Anatomy Of A (Near) Upset

The old coaching cliché in basketball circles is that you must take it one game at a time.

But when the pairings for the Class 4A Regional were posted a few weeks ago, it was hard to blame North coach Jeff Powers for shifting one eye toward a potential showdown with the state’s top-ranked team, .

While continuing to prepare his team for the rest of the regular season, Powers got a little outside help trying to pull off the state’s biggest upset. And, that work nearly paid off, as North pushed Benet to the brink Friday before eventually falling, 43-42, in double overtime.

“Coach Powers spent tons of hours preparing for this game and we just had a great game plan,” North senior Matt LaCosse said. “They’re high school kids too, nothing different. We have trust in our coaches. We were that close.”

Outgoing North athletics director Doug Smith is well versed in the game of basketball. In addition to offering his tips, he got Powers in touch with a couple of former downstate coaches from Peoria Manual and Jacksonville to bring their perspectives to the table. Add in a call to his friend, UIC assistant Al Biancalana, and the scouting reports compiled by his staff and the Huskies couldn’t have been more prepared for the game, and it showed.

“I had four good guys to talk to and my staff was unbelievable,” Powers said. “What we did was let the kids play. They played the plan. We neutralized them to the point where maybe if we had made a couple shots early, it could have been a different story. But it was the greatest high school game I’ve ever been a part of.”

The Huskies were deliberate on offense, trying to take the air out of the ball while waiting for the best shot they could find offensively.

Powers used a triangle-and-two defense for much of the game, with Jovonn Griffin hounding sharpshooter Matt Parisi all day and holding him to six points, and no three-pointers. LaCosse and Jon Mengel used all 10 of their fouls to try to slow down 7-foot center Frank Kaminsky. All that led to a game that came down to the final possession, with the ball in North’s hands down by a point.

“We expected them to stall the game like they did and run a triangle-and-two and some junk defenses,” Benet senior Dave Sobolewski said. “We were prepared for it, they just played a really good game and we were lucky enough to make some big plays and stops down the stretch.”

Like Powers said, once the plan was in place, it was up to the players to perform. And as was the case since he came back from a knee injury in early January, it was LaCosse who stepped up. He hit only one three-pointer all season coming into the game. But he drilled threes at the end of regulation and the first overtime to keep the Huskies in the game.

“Those kids played their hearts out,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said of North. “I really admire the way that they played. I have nothing but great things to say about LaCosse. He’s a great athlete and a great kid. He willed them to win tonight, they just came up a little short.”

Powers never runs out of great things to say about LaCosse, but he had the chance to praise the future University of Illinois football player one more time Friday.

“There’s a fire in him,” Powers said. “We’re going to see him on Sundays, fellas, in the NFL, because there’s a heart in there that doesn’t quit.”

Despite the loss, LaCosse wasn’t sad or down about the outcome, knowing that the Huskies did everything they could to pull off the state’s biggest stunner.

“We had the ball in the final seconds with a chance to win the game against the No. 1 team in the state, sixth team in the nation,” LaCosse said. “You can’t ask for anything more than that. I’ve never played in a game quite like that. I’m glad I did, because it was a great experience.”

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