Lincoln Park generally doesn’t have the layers of talent that most highly ranked Public League teams enjoy. The Lions have made up for that the last few seasons under coach Pat Gordon by playing with extra fire and passion.
So it’s easy to imagine that the big stage of the Chicago Elite Classic at Wintrust Arena would send Lincoln Park’s game into overdrive. It was the opposite Saturday. The Lions were sluggish and out of sync for various reasons.
It took some timely defense and two clutch free throws from sophomore Chikere Nwosu to give the No. 10 Lions a 49-48 win against Kenwood.
Lincoln Park (6-1) played an overtime game against Westinghouse on Friday night, so it was a quick turnaround. Also, star guards Ismail Habib and Julio Montes were fighting colds.
“[The short turnaround] was tough,” Habib said. “Last night we came out underestimating [Westinghouse] because [leading scorer Devin Davis was out with an injury]. They came out and tried to give it to us, and they did. But we still managed to pull it out just like today.”
Kenwood (3-4) grabbed the lead late in the third quarter and had a 10-point advantage with 4:45 to play. Habib and Miles McGee made consecutive three-pointers to turn the momentum Lincoln Park’s way.
Then the Broncos had a bit of a meltdown, turning the ball over on three of their final four possessions of the game.
“We got out there, and we looked like we hadn’t worked on these things every day in practice,” Kenwood coach Justin Bowen said. “I’m very disappointed.”
That resulted in Nwosu at the foul line with 11 seconds to play and the game on the line. He delivered, making the tying and winning shots.
“I was playing bad the whole game,” Nwosu said. “I couldn’t get anything going. I felt I was letting my teammates down. When I had to take the free throws, I just took a deep breath and relaxed and thought about working on it every day in practice.”
Howard led the Lions with 17 points and eight rebounds. Habib scored 15 points and McGee added eight.
“[Gordon] said we had to speed them up, pressure them, and eventually they would turn the ball over to us, and that is what happened,” Howard said.
Kenwood’s Darnell King, a 6-5 senior, made a name for himself at the event with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Even Howard, a 6-8 senior, admitted that King was “kind of killing me the whole game.”
Roland McCoy, the Broncos’ leading scorer, was the focus of Lincoln Park’s defense. He finished with seven points.
“[Lincoln Park] has good guard play. Those guys are three-year varsity players, so I’m sure they’ve seen a ton of different defense[s],” Bowen said. “They made the necessary adjustments.”
The Lions held Kenwood without a field goal for the final 6:12 of the game. Habib has his eyes on a later time slot in next year’s event.
“We are looking forward to coming back here next year and playing on the bigger stage,” Habib said. “It was a great experience.”