North Lawndale may have won its first regional in three years by pounding Francis Parker 82-50 Friday night, but it ranked only as the second biggest victory of the week for Isiah Evans.
The 6-foot-5-inch junior forward, robbed at gunpoint Monday, shook off the incident to score a team-high 17 points at St. Benedict and pull down six rebounds, all on the offensive end.
“Right now I just feel blessed to be here,” Evans said. “I’ve been meeting with counselors this week to get over it. And tonight I really wanted to come out and play like a champion.”
Evans typified a superior effort by the Phoenix (28-2), which forced 25 turnovers and outrebounded the Colonels 47-26. Parker (17-10) stayed close early, trailing 27-23 with 4 minutes 23 seconds left in the first half before Lawndale used runs of 7-0 and 12-4 to close out the half.
In building a 46-28 halftime lead, North Lawndale–which advanced to the Lisle sectional–scored 34 points off turnovers and offensive rebounds.
Lawndale, which had 10 players score, put the game away in the third by outscoring Francis Parker 27-8, including nine points from Chas Johnson (16 points) and six each from Evans and Erskin Norment.
David Grossman scored a game-high 21 and collected nine boards for the Colonels. Nick Phillips added 16 points.
