A successful first step for Stevenson
The journey back to the state finals officially began on Tuesday for the Stevenson boys basketball team.
Unofficially, it began almost a full year ago.
The Patriots have been intent on returning to Peoria ever since they lost in Peoria. That was back in mid-March of 2014 to Whitney Young in the Class 4A state semifinals.
They've spent the entire off-season and all of the recently completed regular season waiting for this year's IHSA tournament to get underway. They desperately want another shot at a state championship.
Stevenson took the first step on its own floor with a breezy 79-38 victory over Maine East in the opening round of regional play.
"We've been so focused on this year's tournament ever since the last game last year. That loss to Whitney Young … we never want to experience that feeling again," said Stevenson guard Connor Cashaw, who poured in a game-high 27 points. "We're very excited."
Stevenson, which improved to 24-3, has been to the state finals for the last two years. The Patriots finished third last year and as the state runners-up in 2013.
Knowing what it takes to make a deep run into the tournament, coach Pat Ambrose was looking for some very specific results out of his team in its tournament opener.
The Patriots, who forced 16 Maine East turnovers, were up 24-10 at the end of the first quarter, and pushed that to 20 points by halftime. The closest Maine East got after that was 9 points.
"We're looking for sharper things, at this point running all of our stuff not perfectly, but very, very well," Ambrose said. "We didn't all the time (tonight). It's a little disappointing, but it's the first game and I think I can remind them that it gets tougher from here on out. You can't have lapses mentally or physically like we did tonight sometimes."
Maine East coach Dave Genis probably didn't notice many of Stevenson's lapses. He was impressed with the Patriots' balance, which yielded double-figures from four players. Besides Cashaw, who is headed to Rice next season, point guard Jalen Brunson (Villanova) finished with 18 points while reserve Ryuji Aoki and Matt Johnson finished with 12 and 10 points respectively. Aoki scored all of his points on 4 three-pointers.
"They just have a lot and it's a whole team," said Genis, whose team closes out the season with a 12-16 record. "There's so much balance there. I think it had to have taken a monumental effort by Simeon (the only team in Illinois to defeat Stevenson this season) to be able to beat these guys. I don't know if (Simeon) could re-create that. Stevenson is so deep and so physical it's easy to see why they're one of the top teams in the nation."
Maine East got a team-high 21 points from senior Ezeka Omeke, who will be playing at Wisconsin-Oshkosh next season.
"Stevenson is so athletic and big and they just keep bringing people in, athletic people," Omeke said. "We don't have all that athleticism, so it's kind of hard.
"But there's so much I could say about this group. I really love this team. My four years here on varsity, this is the best team I've had here by far."