Leo loses on 'one of those shots'

Oswego’s game-winning shot swishes through the net.
(Scott Powers/For the Sun-Times News Group)

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PEORIA -- Leo coach Noah Cannon found himself on the losing end of a magical shot Friday against Oswego after the Panthers’ Jordan Mitchell drained an NBA-length three at the buzzer to upset the heavily favored Lions.

“That was just one of those March Madness shots,” Cannon said. “Nine out of ten times he doesn’t make that shot. God was on their side today.”

WHAT BROWN CAN DO: Stan Brown went from an afterthought to a key cog in Young's surge to the Class 4A state championship game.

The 6-8 Young senior center took advantage of injuries to Dolphins junior guards Ahmad Starks and Anthony Johnson. Following up his strong play against Morton (11 rebounds) and De La Salle (20 points, 15 rebounds), the Fairfield-bound Brown negated a strong opening quarter by Thornton's Trevell Rivers to help the Dolphins snap the Wildcats' 29-game winning streak.

ROAD TO PEORIA: Roberto Gotta, editor of an Italian magazine called “American Superbasket” flew in from Itally to catch the tournament. Gotta has attended numerous Final Fours and NBA games, but wanted to catch America’s Original March Madness.

“You can watch the NCAA and NBA all you want, but this is the purest form of basketball because the players care more,” Gotta said. “The biggest difference between this and what we have in Italy is so many people come to watch kids play. That doesn’t happen in Italy.”

ILLINI SLAM: Sterling’s Joseph Bertrand, an Illinois recruit, won the Class 3A slam dunk championship. Bertrand won the competition in 2008 as well. Hillcrest junior Travis Scott finished third. Sandburg’s DJ Bennett won the Class 4A title.

LES IS MORE: Peoria Notre Dame junior Tyler Les captured the Class 3A three-point competition by edging Geneseo’s Aaron Ganson by one shot in the tiebreaker round. Brooks sophomore George Marshall finished fourth.

CITY CONNECTION: Former Phillips standout Marlo Finner is on the coaching staff at Waukegan. Bulldogs coach Ron Ashlaw said that Finner was a friend of Troy Caldwell, his former assistant at U-High and now the Maroons head coach. Finner moved to Milwaukee, where he works at an alernative school and found the commute to Waukegan to be an easy one.

"We're just hoping he stays around," Ashlaw said

LIKE A BLANKET: Check out YourSeason.com all day for the wall-to-wall coverage of the state final games. We’ll have photos, videos, a live blog and be Twittering live from Peoria.