Uplift speaks up, stops Warren

When chants of "red, red, red" were coming non-stop from the Chicago Uplift bench, the Warren boys basketball team might have felt like it was slipping into a black hole.

Quite often, there was seemingly no way out of Uplift's trapping full-court pressure.

"It's something that all the teams in the (Chicago Public League) Red North do when they play defense," Uplift junior guard Demarius Jacobs said of Uplift's conference. "It brings up energy. And you're trying to knock off the other team.

"They (the bench players) are pumping us up when they say it. If the other team breaks the press, the bench guys will dial it down. But if it's working, the bench guys say it more and more."

The Uplift bench players had their vocal chords working overtime on Saturday. Uplift's pressure gave Warren fits, and paved the way to a 72-53 win. With the victory, Uplift, the defending Class 2A state champion, moved to 5-0 in the Mundelein Thanksgiving tournament and claimed the first-place trophy.

Warren, which was forced into 19 turnovers, including 14 in the pivotal third quarter, finished the tournament with a 2-3 record.

"We made a lot of quick turnovers right at the beginning of the third quarter," said Warren sophomore guard Branden Ellis, who scored 13 points and had three 3-pointers. "They completely switched up (the intensity) of their press and you just felt like it was us against everybody else. We weren't playing as a team, whereas they would get steals or we would turn the ball over and their whole bench was into it and chanting."

The chanting hit its peak in the third quarter.

Uplift was clinging to a 27-24 halftime lead but took its full-court press, which was token in the first half, to a different level. The Blue Devils were flustered and frustrated into countless mistakes and Uplift started the quarter on a 22-4 run.

"In the first half, we were trying to press and it didn't work well because we weren't aggressive about trapping near half court and we were doing a real poor job of getting back (into half-court defense)," Uplift coach David Taylor said. "But in the second half, we were very aggressive about trapping and very good about sprinting back and that got us going in the open court and that's really our game.

"If we can create turnovers and get out in the open court, we think that's to our advantage."

Uplift was up by as many as 25 points in the third quarter and took a 51-35 lead into the fourth quarter.

"We didn't handle the pressure very well," Warren coach Jon Jasnoch said. "We got out of what we wanted to do, guys were forgetting where to go. We have a very simple press break and simple concepts. But guys weren't getting to the spots and it put them in great positions to trap us. We basically did everything they wanted us to do. We didn't react very well. We need to learn from that."

Warren was led in scoring by senior guard Pierre Bailey, who had 17 points. The Blue Devils also got 8 points apiece out of Maurice Chambers and Jayson Dorsey. Chambers was named to the all-tournament team.

Jacobs, a key reserve on Uplift's state championship team last year, was named the most valuable player of the tournament. With all five starters from that team having graduated, he is now the Titans' leader.

"I think I did pretty good in the tournament," Jacobs said. "I think my pull-up jumper was pretty good. Coach kept telling me to look for it.

"We think we have a good team. We want to go back downstate."

Uplift's new-look roster has plenty of talent, starting with Jacobs' little brother Davarion. Davarion, a freshman guard, finished with 18 points against Warren. Meanwhile, sophomore forward Toraze Dobbs scored 17 points. Both Davarion Jacobs and Dobbs made the all-tournament team.