Illinois Powerhouse: Nationally Ranked Simeon Of Chicago Wins Fourth Title In Five Years

Nationally ranked Simeon  (30-2) led from wire to wire and defeated Warren 48-39 to repeat as Illinois' Class 4A champion Saturday evening in Peoria. It was the Chicago school's fifth state title overall in boys basketball, fourth in five years.

The defensive struggle saw each team sustain a quarter long scoring drought beginning in the third quarter and ending in the fourth.

Simeon ends the 2010-2011 season ranked number one in Illinois with an outside shot at a top ten national ranking in several polls.

Star sophomore and all-state player Jabari Parker led Simeon with 12 points and five rebounds, though he struggled from the floor. going 5-for-14.

Guard Darien Walker was the only other double-digit scorer for Simeon with 10.

For Warren (31-4), a school about 90 minutes southwest of Madison, Wisc., junior Darius Paul was the only Blue Devils player in double-digits with 10 points. Warren missed 30 of 41 shots, according to the Chicago Tribune.

With a core consisting of sophomores and juniors, Simeon is one of the early favorites for a 2011-12 national title.

A Warren win would have been the first basketball championship, male or female, in school history.

After four quarters and one overtime, Rock Island and Centralia were deadlocked in their Class 3A championship game Saturday afternoon in Peoria.

Then, it wasn't close.

A 10-0 run by Rock Island (30-3) in the second extra period broke the game open behind seven free throws by Royce Muskeyvalley resulting in a 50-40 final score. Centralia (30-5) was held scoreless in the second overtime.

Leading the scoring for Rock Island was Chasson Randle with 13 points. He also had seven rebounds. Randle averaged 22.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game entering Saturday's action.

Denzel McCauley came up big on the boards with 17 rebounds to go along with his nine points. Romal Davis nearly had a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds in the win.

Centralia was led by R.J. Kwiatkowski with 15 points, close to his 16.7 points per game average.

Bryan Betts contributed 13 points and six rebounds in the losing effort.

For Rock Island, a school about 100 miles northwest of Peoria, the championship appearance was the school's first since 1910 and first state title in school history.

Centralia's last trip to state was in 2002. Centralia, a school about 90 minutes east of St. Louis, is one of only two boys high school basketball programs in the United States with over 2,000 wins.

Nationally ranked Simeon of Chicago highlights the Class 3A and 4A championship fields Friday and Saturday in Peoria, Ill. Super sophomore Jabari Parker’s all-around game leads Simeon at 16 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists per game.

Simeon is the defending 4A champion and enters the final four as the top team in Illinois with a 27-2 record. Simeon's two losses were to perennial Chicago-area power Whitney Young and Benet Academy, an undefeated and top-ranked team in Illinois prior to being upset in the super sectionals.

In the Class 3A semifinals, one would consider North Chicago a Cinderella story based on record alone. At 17-13, the Warhawks entered playoff action with an under .500 record on the season. However, North Chicago, the top seed in their bracket, has won five consecutive games to reach the first final four in school history.

Simeon is favored, but their semifinal matchup pits them against another top team in the state in Glenbard East who enters the matchup at 25-3 and ranked fourth statewide.

Led by one of the state’s leading scorers, junior point guard Aaron Simpson averaged 22.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.2 steals per game during the regular season. This total includes games of 44, 39, 38, and 32 points respectively. Even more impressive is that he hasn’t been held to single-digit points since the opening game of the season when he had nine.

Simpson is currently being recruited by a number of D1 basketball programs.

North Chicago is a dangerous team capable of forcing opponents into an up tempo contest which plays to their strength. This season, they have scored 80 or more points on a dozen occasions including three in triple digits leaving them the wild card team of the weekend.

The Illinois state championships will be broadcast live on IHSA.tv and ESPN3.

Illinois At A Glance - All Times CST

Friday, March 18

3A semifinals

12:15 p.m. - Brooks of Chicago vs. Rock Island
2 p.m. - Centralia vs. North Chicago

4A semifinals

6:30 p.m. - Glenbard East vs. Simeon of Chicago
8:15 p.m. - Normal vs. Warren

Saturday, March 19

3A Finals

12:15 p.m - Third-place game
2 p.m. -  Championship

4A Finals

6:30 p.m. - Third-place game
8:15 p.m. - Championship

Aaric and Aaron Armstead combined for 30 of Hales Franciscan of Chicago's 61 points, leading them to a 61-47 victory over previously unbeaten Murphysboro Saturday evening in Peoria.

Junior swing man Eddie Alcantara also contributed 15 points and nine rebounds on 7-12 shooting for Hales Franciscan.

After being outscored in the first and trailing by as many as five points, Hales Franciscan outscored Murphysboro by six in the second to head into halftime up by five.

Murphysboro kept the game close through three, but Hales Franciscan proved too strong down the stretch opening up a lead in the fourth quarter. Down the stretch, Murphysboro never came within eight points of the lead.

Orlando Jarrett led Murphysboro with 16 points in the losing effort.

The only other double-digit scorer for Murphysboro was Pierre House with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Neither school is new to the final four as this was Hales Franciscan's sixth trip to the final four.

For Murphysboro, the final four marked the school's fourth trip to the final four and first in nearly 30 years.

Behind a balanced attack of four double-digit scorers, Newark beat Winchester 57-35 Saturday in Peoria and capped off a 33-1 season with the school's first state championship.

Delaware recruit Kyle Anderson chipped in 11 points and nine steals, marking only the eighth time this season Anderson failed to lead the team in scoring. He finished his career as the leading scorer in school history.

John Avery was nearly perfect, going five for six from the field and six for six at the line en route to 17 points and four blocks.

