Gators fade late

Crystal Lake South's Tyler Dawson (right) puts up a shot over Jefferson's Mike Chisamore during the second half of Friday's IHSA Class 4A regional final in Crystal Lake. Jefferson won, 57-44. (Travis Haughton — thaughton@nwherald.com)

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CRYSTAL LAKE – Host Crystal Lake South stayed close throughout its IHSA Class 4A Regional title game, but top-seeded Jefferson pulled away late for a 57-44 boys basketball victory Friday.

“We didn’t expect to just come here and play the game, we expected to win tonight,” South junior Tyler Dawson (10 points, five rebounds) said.

Jefferson (22-7) advances to play Bartlett on Wednesday in a Boylan Sectional semifinal in Rockford. Boylan and Barrington meet Tuesday in the other semifinal.

Early on, the third-seeded Gators appeared capable of upsetting the J-Hawks, as they matched Jefferson on the scoreboard most of the first half. The Gators shot 10 for 18 from the field during the first two quarters and were tied with the J-Hawks, 21-21, with two minutes to play in the half.

However, South (15-12) was victimized by back-to-back three-pointers during the final two minutes of the half by Jefferson sophomore guard Laterrion Davis (game-high 19 points), who came off the bench to finish 5 for 6 from behind the arc. South trailed at halftime, 27-21.

In the third quarter, South cut Jefferson’s lead to one, 32-31, with 4:33 remaining, but the J-Hawks closed the quarter on an 8-2 run. The Gators trailed by six with 5:45 to go in the game, thanks to a three-pointer by junior guard Ethan Breitenstein (eight points), but came no closer.

“Coach (Dan DeBruycker) said he’s never coached a team as hardworking as we were this season,” Breitenstein said. “One of our goals was to improve every day, which we did.”

Alex Macaulay, the only senior on South’s roster, finished with a team-high 11 points – nine coming in the second half. With less than two minutes to play in the game, Macaulay was replaced, and as he walked to the bench, his coach whispered in his ear.

“I told (Alex) thank you, it was that simple,” DeBruycker said. “Being the only senior on the team this year, he was put in a very difficult spot and handled it exceptionally well.”

After the game, several of South’s players talked about how they felt they could be one of the favorites in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division next season, since they will lose only one player to graduation.

“It’s going to be tough to replace Alex, but I really think we’ll do well in our conference next year, and could be a team to beat,” Dawson said. “A loss like this definitely will motivate us more and push us to work that much harder.”