Champaign is said to be very nice this time of year.
The Leo Lions will find out for themselves after earning a trip to the IHSA state basketball tournament Monday with a 54-33 dismantling of Hyde Park in a Class 3-A Supersectional at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena.
After avenging the 15-point thumping they’d taken from the Thunderbirds back in January, the Lions will face East St. Louis (31-4) in an 11:45 a.m. semifinal Friday at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center. Unbeaten Maple Park Kaneland (35-0) and Deerfield (24-11) are the other 3-A qualifiers and will meet in the first semifinal at 10 a.m. The championship game matching the winners is Saturday at 4 p.m.
Junior guard Karon Shavers scored 22 points (on 9-for-11 shooting) and Leo practically undressed the Thunderbirds with a relentlessly active 2-3 zone defense in reaching the state tournament for the first time since 2016, when the Lions lost to Leroy in the Class 1-A title game. Their lone state championship came in 2004, when the tournament was a two-class event and Leo defeated Winnebago for the Class A title.
“Early in the season we had injuries, we had the suspension … we had a lot of things going against us,” Coach Jimalle Ridley said. “Coach (Anthony) Patton said to me, ‘With all we’ve been through, there has to be something out there for us.’
“This is it, and it’s pretty sweet. I’m really proud of our guys.”
That 50-35 loss to Hyde Park in the Malcolm X Shootout was a wakeup call for the Lions – they’re 18-2 in 20 games since, 28-6 for the season.
And as bad as they were that day, they were that good in the rematch. They didn’t score in the first five minutes and spotted Hyde Park a 6-0 lead, but closed the period on an 11-0 run with Shavers providing nine of the points.
By halftime it was 28-11 as the Thunderbirds failed to get anything going on offense. Leo’s zone denied HP’s guards the driving lanes they like to exploit and kept big men Jacobi Walls and Zyere McNeal from having their way inside.
“We went to the zone right away because it looked like we’d have trouble keeping them off the boards,” Ridley said. “The guys really got after it.”
Hyde Park shot a woeful 23.5 percent (12-for-51) for the game, 13.6 percent (3-for-22) on three-pointers. Walls (five points, nine rebounds) and McNeal (zero and four) were non-factors.
Effective as Leo’s defense was, the night belonged to Shavers. In addition to his 22 points, he contributed six rebounds, three assists, four steals and zero turnovers in just under 30 minutes.
“Everybody keeps telling me I can make those shots, and I have to shoot them with confidence,” Shavers said. “I felt pretty confident tonight.”
The eighth of his nine buckets was the biggest.
Trailing 40-25 after three quarters, Hyde Park came out for the fourth in a desperate press and turned two turnovers into five points for a 40-30 game, with ample time remaining for a comeback.
Shavers then lined up a three-pointer from the left wing and let fly without hesitation, knocking it down for 43-30. Hyde Park would get no closer as the Lions closed the game on an 11-3 run to win going away.
Shavers smiled when a reporter asked him if it was the biggest shot of his high school career. His biggest since last Friday, perhaps?
Hillcrest had cut a 15-point Leo lead to four in the fourth quarter of the title game of the Hillcrest Sectional, and the partisan crowd was howling. Shavers calmly buried a three to quiet the crowd and restore Leo’s momentum, and the Lions went on to win by eight.
“It’s not just me – my teammates had as much to do with this as I did,” Shavers insisted. “We pick each other up.”
Jeremiah Echols added 14 points for the Lions, who shot 45.7 percent (21-for-46) from the field and 33 percent (5-for-15) on three-pointers. Sophomore Brandal Orr gave them four points, four rebounds and an assist in 11 minutes off the bench.
One of the game’s more telling stats was Leo’s 16 steals – the Thunderbirds kept forcing passes inside, and the Lions countered with quick hands and shrewd anticipation.
“They beat us pretty easy the last time, so maybe they didn’t take us that seriously,” Echols said. “We showed ‘em.”
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