Thornton and Peoria Manual staged the first repeat title-game matchup in the tournament’s 89-year history Saturday night, and who better than Maurice Scott to compare the two games?
After all, the senior guard had a pretty good seat for last year’s contest–near the end of the bench, deep in Thornton coach Rocky Hill’s doghouse.
Scott had a slightly more active view Saturday night, starting the game at off guard. But the outcome was the same, as Peoria Manual became the second team to win three consecutive titles with its 57-51 victory in Carver Arena.
Scott’s transformation was merely one difference as Thornton and Peoria Manual combined to reverse a cliche: The more things stay the same, the more things change.
“There are very few similarities between this year and last,” Hill said. “We’ve been through so much and are a different team.”
Getting the obvious difference out of the way first: Last year’s title game was played in Champaign.
Hill was one of the more disappointed coaches when the Illinois High School Association announced the tournament’s move to Peoria last May, but he has since softened.
“The folks in Peoria have really put on a show,” Hill said. “We’re excited to play here.”
Scott is excited merely to be playing anywhere.
The 5-foot-11-inch senior logged quality minutes at the start of last season, but ended up appearing in just 20 of the Wildcats’ 32 games and saw no Elite Eight action.
“He had an attitude problem,” Hill said bluntly. “He got caught up listening to what everyone said about him, and thought he should start.
“I told him he would get a lot of playing time off the bench if he kept his attitude up, but he couldn’t do that.”
Hill said Scott, the only senior starter on an underclassmen-laden team, has matured greatly.
“He’s not at the leadership level of (last year’s seniors) Tai Streets and Chauncey Jones,” Hill said. “But he’s an integral part of this team.”
With high-profile juniors Melvin Ely and Erik Herring in the lineup, Scott often gets lost in the shuffle. He isn’t even pictured in Thornton’s team photo in the tournament program.
But he averaged 8.5 points per game this season and led the Wildcats in their semifinal victory over Westinghouse with 16 points.
“Man, I know how sitting on the bench feels,” Scott said. “Starting (the title game) means a lot.”
So did getting rest before that game. Just like last year, Thornton advanced out of the lower bracket and thus played the later semifinal Saturday afternoon.
While Hill could do nothing about the brackets, he could–and did–hustle his team back to the hotel after the semis.
“Last year, it probably took us an hour to get out of the locker room,” Hill said. “I changed that this year.”
The more things stay the same, the more things change.
Thornton and Peoria Manual played their second straight Class AA title game Saturday night. After it was over, Manual had changed the record books to include their “three-peat.”
