NCHS Wins Tournament With Last Shot

BLOOMINGTON — Normal Community and Rock Island each had potential game-winning shots go in Tuesday night.

Rock Island’s didn’t stay in.

Jason Jones’ contested perimeter shot went deep inside the cylinder at Shirk Center, rattled around and popped out at the buzzer.

That meant Alex Peacock’s impromptu coast-to-coast drive and layup a few seconds earlier stood up as the difference in a 55-54 NCHS victory for the State Farm Holiday Classic large school bracket championship.

“When he (Jones) shot it I didn’t think it had a chance, but as the ball got closer to the rim it looked a lot better,” NCHS coach Dave Witzig said. “We’re thankful the ball bounced away.”

A 3-pointer by Jones put second-seeded Rock Island (12-2) ahead for the first time at 54-53 with 13.8 seconds left. Following a timeout, the 6-foot-7 Peacock took the inbounds pass and began driving up the court.

“We were going to get it in and run a play. But I saw that nobody was guarding me so I knew what coach always tells me to do … take it right to the basket and see what happens,” Peacock said.

“They were backed off really far. I felt like a little point guard just taking it all the way to the hole.”

Peacock drove into the lane and banked in a layup over two defenders with 5.6 seconds to go. After a Rock Island timeout, Jones nearly hit his shot with two defenders in his face.

“It looked good and it went halfway down and my heart just sunk,” Peacock said.

“I thought it looked good and obviously it was the guy who had the hot hand,” Rocks’ coach Thom Sigel said of Jones, who scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half. “Sometimes that basket looks a little bigger, but I guess it wasn’t quite big enough.”

Peacock’s drive gave him a game-high 19 points, including a conventional three-point play with 1:34 left after Rock Island cut a 45-35 deficit to 48-47.

His final basket provided the top-seeded Ironmen (11-0) with their third one-point win over the Rocks in the past year.

“We wanted to attack the basket,” Witzig said. “That wasn’t exactly the play we had, but that’s just a senior making a big play in a big moment.”

Sigel said he would have preferred to foul Peacock once he got into the lane.

“It was a challenged layup, but I’d like to have seen him earn it at the line,” Sigel said. “We kind of backed off. But credit them for making it.”

NCHS led 12-2 early and 12-5 after one quarter. The Rocks pulled to within 19-15 at the half before both teams heated up in the third quarter. Rock Island sank 8 of 11 from the field and NCHS 9 of 12.

“No disrespect to Normal because they have a great team, but it took us a while to wake up,” Sigel said. “We were sleepwalking. We weren’t real focused and you can’t do that against a real good team.”

Montana State recruit Tyler Hall added 12 points for Rock Island.

Peacock grabbed 11 rebounds to go with his 19 points, while 6-8 Elon recruit Tyler Seibring had 17 points and nine rebounds. They helped NCHS earn its fifth Classic title and first since 2011.

Hall, Peacock and Seibring were joined on the all-tournament team by Peter Hanley of Peoria Notre Dame, Oliver Stephen of Edwardsville and Kaliph Fagan of Thornwood.