CHAMPAIGN — Deerfield senior forward Jake Pollack was on a mission.
It was simple but not easy to achieve, and it called on Pollack to single-handedly will the Warriors to the Class 3A state championship game.
“They’ve been telling me this at the back end of the playoffs, to just go, go, go to the rim,” he said. “I said it to our guys at every timeout in the fourth quarter and overtime that it was winning time.
“They trusted me, and I knew I could give them what they needed to win us this game.”
Pollack delivered on that promise late in the first state semifinal game at the State Farm Center on Friday.
Playing aggressively despite foul trouble, the 6-foot-8 Dartmouth recruit scored 11 of his game-high 20 points after the third quarter, and his turnaround jumper with 53 seconds left in overtime pushed Deerfield past previously undefeated Kaneland 49-48.
“We know he needs to be aggressive for us to be good, and sometimes he’s such an unselfish superstar that we kind of have to keep reminding him and reminding him to attack,” Deerfield coach Dan McKendrick said. “Today, we did not have to do that. He absolutely put us on his back.”
Indeed, Pollack also had seven rebounds, a game-high four assists and a game-high five blocks for the Warriors (25-11), who will play East St. Louis (32-4) at 4 p.m. Saturday with a chance to win their first state title.
Senior guard Evan Nagler added 11 points for Deerfield. Freshman guard Drew Schnurman, who hit three 3-pointers in the first half, and junior guard Tommy Donahue each scored nine points.
Senior guard Marshawn Cocroft missed a 3-point shot at the end of OT for Kaneland (35-1).
Pollack shifted into a different gear when the Warriors needed him most. All seemed very much in order through 2 1/2 quarters, with Donahue’s 3-pointer establishing a 34-20 lead in the middle of the third. But the Knights went on a 13-0 run that Pollack finally ended when he scored on a putback 2 1/2 minutes into the fourth quarter.
There were four lead changes down the stretch of regulation, and Cocroft’s basket with 11 seconds remaining sent the game into OT.
Pollack, forced to tangle for much of the game with 6-9 junior forward Jeffrey Hassan, had another, self-made obstacle to overcome.
“It was my second foul, I swiped, and I got one, and I said, ‘Ok, I’ve got to be smart,’” Pollack said. “Then I got a real foul, just playing defense, and that was when I thought to myself, ‘This cannot happen. I need to be solid. I need to keep myself in this game for my teammates.’”
Winning that internal battle kept Pollack on the court and the Warriors in the game. After scoring six points in the first quarter, he had a quiet 16 minutes. Then he scored all but four of Deerfield’s 15 points the rest of the way, blocked three shots and took two charges, despite picking up his fourth foul with 3:08 left in regulation.
“Weak side, I’ve always got my teammates’ backs, so I came up with a few big blocks,” he said. “I feel with the work I’ve put in, I’m strong enough to play that kid (Hassan) chest to chest. I kept in front of him and gave him some trouble.”
Nagler, a Case Western Reserve commit, has seen Pollack take over before.
“When stuff gets tight in the fourth quarter, your best players make your best plays,” Nagler said. “He was the best player on the court tonight, zero debate. When it’s winning time, you go to your best player, and that’s exactly what we did, and he executed and pulled through for us.”
Pollack’s strong finish wasn’t out of the ordinary, but he couldn’t pretend this was just another game.
“I stepped on that court today before the game, and it felt pretty surreal, kind of like it did after winning the supersectional,” he said. “At the same time, I needed to bring that level of seriousness. I didn’t get here just to get here. We came here to play as hard as we can and to win. That’s seriously been the dream.”
When that dream was threatened, Pollack stepped forward.
“We got down late, much later than we would have hoped, but all we did was we stuck together and trusted each other,” he said. “My teammates trusted me, got me the ball, and I wanted to win more. That’s all it was.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
