Michael O’Brien’s notebook: March 13, 2018

Everyone noticed Simeon’s playoff scores, so I guess we should have seen this coming. Robert Smith kept saying his team wasn’t playing well. I can’t remember the score of tonight’s game but I remember the Wolverines only beat Crete-Monee by 11. Then came the legit scares from Brother Rice and Marist.

At one point in the third quarter Young led Simeon by 10 points. That may have been more shocking to me than the Dolphins actually winning the game.

It’s extremely difficult to win the double-digit amount of elimination games necessary to do the double and win city and state. But this Simeon team sure looked like a squad that could do it.

Read all about Young’s upset win over Simeon

Tonight’s games

CLASS 4A

Larkin 53, Benet 46: Exciting times in Elgin. The Royals are making their first trip to state. Pierre Black came off the bench and hit five threes. He scored 18 to lead the way. I went and watched Larkin play Young in Rockford the first week of the season. The Dolphins won in overtime. They could meet again in the state championship game on Saturday.

Evanston 78, Lake Zurich 52: The young Wildkits are heading to Peoria. Jaheim Holden scored 23. Evanston will face Young in the semis. The Dolphins beat them in the supersectional last season.

Belleville West 81, West Aurora 43: Wow. Total destruction of one of the Chicago area’s best teams. Belleville West and EJ Liddell impressed everyone that made the trip to Illinois State.

CLASS 3A

Marian Catholic 49, Metamora 46 OT: Marian Catholic was trailing for a lot of this one but it is finally making a trip to Peoria. Ahron Ulis has now done something his NBA player older brother Tyler never did.

North Chicago 69, Rockford Boylan: The Warhawks! I really like North Chicago basketball, always a fun team to watch. But it always haunts me when I don’t cover a team in the regular season and they make it Peoria. There were about three different times I almost saw them. Oh well.

Morgan Park 71, North Lawndale 59: The Mustangs dominated this one early and then it tightened up. That’s not a shock to anyone that saw the Phoenix play this season. Ayo Dosunmu and Cam Burrell each scored 17. Tamell Pearson, the big man that has had multiple eye surgeries, played his first game of the season.

Springfield Southeast 56, Marion 51: Kobe Medley scored 19 for Southeast, which is expected to be Morgan Park’s biggest threat this weekend.