If it was payback, and it was, what exactly was it payback for? Like many feuds, the rivalry between King and Westinghouse in boys basketball seems to go back beyond anyone’s clear memory. When King defeated previously unbeaten Westinghouse for the Public League title two Sundays ago at the Pavilion, was it revenge for the Jaguars’ overtime loss to the Warriors earlier in the season–or a long-overdue answer to 1992, the year a Kiwane Garris Westinghouse team upset a heavily favored Rashard Griffith King squad? Whatever, the game was a classic confrontation in a timeless rivalry, and if in the end it only proved the conventional wisdom “in the rematch, bet on Goliath,” it was nevertheless great sport.
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If that was supposed to sow self-doubt in Westinghouse, it only made the Warriors more determined in the semifinals. By the time I arrived at the game, fashionably late and in a festive mood after attending a bas mitzvah, Westinghouse led Julian 41-26 with four minutes left in the first half. The Warriors were on a 100-point pace, and their best players–guard David Bailey and forward Cedrick Banks–were putting on a clinic. Bailey did a little shimmy outside, then stopped and popped a three from the top of the key to make the lead 20 at 48-28. It was 55-32 at intermission, and all the Julian band could offer as a response was a brassy version of “That Old Time Religion.” In the second half, Bailey faked a three from the same spot on the floor and pulled the ball down straight into a between-the-legs dribble, driving past his frozen opponent for a lovely little lay-in kissed off the backboard. “Look at that shorty I was telling you about!” gushed a father sitting in front of me in the upper deck, there with his wife and their four kids. Only five-foot-eight, Bailey has an erect, proud carriage and a flashy dribbling style. By contrast, Banks, at six-foot-two, prowls relatively low to the ground with his head out front, surveying all with distrust. But he has tentaclelike arms and is a tenacious defender in the paint in spite of his height disadvantage. He and Bailey both ended the game with 27 points in a 90-64 final. Yet there was something distasteful in the Warriors’ take-no-prisoners style. Up 60-38 in the second half, Head was still calling on his team to press, and Bailey and Banks played into the final minutes. Was this wise, given that they’d be playing for the city title only 24 hours later? There was even a little of that attitude in the Westinghouse cheerleaders, who after a Julian player missed the first of two free throws would call out “Fool!” and then chant “Replay, replay!”
Yet when Sawyer was sent back in early in the second quarter with the score 14-8, King began to play more fluidly. Double-teamed in the post, Smith repeatedly found Thomas open across the lane, and displaying a deliberate, elbow-out, left-handed shooting style in which he seemed to line up each shot with a protractor, Thomas knocked down basket after basket with ease. Sawyer came down on a fast break and, seeming to toss an alley-oop pass to nobody, lofted a shot up and straight through the hoop, swish, to cut the Simeon lead to 18-16. That seemed to give King a shot of confidence, and the Jags took the lead 22-21 at the half. Just before the buzzer Sawyer dragged down a slightly overlong pass on a fast break near the baseline and, without turning, tossed a blind alley-oop pass over his shoulder to the trailing Demetrius Williams, who was so shocked he missed the layup. That kept the full-house crowd of about 8,000 buzzing well into the intermission.
Cox wasn’t a whole lot more sporting in the end, repeating his assertion that Westinghouse had peaked early and that “titles aren’t won in November or December” after King had claimed the Public League championship with a 59-39 victory. Of course it turned out that King also peaked early, leaving its best game in Chicago and losing big to eventual state champion St. Joseph in the semifinals in Peoria last Saturday. Still, for one 32-minute stretch of the season King had been seized by inspiration to play up to its ability against its archrival, while Westinghouse played its worst game of the year. There’s no arguing with the outcome, and all bragging rights are surrendered to King–until next year, anyway. Give Goliath his due; he earned this one.
