Lincoln Park coach Josh Anderson expected his team to dominate Young on Thursday. So did his players.
“I was trying to blow them out, but that didn’t work,” said junior guard Ahmad Lee.
The Dolphins scored 30 points in the fourth quarter and the game was tied as Lee dribbled in the ball in the final seconds.
“It was isolation and they can’t guard me,” Lee said. “I wanted to get a midrange shot and I knew I could.”
Lee was able to get space for exactly that. He drained a midrange jumper with 3.5 seconds left to put the Lions ahead for good.
“That’s what we wanted,” Anderson said. “He’s my best player and he is going to make the right play and take us home. If he needed to pass he would have done that. I trust him.”
Young had a chance to tie with 1.3 seconds remaining but senior Antonio Munoz missed the second of two free throws and Lincoln Park’s Larry Harris grabbed the rebound.
It wasn’t a blowout, but the No. 10 Lions earned a 74-71 win at No. 17 Young.
“We will settle for beating them,” Lee said.
Lee scored 19 points and Harris had 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Munoz, Young’s star, missed nearly half the game with foul trouble. He checked back in to start the fourth quarter and Lincoln Park attacked him down low, knowing that with four fouls he couldn’t challenge many shots.
Harris scored three crucial post baskets on the final few possessions.
“[Munoz] was a baby and I had to do what I had to do,” Harris said. “He couldn’t really mess with me in the post. He’s just tall.”
Senior Chayse Turner had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Lions and junior Jaylen Dickerson added 12 points.
Lincoln Park (4-0, 1-0 Red Shield) led 49-41 after three quarters. Alijah Little, a Glenbard East transfer playing in his first Public League game, led the Dolphins’ charge back into the game. He made three three-pointers and scored 11 points in the final six minutes of the game.
“[Little] wanted the ball,” Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “He was open earlier and the guys missed him. They found him late, and he delivered. Now he has an opportunity to grow from this.”
Munoz, a 6-6 senior, finished with 12 points and four rebounds in his limited minutes. Junior Marquis Clark led the Dolphins (2-1, 1-0) with 19 points and eight rebounds. Senior Damajay Richardson scored 12 points and Gabe Aragon added 11 for Young.
“The good thing is that is game one in the conference, not game ten,” Slaughter said. “I’m not excited about the loss, but I’m excited about the effort the guys gave.”
Six promising players transferred out of Young this season. But the Dolphins still held their own against one of the best teams in the state.
“My expectations were to blow this out,” Anderson said. “We are better than them. But they put up a good fight. Tyrone Slaughter is a legend. He’s a mentor to me and I look up to him. He’s going to have his guys prepared.”
Both teams play in the Chicago Elite Classic this weekend at Credit Union 1 Arena. Lincoln Park faces No. 16 St. Laurence and the Dolphins take on No. 5 Homewood-Flossmoor.