw with 37.3 seconds left in the first quarter. Though it gave his team a 14-13 edge after the first quarter, the point was one of Fitzpatrick’s lesser contributions on a night in which he dominated the paint, adding two blocks to go with his game-high rebounding total.
“I just try to get in the right position and go to the ball,” he said.
“It helps,” Wolterink added, “that he can jump super high.”
So, too, did the crowd, which featured battling student sections in opposite corners of the gym keeping the noise level percolating throughout the night.
“It’s so intense,” Fitzpatrick said. “Everybody screaming — you get hyped. You don’t necessarily try to block it out. You use it to give you energy.”
Fitzpatrick’s lay-in at the buzzer on a feed from Marcus Parker put the Knights up 32-27 at the half. Their lead was down to one, at 40-39, late in the third quarter, but freshman Jack Ellison had a baseline drive for a 42-39 edge going into the final quarter, wherein he blocked a pair of shots in the first two minutes as Chicago Christian eased away.
“These guys had a game plan going in, and they stuck to the game plan,” Pittman said. “Everything these guys did, they executed.”
After starting 12-0 and reaching 14-1, Illiana has struggled of late. They have losses in recent weeks to Bradley-Bourbonnais, Oak Forest, Riverside-Brookfield and Timothy Christian.
“And now Chicago Christian,” Roozeboom said. “Those are losses to quality teams. But we can fix things.
“We’ve got to get back to throwing a few extra passes. We will.”
Phi Arvia is a freelance writer.
