A few minor adjustments produced major dividends for Whitney Young, which advanced to the Class 4A semifinals in Peoria with a 62-47 victory over Hyde Park Tuesday in the Class 4A supersectional at Chicago State.
The Dolphins took advantage of 5-of-27 first-half shooting by Hyde Park to take a 29-19 halftime lead.
A three-pointer by Chris Colvin at the end of the third quarter gave Young a 47-27 lead. The Dolphins may have thought it was game, set and match, but the Thunderbirds gave it one last push. They came out in the fourth quarter with a 13-2 run and cut the lead to 49-40 with 5:45 remaining.
But Young's Marcus Jordan scored on two driving layups and Stanford Brown jammed one in with 3:17 remaining to push the lead 55-40.
The 6-8 Brown was inserted into the lineup after a series of injuries and has been an obvious difference maker for Young. He led all scorers with 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had three blocks. Colvin finished with 14 points and Jordan had 10 points and eight rebounds.
“Everybody thinks we are a one- or two-man team,” Brown said. “We love each other and we believe in each other. My job was to control the paint and make my presence felt out there.”
“This was all about defense,” Colvin said. “With six seniors on this team, we know this is our last shot.”
Hyde Park coach Donnie Kirksey said he was surprised at the way his team came out.
“We did not execute, we didn’t play with our normal intensity," Kirksey said. “And we lost our composure, which is a kiss of death against a quality team like Whitney Young. I take my hat off to them, they had a lot to do with the way we played.”
Anthony Dixon led Hyde Park with 14 points, Jerome Moore had 13 and Shareef Akui had 10 points
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