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York finishes against West Chicago

York guard Jack Julian made nothing of replacing a Dukes starter before tipoff after an official removed him for having a visible logo on his undershirt.

"I've been starting all year, so nothing different," Julian said.

Finishing, too. Julian scored York's last basket on a high post feed from Ryan Camp and made the decisive free throw with 41 seconds left in a 38-37 victory over West Chicago in Wednesday's Class 4A Lyons Twp. regional semifinal in LaGrange.

No. 6 seed York (18-12) advanced to Friday's regional final against No. 3 Naperville North (23-4) - a rematch of the Jack Tosh Holiday Tournament final York won 45-40.

"We just had to keep battling," said Julian, who scored 8 points to 11 for York's Jack Morrissey and 10 from Pat Grabowski.

"That (Mikey) Bibbs was on fire, so we just had to contain him and make some big plays down the stretch. Hopefully next time we'll make some free throws, too."

Trailing 38-34, No. 11 seed West Chicago (22-7) pulled within a point with 10.5 seconds left on a 3 by Jason Gimre, fresh off the bench.

York then missed two successive 1-and-1 free-throw situations. Freshman Nick Kosich's steal after the first maintained York possession, but the Wildcats gained it the next time.

With 2.3 seconds left Quinn Ricci inbounded to 10-point scorer Tai Bibbs, who missed a contested midcourt heave.

"You've just got to grind some games out and that's what we did tonight," said York coach Vince Doran. "They're a good team, there's a reason why they won 20-some games. We were fortunate enough to make a few more plays than them."

Mikey Bibbs made most of West Chicago's. He scored 22 points with six 3-pointers, one from the top of the key for a 26-24 Wildcats lead at 4:17 of the third quarter.

Three minutes later Morrissey threw up a prayer shot with a defender draped all over him. It clanked in, he converted the three-point play and York never trailed again.

"Would have been happy if we won," said Wildcats junior Devonte Pascal, "but we came out with a tough loss. Just got to come back next year and be stronger than this year."

That would mean improving upon a group that tied a program victories mark and won the Upstate Eight Valley for West Chicago's first boys basketball conference title in its 113-year history.

"All these kids have been four-year program guys, these seven seniors, even the guys that didn't get in tonight," Recchia said. "Four-year program guys and they dedicated themselves to making this program better and bringing this program to a different level, and that's what they've done."

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