The sudden ascent from the fringes of basketball consciousness directly to the frontal lobe brought about all kinds of mental gymnastics for Proviso West.
After an unforeseen run in their own holiday tournament, including a near-upset of St. Joseph, the Panthers were a Top 10 team and being reminded by their coaches to act and play like it. And then there was the quick-as-a-hiccup role reversal thanks to that performance.
“The coaches told us we used to come at teams hard because they were targets,” Proviso West guard Andrew Fair said. “And they said people were going to come at us the same way now, because we’re targets.”
If the No. 9 Panthers have gone mental, it wasn’t always clear as they survived a 49-43 grinder against conference foe York on Friday night.
The Dukes played at a molasses pace, and the Panthers (11-1, 3-0 West Suburban Silver) complied, looking alternately sharp and somnolent. A seven-point Proviso West halftime lead was gone late in the third quarter, and the game was tied 34-34 with seven minutes to go.
Then Nigel Jackson and Melvin Rowe scored to start an 8-1 Panthers run that was more like a crawl or light jog. That lead slipped to three, but a couple of late York turnovers and free throws by Jackson with 22 seconds left sealed it.
“I figured that we were kind of sluggish,” said Jackson, who had a game-high 20 points, “so I had to pick up my game.”
That’s the overall rallying cry for Proviso West–an upstart that, as coach Tommie Miller said, has to “retrain the mind.”
“To me,” Jackson said, “the hype gives us more confidence to win.”
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bchamilton@tribune.com
