Ever since he played basketball in 5th grade, Landon Cox has been asked over and over if he is the son of the well-known former King coach of the same name.
“There’s no relation, but, whew, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question,” said Cox, the Thornton Fractional North two-sport athlete who has made an oral commitment to play football at Northern Illinois.
“I met him recently for the first time and he said, `You better not give me a bad name.’
“I told him I’d try to do my best to honor the name.”
Cox’s best was good enough Friday night, when his steal and basket in overtime led No. 3 T.F. North to a 56-54 SICA East victory over No. 13 Thornton in Calumet City.
Before a boisterous crowd, Cox popped the ball loose from Thornton star Mustapha Farrakhan (21 points) and drove in from half-court to score on a layup with Farrakhan on his back.
“I had been noticing that Farrakhan exposes the ball in the triple-threat position and at times was a little careless in protecting the ball,” said Cox, the Meteors’ defensive stopper, who finished with 10 points and three steals. “Once I had the ball, the only thing I had in my mind was to finish it.”
Cox’s steal came with 22.2 seconds left in overtime. In the final 17 seconds, Thornton’s Josh Parker, Anthony Morris and Antoine Pearson had chances to force another overtime, but all three missed their shots. Thornton misfired on all eight of its shots in the extra period.
Farrakhan hit a three-pointer with 1:40 left in regulation time to bring Thornton (16-4, 6-1 in SICA East) within 54-52. Parker had a steal with 1:02 left but missed a breakaway layup. He atoned for the gaffe with 9.6 seconds to go when he drove the lane and dished to Morris for the layup that led to overtime.
Lawrence Redmond led T.F. North (16-2, 7-0) with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Demond Watt added 10 points and 10 rebounds and Donald Pritchard scored 11.
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bsakamoto@tribune.com
