Basketball showdown in Chicago

The 16th annual McDonald‘s City-Suburban Showdown will be exactly that: A showdown.

 

The final game of Saturday’s tripleheader at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago will match up defending Illinois Class 4A boys basketball champion Simeon (Chicago, Ill.) and unbeaten Benet Academy (Lisle, Ill.).

 

Simeon coach Robert Smith hopes to be giving plenty of applause on Saturday.

Photo by Greg Behrens

Benet, which features Wisconsin recruit Frank Kaminsky and Northwestern recruit David Sobolewski, has won its first 25 games. Simeon, with a powerful lineup that includes UIC recruit Ahman Fells and sophomore sensation Jabari Parker, won its first 23 games before falling to 2009 4A champ Whitney Young in a Chicago Public League semifinal-round game Wednesday night.

 

Simeon is ranked No. 3 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25, and had won 30 straight dating back to last year until its loss to Young.

 

After Saturday’s Showdown game, Simeon and Benet, both No. 1 sectional seeds in the Illinois 4A tournament, don’t play again until the second round of the 4A regionals on March 2.

 

The Simeon vs. Benet game is scheduled for an 8:45 p.m. start Saturday at UIC, preceded by Proviso East (Maywood) vs. Lyons (LaGrange) at 5:15 and Class 3A title contender Morgan Park (Chicago) vs. Rock Island at 7 p.m. Louisville recruit Wayne Blackshear stars for Morgan Park.

Recruiting: Stephens verbals to Purdue

Kendall Stephens, a sophomore guard at St. Charles East, verbaled his commitment to Purdue University on Monday, one day after watching the Boilermakers defeat Illinois in a Big Ten game, according to multiple news reporters. His father, Everette, also played at Purdue. Although still a sophomore, Stephens already had other scholarship offers from Illinois, DePaul, Northwestern and Wisconsin.

5 Big Performances …

* Connecticut recruit Ryan Boatright scored 41 points, leading East Aurora to a 74-66 win over rival West Aurora. It was the first time in four years that Boatright had led East to a win over West.

* Wisconsin recruit George Marshall of Chicago Brooks hit the game-winning shot with 6 seconds left in a 56-54 win over Farragut in the quarterfinals of the Chicago Public League playoffs. Marshall scored all of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. A win over Curie on Wednesday would put Brooks (20-3) in Friday night's city championship game at DePaul University against either unbeaten and nationally ranked Simeon or Whitney Young.

* Chicago Whitney Young point guard Derrick Randolph had nine assists and five steals, leading the Dolphins to a 54-39 Public League quarterfinal win over Chicago Crane. Randolph, a junior, has attracted interest from DePaul, Tennessee, Arizona and California.



* Connecticut women‘s recruit Morgan Tuck, a junior at Bolingbrook, scored a season-high 35 points in the Raiders' Class 4A tournament opener Tuesday. The two-time defending state champions cruised past Plainfield East, 96-17, and will meet Romeoville in Thursday‘s regional title game. Bolingbrook (22-2 is ranked No. 4 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25.

* Vanderbilt University bowling recruit Natalie Goodman of O'Fallon bowled her first perfect 300 game, and went on to win the Illinois individual bowling title with a state-record score of 2,867. She defeated runner-up Jodi Gawlik of Schaumburg by more than 100 pins. "I feel accomplished that I finally got a 300," Goodman told the Chicago Tribune.

COMING UP

* Hales Franciscan-Chicago (21-3) will play De La Salle-Chicago (18-2) for the Catholic League championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday at De La Salle. Senior center Dominique Walls scored 19 points and had 9 rebounds for Hales in a 75-60 win Tuesday over Proviso West. De La Salle‘s lineup includes Illinois recruit Michael Shaw.

* Hinsdale Central's Jack Allen will go after a heavyweight state championship in wrestling this weekend, when the Illinois individual wrestling championships are held at Assembly Hall in Champaign. Allen is 42-0. Other Chicago-area unbeatens include Jahwon Akui (26-0) of St. Rita (Chicago), Nicholas Drendel (38-0) of West Aurora and Josh Marchok (34-0) of Schaumburg. Akui, wrestling at 171 pounds, is the defending Class 3A champion. He was the starting running back for St. Rita's football team.

* Kristin Mirski, a junior whose 9.8 in the floor exercise was the state's top sectional score, will lead Carmel into the Illinois Girls Gymnastics State Finals on Friday and Saturday at Palatine High School. Carmel is looking to repeat as state team champion. Mirksi placed third in the 2010 Finals in the floor exercise and again will face defending individual champion Jenny Covers of Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge. Covers is attempting to become the fifth gymnast in state history to win the all-around championship twice.


STORYLINES AROUND CHICAGOLAND:

* Kentucky basketball recruit Anthony Davis of Perspectives Charter (Chicago) has hit a triple play in postseason all-star appearances. Davis, a 6-foot-10 forward, will play in the Nike Hoop Summit, McDonald's All-American Game and Jordan Brand Classic. Davis was the only Illinois player named to play in the prestigious Hoop Summit on April 9 and the Jordan Brand Classic on April 16. He is one of four Kentucky recruits who‘ll be in the Jordan Brand Classic and one of three Kentucky recruits in the Hoops Summit. Future Wildcat teammate Kyle Wiltjer of Portland, Ore., Jesuit will be his West teammate for the Jordan Brand game to be played at Times Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C., and telecast by ESPN2. The McDonald‘s Game, to be be telecast by ESPN, will have a real Chicago feel. Both the boys and girls games will be played March 30 at the United Center in Chicago, home of the NBA Chicago Bulls. Chicago Morgan Park‘s Wayne Blackshear, a Louisville recruit, will be Davis‘ teammate on the West squad, which will be coached by St. Joseph-Westchester's Gene Pingatore.



* Tennessee recruit Ariel Massengale of two-time state champion Bolingbrook, a western Chicago suburb, was named to the East squad for the McDonald's All-American girls game. A 5-foot-6 guard who plays alongside Illinois recruit Taylor Tuck and Connecticut recruit Morgan Tuck, Massengale won a gold medal last summer with the U.S. U-17 national team at the FIBA World Championships for Women. The West squad will be coached by Marshall-Chicago's Dorothy Gaters, Gwen Howard and Courtney Hargrays. The only reason that the game won't feature Morgan Tuck, who played on the U-17 national team, is that she is a junior and the game is for seniors.

* Whitney Young High School's girls basketball team won its sixth Chicago Public League championship in seven years, defeating Morgan Park 76-41 in the title game played at Chicago State University. Michigan State recruit Kiana Johnson scored 14 points and had eight assists. Young (22-2) will play Chicago De La Salle for a Class 4A regional championship Thursday night at De La Salle. The Dolphins have played Bolingbrook in the last three 4A state title games, winning one of them (2008).

* Libertyville's girls basketball team broke a school single-season record for wins Tuesday, when the Wildcats defeated Deerfield 61-40 in a Class 4A regional semifinal. The win was Libertyville's 28th straight in an unbeaten season. Libertyville won 27 games in 1982-83. The Wildcats have never won a state title.

Paul Bowker, an online and newspaper sports journalist for 25 years and the author of two Major League Baseball books, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at bowkerpaul1@aol.com