By Michael Wojtychiw
Simeon coach Robert Smith admitted that last summer, after his squad had had a couple of rough outings in summer shootouts and tournaments, not much was expected out of his 2021-22 squad.
“When we started this in June, nobody gave us a chance,” he said. “We went 0-4 at Riverside-Brookfield and everyone was like ‘if this is the year you’re going to beat Simeon, you better get them.’
“But we got together as a group and we knew from the start that once we got to practice and guys bought into what we wanted to do, it’d be fine. This has been our goal to get to this point.”
The people that doubted the Wolverines look foolish now after Simeon took down Lemont 52-47 in the Class 3A Super-Sectional at Credit Union 1 Arena Monday evening.
Lemont might have had their dream run to the super sectional end with a five-point loss, but if one was to just look at the first quarter, they’d have thought it’d be much more because Simeon came out on fire.
Miles and Wesley Rubin scored four points apiece as the Wolverines raced out to a 13-0 lead before Lemont could even settle into its first super sectional game in school history.
“We thought we could change up defenses with them, a little man-to-man, a little zone and then we ended up going more zone because of their size,” Lemont coach Rick Runaas said. “Then it becomes difficult to rebound.
“I told Coach Smith it’s nice to see a team that was big, play big. Everyone wants to play a certain way, but when you’re big, take advantage.”
The Wolverines were making their first Super-Sectional appearance since the 2018-19 season and first as a member of Class 3A since 2007-08, when they finished second in the state, losing the title game to rival CPS member Marshall.*
“This is going to be a great experience for us,” Smith said. “These guys have never been downstate and don’t know what it feels like. We talked about it about a month ago to get the feel and prepare them for what it’s going to be like in college, so it’s going to be an eye-opener for us.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us. We want to be competitive, go down there and finish the job. I told the guys ‘Enjoy the moment right now but stay locked in.’”
And to get the win, they used their inside presence to not only pull out the win, but also keep Lemont’s top players, namely Nojus Indrusaitis in check.
The Rubins, who both stand 6-8, had a four-inch height advantage on Indrusaitis and center Patrick Gardner, Lemont’s two tallest players. They and their teammates used that advantage to outrebound their opponents 26-18 and hold a 32-14 points in the paint differential.
“We just wanted to limit him (Indrusaitis), chase him out to the three-point line, make him put the ball down a little bit,” Aviyon Morris said. “He’s a great player, so we knew what he could do and we tried to maintain him as possible.”
Even though the Wolverines held a 40-28 lead going into the final period, Lemont showed why it was a team that had been able to come back from double-digit deficits earlier in its playoff run.
Simeon committed only eight turnovers on the night, but five of them came in the fourth quarter as Lemont mounted its comeback. Down 42-30, Lemont slowly chipped away at the Simeon lead and putting its press on the Wolverines to frustrate them.
Mission accomplished as the press forced Simeon to turn the ball over on a 10-second call when it couldn’t get the ball across midcourt and then another when the Wolverines couldn’t inbound the ball in the allotted five seconds.
Two free throws by Castillo with a minute, 27 seconds remaining cut the lead down to 48-45 and two more by Indrusaitis with 33.9 seconds left made it 50-47. Lemont had a great opportunity to tie when Indrusaitis intercepted a ball deep in the backcourt on the ensuing inbounds pass, but Lemont would return the favor and throw the ball away, allowing Jalen Griffin to ice the game with two free throws.
“I was just thinking about shooting those free throws down the stretch,” Miles Rubin said. “I shoot a lot of free throws every day and that prepared me for this moment.”
“I told the kids, the first thing in the locker room was that I loved that they had the audacity to think they were going to win this game,” Runaas said. “There was never any doubt, they weren’t afraid of anybody, they want to play good teams and I think they cherish the moment.
“We’ll learn from it and these guys coming back are going to be hungry and learn from it.”
Miles Rubin led all scorers with 22 points and added seven rebounds, while Michael Ratliff added nine points and five rebounds and Wesley Rubin grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five assists. Matas Castillo led Lemont with 16 points, while Indrusaitis added 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting.
The Wolverines face off against Metamora in the semi-finals on Friday and will be looking for their eighth state title and first since 2012-13.
*As a 4A class member, Simeon last won a Super-Sectional in the 2016-2017 season where they finished in second place in State.
