Northern Illinois Sports Beat: Winnebago Stung by Seaton's Quickness

By Cody Cutter, NISB Publisher
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PEORIA (Mar. 13) � Winnebago came, saw and conquered everyone they had played this season.

No team that the Indians played at State was more quick and athletic than South Holland Seaton Academy.

The 31-0 undefeated season, the first time in school history an unbeaten record was taken to State, came to an end in the Class 2A State Semifinals. The Sting shot 63 percent from the field in bring Winnebago back down to earth by the score of 83-58 at Carver Arena.

Winnebago (31-1) did shoot a respectable 38.5 percent from the field.

�The big problem we had was stopping their layups and easy shots in the paint,� said Winnebago coach Joe Murphy. �We gave up way too many points in that area.

�We haven't played anybody that has that kind of speed.�

Seaton (30-2) scored the first four points: the first two by Corbin Thomas, and the second bucket by Jordan Walker, who stole the ball from Winnebago's Chuck Misuraca. A Seth Gustafson three-pointer brought the Indians to within one, but Seaton came back with an offensive rebound and score from DJ Cooper to make it a 6-3 game. After Thomas added a bucket, he stole the ball from the Indians court, and passed to Cooper for another bucket.

That's when the Sting started playing the game the way they intended to.

�We told our guys that Winnebago's a great team,� said Seaton coach Ken Stevenson. �We knew we had to come and shoot the ball real well. We didn't come out well, and we got behind a bit.�

Seaton led 24-14 after one quarter. But the Indians caught back up, going on a 6-2 run to close the gap at 26-20 with 5:55 left in the half. Just when the comeback started to take shape, lead scorer Chas Cross was sidelined with three fouls in the first half. Without Cross, Seaton extended their lead to 15 points at halftime, at 44-29.

�That definitely hurt us because he really plays aggressively. That's the first time he's been in foul trouble all year. We need him on the floor with his size.�

With 4:47 left in the third quarter, Winnebago cut the lead down to eight at 52-44, but Cooper and Thomas scored the next eight points to open the gap back up.

�There's two things you can do: come back and work hard, or quit. We wanted to go out and work hard, and we did that. But they have so much athletic talent that it took us more energy to get back in.�

The Sting put the icing on the cake in the fourth quarter as reserve forward Chris Olivier scored all his 12 points in the fourth quarter to compliment the starter's performances. Thomas led the Sting with 19 points, going a perfect nine-for-nine from the field. Khameron Harper scored 17 points, and Cooper had 15. Fifty-eight of Seaton's 83 points were scored in the paint.

�It took the first three minutes to get the jitters out,� said Stevenson. �It's our first time being down here - all of us.�

Cross � who would foul out with 3:37 left in the game � had 11 points. Reserve guard Mike Mann scored 21 points, going eight-for-15 from the field.