All Jerry Jones wants to do is take his Hillcrest team Downstate.
”Every player wants to do that,” said Jones, a burly 6-foot-5-inch senior, ”but this is my last year, and if I don`t do it now, I`m never going to do it.”
Wednesday night, Jones powered the Hawks (25-1) to their biggest victory of the season, a 64-53 decision over Rich Central (22-4) in the semifinal of the Homewood-Flossmoor regional before a turnaway crowd of more than 2,300.
Jones scored 22 points, tying teammate William Highler for high-point honors, and added 19 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocked shots.
Rich Central, which beat Hillcrest 71-65 in December for the Hawks` lone loss, was down by 10 points midway through the second quarter, trailed 28-19 at intermission and was never able to make up the difference. The Olympians managed only 22 rebounds.
”Our plan was to sit in the 2-3 zone all the way,” said Jones. ”We thought maybe they would be too pumped up for the game.”
Jones was apparently right. The Olympians made 22 of 56 shots, while Hillcrest hit 27 of 53.
It was a match between two South Inter-Conference Association division champs: Hillcrest won the Central title; Rich Central the South. Hillcrest moves into Friday`s title game against still another league winner, Homewood- Flossmoor, which won the East championship.
”Jerry really wants to go places this year,” said first-year Hillcrest coach Tom Cappel. ”You can see by the way he plays. This wasn`t an unusual game for him. He plays this way all the time–every game.”