Newark, located a little over an hour west of Chicago, jumped to a 18-9 first-quarter lead and never looked back. A 16-4 third quarter led to 24-point lead and allowed Newark to coast the rest of the way.

The hot start by Newark neutralized Winchester's stifling man-to-man defense and they were unable to recover.

In the losing effort, Winchester was led by forward Wes Buhlig with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting.

Winchester is also known as West Central Co-Op. The sports programs are a combination of athletes from Winchester and Bluffs, Illinois, small towns about an hour west of Springfield.

With both Murphysboro and Rockford sporting unblemished records heading into Friday's Class 2A Illinois boys basketball semifinals, a battle of undefeated teams for the state championship appears on tap for Saturday in Peoria.

Not so fast, however. Despite a lesser overall record, Hales Franciscan of Chicago is favored to take the title this weekend entering the tournament as the seventh-ranked team in Illinois and on the periphery of the top-100 nationally, per MaxPreps.

Led by Division I bound brothers Aaron Armstead (Wisconsin-Green Bay recruit) and Aaric Armstead (a junior fielding D1 offers), Hales-Franciscan has four losses to team's in the Chicagoland top 20.

In the final four of 1A, Illinois' smallest class, Newark, making its first final four appearance, is favored behind Delaware recruit Kyle Anderson, who led the team with 17 points in the Dekalb Super-Sectional Game.

Entering the final four, Newark is the only Class 1A team ranked in the state's top 100.

Illinois' finals in classes 3A and 4A will be played March 19.

The Illinois state championships will be broadcast live on IHSA.tv and ESPN3.

Illinois At A Glance - All Times CST

Friday, March 11

1A semifinals

12:15 p.m. - West Central vs. Woodlawn
2 p.m. - Newark vs. Deer Creek-Makinaw

2A semifinals

6:30 p.m. - Rockford Christian vs. Hales Franciscan
8:15 p.m. - Murphysboro vs. Pittsfield

Saturday, March 12

1A Finals

12:15 p.m - Third-place game
2 p.m. -  Championship

2A Finals

6:30 p.m. - Third-place game
8:15 p.m. - Championship

Bolingbrook has one player who has signed with Tennesseee, another who has committed to UConn. A third is going to Illinois, and her team won its state final 72-42 essentially without her Saturday.

That's how good Illinois' best girls basketball team was this season. Bolingbrook got 36 points from 6-foot-2 junior forward Morgan Tuck in the Class 4A championship game against Zion-Benton at Illinois State University.

Tuck, who also had seven rebounds, is headed to UConn. Her older sister, Taylor Tuck, is the Illinois signee who played only briefly in the state final.

Taylor Tuck sprained an ankle in the semifinals - then made the game-winning free throws in overtime.

"I know Taylor really wanted to get out there for her last game, and it was really hard not to play with her,'' Morgan Tuck told the Daily Herald of Chicago after the finals. "We knew we had to go out and do it for her."

On top of those two is state player-of-the-year and McDonald's All-American Ariel Massengale, the point guard. She had only three points but 11 assists in the final.

Bolingbroke, ranked No. 5 by USA Today and No. 4 by MaxPreps, has won three straight state titles and 66 consecutive games against Illinois schools.

Bolingbrook led Zion-Bention 30-7 at one point and finished its season 30-2.

The losses were to  Mater Dei and Brea Olinda of California - which are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 nationally by USA Today - in games played in Arizona in December.

With a senior class like this one and a state title to defend, Montini Catholic's girls team had only one result that would've been satisfying: Win another championship.

Whitney Holloway, who has committed to Notre Dame, scored 19 points Saturday for Montini, which took a 31-15 halftime lead and defeated Hillcrest of Country Club Hills 67-45 in Illinois' Class 3A championship game in Normal.

Montini was up 22-15 with 2:47 left in the half but finished the quarter with a 9-0 run.

"I thought we did a great job defensively," Montini coach Jason Nichols told ESPN Chicago. "Let's be honest, that's a 79-point average team when they came into the state tournament, and we had them sitting at 35 when we pulled our [starters.] That to me was the big thing, our defense tonight."

Fellow senior Whitney Adams (16 points, 4 assists) is headed to North Carolina while Kiki Wilson (9 points0 will attend Milwaukee-Wisconsin.

Shamirah Ali had 15 points for Hillcrest. All-state forward Shannise Heady was held to eight.

Montini, ranked No. 19 nationally in MaxPreps' Freeman computer rankings, finished 36-1. Hillcrest finished 21-7.

Notre Dame of Quincy defeated Central Catholic of Bloomington 75-64 on Saturday in the Illinois Class 2A girls championship game, ending Central's 42-game winning streak and avenging a loss to Central in the 2010 state final.

Notre Dame (31-1) trailed 35-31 at halftime but outscored Central Catholic 44-29 in the second half in the game played at Illinois State University. It was Central's third loss in 95 games.

Notre Dame, a western Illinois school on the Mississippi River, was able to win its first state title since 1984 largely behind the play of their starting sophomore backcourt and a rebounding edge of 39-21.

Sophomore guard Kassidy Gengenbacher made three of her four 3-point attempts and 11 of her 14 free-throw attempts to finish with a team-high 22 points. Another sophomore guard, Jordan Frericks scored 14 points, grabbed five rebounds and added three steals. Junior forward Tori Kuhn stood out as well, registering a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

For Bloomington-based Central Catholic (32-1), Jess Reinhart and Allie Norton scored 24 points apiece. Aside from Reinhart and Norton, no other Central Catholic player scored more than five points. Central Catholic was only 4-for-18 in 3-point shots.