Final score-
Peoria Manual 41
Lincon-Way West 45
Manual kept shooting from the perimeter, and missing (1-14 from three, the only one made was by A.J. Youngman in the first half), allowing LWW to hang close. Then some clutch baskets late by LWW while Manual went cold put them ahead. Then LWW went into a 4-corners offense, and Manual was several fouls short of sending them to the line, so they never could get a chance to pull even. A.J. Youngman made a couple nice moves to the basket, but his perimeter shooting was off and it hurt Manual. Da'Monte Williams was mysteriously invisible all game. LWW zoned the whole game, and the Manual coaches could not figure out a solution.
Congratulations to Manual on a great season. And they have a ton of talent returning next season, so they should be even better!
Unranked Lincoln-Way West has beaten Chicago Morgan Park and now Manual.
They will be big underdogs again tomorrow against the winner of Westchester St. Joseph vs. Belleville Althoff, but they have smart kids and are well coached, and they just need to win one more. Maybe they could do it?