All it really took was a two-minute flurry, and No. 1-ranked Westinghouse was headed back to the Public League championship game.
For Simeon, those were a most chaotic and agonizing two minutes as the Wolverines lost their grip on a season that had promised so much.
Westinghouse’s intimidating full-court press produced four turnovers during a nine-point run that propelled the Warriors to a 68-54 victory over No. 3 Simeon in the Public League semifinals before a capacity crowd of 5,400 Saturday at Alumni Hall.
The Warriors (28-1) will face Red West rival Young (18-8) in Tuesday’s title game at the United Center. Young cruised past No. 6 Morgan Park 71-57 in the second game. Westinghouse lost to King in last year’s finale.
“We turned up the intensity on our press, and they were just turning it over,” said Westinghouse forward Cedrick Banks (22 points, three steals) about the game-winning burst early in the fourth quarter.
There are three degrees to the Westinghouse pressure defense. The Warriors usually open up with the first degree, which is their medium-level, three-quarter-court press. They will make a transition to the second degree, a less intense half-court press designed to lull their prey into a false sense of security.
But beware the killer press, which Warriors coach Chris Head resorts to in game-threatening situations.
“When we press full-court with our best press, it gives teams problems,” Head said.
When the scoreboard read 48-48, he gave Simeon the third degree.
“Evidently we didn’t know what to do with the ball,” Simeon coach Bob Hambric said. “We made some stupid mistakes, and they outplayed us from beginning to end. We weren’t very disciplined offensively or smart with our decisions.”
Easy for a coach to say. The decision-making gets a little skewed for a young athlete when four pairs of hands and arms engulf him. “Once we saw they were having trouble, it made us want to play defense that much harder,” said 5-foot-10-inch Warriors point guard Martell Bailey, who led his team with 28 points and nine rebounds.
Simeon (29-4) actually led 45-44 after three quarters thanks to 13 points and 21 rebounds from 6-7 Cameron Echols, who looked to exploit Westinghouse’s 6-3-and-under starting lineup.
But the Warriors outscored Simeon 19-4 to start the fourth quarter as their defense didn’t give up a basket until Kurtis Ellison’s three-pointer with 1:20 left. In the second game, Young completed an impressive run to the United Center with a fourth straight playoff victory over an upper-echelon Public League team. The Dolphins have knocked off Austin, Lincoln Park, Crane and Morgan Park–a postseason streak unsurpassed by any other team in the state.
“It doesn’t stop here,” said Young’s 6-7 junior Najeeb Echols, who finished with 13 points, 14 rebounds and five steals. “I’m not about to jump around and be happy. We haven’t won a city championship yet, and that’s what is feeding my hunger.”
Despite losing twice to Westinghouse in conference, the Dolphins were in a hurry for another rematch. They outran a slower Morgan Park ball club with Echols, 6-5 Ronald Howard (19 points), 6-8 Marcus White (12 points) and point guard Chris Hill (11 points) scoring freely off their transition game.
Red South champ Morgan Park (22-6) never had the lead despite 17 points apiece from Imonichie Akibi and Casterdaryl McKinnon. The Mustangs took a pounding on the backboards as Young outrebounded them 45-16.
Morgan Park drew even at 41-41 in the third quarter only to watch the Dolphins build a 51-45 lead after three quarters. Coach Herb Ray’s ball club couldn’t come within four in the final period.
