Jackson, Young complete four-peat, take down Kenwood in city title game

By Michael Wojtychiw

Some things in life just come full circle.

For the Whitney Young girls basketball team and coach Krissy Harper, that encompassed two things.

When senior Destiny Jackson was a freshman, she and Harper talked about winning a city championship in each of Jackson’s four seasons.

And following a 42-point outburst in the title game, she did just that as the Dolphins defeated Kenwood 72-61 Saturday evening at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena.

“This means everything,” Jackson said. “When I got here, the goal was to win state championships, city championships. To know I was able to accomplish one of those goals as soon as I stepped into Whitney Young, it means a lot to me.

“[Harper] has always believed in me. So when we win, I go to her, I’m doing it for her.”

“Destiny and I have talked about winning four straight title since she came in as a freshman,” Harper said. “For that moment to be realized, it was amazing.

“Last year, we didn’t get a chance to see each other (after the game) because of the chaos. But with about five seconds left in the game, we locked eyes and we just started walking toward each other. That was beautiful.”

With their fourth consecutive city title, the Dolphins become the first team to win four straight city titles since the Dolphins did so between 2009-2016 under the guidance of legendary high school coach and current Chicago State University women’s basketball coach Corry Irvin.

Harper, a Whitney Young alumna, won back-to-back titles under Irvin two years prior to the Dolphins’ run but felt this game was even more special because her former coach was in attendance to watch her former program win.

“Coach Corry and I won two together when I transferred here,” Harper said. “To be able to win four straight in front of her, I mean…Jesus.

“We had a quick conversation at halftime. She gave me a few pointers, which of course I implemented. Why would I not ask my coach ‘Hey do you see anything?’ To be able to do this in front of her, that means a lot to me.

“I didn’t know she was coming, so when I looked over across the sideline, I thought ‘This has to be it.'”

The Broncos got off to a hot start, knocking down three of their first four shots, as well as five of their first seven free throws to get out to an 11-3 lead with just under five-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first period.

However, down 13-7, the Dolphins went on a 12-0 run to give themselves a 19-13 lead off of a Jackson 3-pointer with a minute, 17 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.

They wouldn’t trail again.

One thing the Broncos were able to do consistently was get to the free throw line, getting the Dolphins into foul trouble early in each quarter. The game ended up being a physical one, with a combined seven players fouling out.

Down 10 at the half, senior Ariella Henigan put it on herself to will her team back.

The Howard University commit scored 20 of her team’s 24 third-quarter points, helping her team cut the lead to single digits going into the final period. She got to the line 14 times in the third quarter alone, finishing 18-of-24 from the charity stripe en route to a 27-point performance.

“We shot 44 free throws, but we have to be better at the free-throw line,” Kenwood coach Andre Lewis said. “We usually shoot seventy-five to eighty percent from the line and we didn’t do that today. If we did, it might be a different outcome/”

But that’s when the Dolphins got a boost from an unexpected source: Kiaya Johnson.

The senior was making her season debut in the the city title game after missing the rest of the season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament last spring. She scored four quick points to start the quarter, extending the Dolphins’ lead back to double digits, 60-49.

“Not gonna lie, I was nervous,” Johnson said. “But my teammates kept reminding me I have it, and I kept telling myself, ‘I just need one.’ When I saw the first one go in, I was good.”

“For her, she just needed to see that first one go in,” Harper said. “After she saw that, it upstarted her confidence. From there, it was just KJ.”

After Henigan scored to cut the lead down to 66-61 with 58.1 seconds remaining, the Dolphins converted 6-of-8 free throws to put the game away and secure the program’s 17th city title, all in the last 30 years.

“I can finally say that all four years I was in the city, nobody could beat my teams,” Jackson said. “That’s real big, and I’m gonna cherish that forever, being able to say that.”

Photos by Sydney Gaietto, Amundsen senior (IG: snapshots.bysid)