A 99-year wait was Rock solid.
Less than 24 hours after Stanford University recruit
Chasson Randle and his
Rock Island teammates won the school‘s first state championship in boys basketball by defeating Centralia in double overtime, the Rocks were greeted by 2,000 fans at a celebration in their home gym Sunday.
This was a community that had waited for a state-championship trophy since Rock Island last played, and lost, in the state title game in 1910. The enormity of such a victory carried through a big weekend, and beyond.
"Right now, we‘re young. We know we won, but we're not sure how big it is. But I'm sure we will," Randle told qconline.com.
Randle, who was named the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year last week, scored a team-high 13 points in the title game, but fouled out with less than a minute remaining in the first overtime. That was a big absence, considering that Randle is the team's all-time leading scorer and rebounder (22.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game).
The Rocks (30-3) responded by scoring all 10 points of the second overtime, eight of the points coming on free throws, for a 50-40 win.
Royce Muskeyvalley hit five free throws.
4A BOYS: SIMEON CLAIMS REPEAT CHAMPIONSHIPSimeon (Chicago), led by 6-foot-7 sophomore
Jabari Parker, won its second consecutive Illinois Class 4A championship by defeating Glenbard East 55-53 in the semifinals and Warren in a low-scoring title-game battle, 48-39.
Parker, who already has 20 college scholarship offers, scored a game-high 12 points against Warren and had a game-high three blocked shots. He led the 30-2 Wolverines, ranked No. 11 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25, with more than 15 points per game this season. But two titles may not be enough for the 15 year-old.
"I‘m very happy, but not satisfied," Parker told the Chicago Tribune. "Getting two state championships is a tremendous accomplishment, but I‘m going to keep working and I hope we can win more."
No school has won more than two consecutive boys basketball titles since Peoria Manual won the AA championship four years in a row, 1994 through 1997, when Illinois was still in a two-class system. Bolingbrook, a school in Chicago's western suburbs, won its third consecutive girls 4A title this year.
5 BIG PERFORMANCES*
Mike Powell of Chicago Brooks scored 20 points on 8 of 15 shooting, leading Brooks to a 66-52 victory over North Chicago in the third-place game of the Class 3A boys basketball finals. The win was a school-record 29th for Brooks, the Chicago Public League champion .
* Glenbard East's
Johnny Hill scored 16 points and had nine rebounds, helping the Rams top Normal Community 57-50 in the Class 4A third-place game. Hill also had two steals for the Rams (28-4), who set a single-season school record for wins.
*
St. Rita (Chicago) goaltender Marty Napleton stopped all shots except two, helping to lead the Mustangs to their fourth consecutive Kennedy Cup hockey title with a 4-2 win over Oak Park Fenwick.
* Sam Travis of
Providence-St. Mel (Chicago) had hits in all four at-bats Tuesday, hitting a home run and a double, and scoring three runs in the Celtics' 13-0, five-inning win over Joliet Central. Providence has won its first two games of the baseball season.
*
Lauren Kellen scored four goals and had an assist, leading unbeaten
Mendota to a 5-1 girls soccer win over Streator. Mendota has won its first three games.
STORYLINES AROUND CHICAGOLAND* An expanding Big Ten Conference will cut into the state football finals, which have been held at the University of Illinois since 1999. Beginning in 2013, Big Ten regular-season games will go through Thanksgiving weekend, and that is the same weekend the Illinois High School Association uses to stage the football finals in eight classes. As a result, Memorial Stadium in Champaign will continue to be host to the football finals in even-numbered years, but beginning in 2013 the finals will be played another location during odd-numbered years. The alternate venue has not yet been decided on. "We are certainly disappointed, but very understanding," IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said.
* Mike Barry, a former football star at
Downers Grove North and Kent State University, was named new head football coach at
Hinsdale South (Darien). He replaces Alex Bitto, who resigned after a 3-6 season in 2010. Barry spent the last three years at
Evergreen Park as head football coach and assistant track coach.
* The
Sandburg (Orland Park) boys and
Providence Catholic (New Lenox) girls won the team titles at the 14th annual Lemont Co-Ed Track and Field Invitational. The meet was the final indoor event prior to the start of the outdoor track and field season. Ahmad Alomari of Sandburg was a part of a first-place finish in the 800-meter relay and he also finished second in the 55-meter hurdles.
* Former Chicago Hyde Park Academy basketball and track star Jasmine Crenshaw was found dead of an apparent drowning near a Florida lake on March 20. Crenshaw, a track athlete at Central State University (Ohio) who competed in the 200 and 400 runs, had been swimming with her teammates at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, Fla., following a competition at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Central State plans a memorial service for Monday.
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
