Phillips holds off Williamsville, heads to state championship game

By Dominic Scianna

Phillips hadn’t been downstate to play in the IHSA boys basketball state championships in 47 years, bringing back memories of players like Darius Clemons, Sherrod Arnold, and head coach Herb Brown, who beat Mark Aguirre and Skip Dillard of Westinghouse 77-65 to win the 1977 Chicago Public League Championship. The win vaulted the Wildcats to the downstate finals. Brown won the school’s only IHSA state title two years earlier (1975) defeating Bloom 76-48 in the Class AA championship game.

Phillips (24-9) returned to Champaign Thursday and made the most of its visit with a thrilling finish, holding on to defeat Williamsville High School by a score of 60-56 to set up Saturday’s Class 2A championship game against Benton High School at State Farm Center on the campus of the University of Illinois.

“It’s a new era but the vibe is back among alumni and our fans are behind us,” said Phillips head coach Paris Martin, whose team improved to 24-9 on the season.

The semi-final game was a test of will for both teams and see-sawed back and forth after an even first half of play that saw the Wildcats take a 24-23 lead into intermission. The second half was more of the same, as Phillips clung to a 45-38 lead to begin the fourth quarter. That lead ballooned to 12 points multiple times and with 6:26 to play the score stood at 50-38.

That’s when things got interesting.

Williamsville (26-10) staged a furious fourth-quarter comeback, and with 1:07 to play in regulation, Brecken Thomas finished with a three-point play that cut the margin to one at 54-53. But it would be Phillips’ day, as senior Elijah Harris came off the bench for a huge steal and layup with 19 seconds to play to preserve the win. It would be Harris’ only points of the game, but it was the turning point Phillips needed to close out the Bullets and move on to the IHSA Class 2A championship.

“There’s something about Elijah Harris. He’s made big plays for us all season,” said Martin.

The Bullets wouldn’t quit and there was one final play needed to punctuate the victory for Phillips. Nine seconds remained and the Wildcats came out of their final timeout up two at 58-56 after a 30-foot three-point basket by Williamsville’s Brayden Saling made things interesting with the game still in doubt.

That’s when Coach Martin drew up the final play during his last timeout. It was a long downcourt football pass to E.J. Horton who beat his defender and threw down a thunderous dunk for the game’s final points.

“It’s a great feeling to be here (at the state finals),” admitted Horton. “We’re here to make history.”

Martin knew he had to put the ball in Horton’s hands as the clock wound down and who better than his go-to guy who has been electric for the Wildcats all season.

“He’s the best player in the state (in my mind),” said Martin. “He’s averaging 25 points per game and has really grown as a player. In this game, E.J. got everyone else involved because his shot wasn’t falling early. He only had one point at halftime, and I told him to continue to make the right plays by passing and looking for his opportunities to score and he figured it out.”

The Wildcats junior tandem of Phoenix Childs (21 points) and E.J. Horton (13 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists) led the charge to hold off a game Williamsville squad that cut a late fourth quarter 12-point lead to two points at 58-56 with nine seconds to play. The Bullets had stellar performances from Brayden Saling (21 points) and Carson Kohler (15 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists) in defeat.

Phillips will now play for the title once again.

Can history repeat itself almost 50 years ago to the day for current head coach Paris Martin? He believes it’s a new era and the vibe is back among alumni who are behind this Phillips team much like the great Wildcats teams of years gone by.

“The game plan was to shutdown Horton,” said Saling, Williamsville’s starting junior guard. “We didn’t want to let him get his shot off but he’s a playmaker too and found his guys to make us spread out our 1-3-1 defense. Credit to him (Horton). He’s a really good player.”

Phillips senior starter Michael White, Jr. went down mid-way through the game with an ankle injury and did not return to the contest, but saw his team come together at crunch time.

“This is something new to me and to the team (being downstate at the finals), but we came together as brothers. I knew we were going to come out with the win,” admitted White.

“I’ve got one message, and I said it in there (the press conference) to the media and I told our team – God did this,” said Martin.

Photos by Jack Lydon