PEORIA — While Alex Peacock filled a familiar leading-man role in the Class 4A state semifinals, Normal Community High School’s guards were happy to be supporting actors in a real-life thriller at Carver Arena on Friday night.
David Boyd, Tyler Vance and Duane Farrington each made small, but key contributions to a 38-36 win over Geneva.
The 6-foot-1 Boyd finished with a game-high nine rebounds to go with four steals and five points including a layup to force a 32-32 tie with 2:11 to go. Vance added two points, two assists and one steal while Farrington had three points.
“David is a wide receiver in football so he is used to getting banged around and hit in there,” said NCHS coach Dave Witzig. “Nine boards is a lot of rebounds with all the big bodies out there. He’s a tough competitor.
“He got a steal and made a great left-hand layup to tie the game (at 32). We played a great last 2 minutes, 30 seconds.”
Vance wasn’t bothered that the referees allowed rough play.
“I feel like it definitely makes it easier,” he said. “Coach knows I’m a defensive back at heart. I like to try to steal the ball as much as I can.”
Vance penetrated to get a layup attempt on the glass where Alex Peacock put it back for the winning basket with 2.8 seconds left.
“I thought Tyler did a great job on their point guard to make it tough,” added Witzig.
The No. 5-state ranked Ironmen (33-1), coming off a 64-50 super-sectional upset of No. 1 Chicago Simeon, will face Lincolnshire Stevenson (29-3) for the state title at 8:15 p.m. Saturday.
“We have seen some film on them, but obviously we were really focused on Geneva,” Witzig said. “It’s not just Jalen Brunson. He could score 40 points tomorrow night. We know that, but they have so many different weapons and they shoot the 3 ball and they are very athletic and rebound well.
“It’s going to be a great matchup. It’s a great challenge for us.”
No. 9 Geneva (30-4), which suffered losses to Elgin Larkin, Naperville Neuqua Valley and St. Charles East, was making its Final Four debut.
“That was a tough way to lose a game,” said Geneva coach Phil Ralston. “I thought our kids played absolutely tremendous defense tonight. We had a few breakdowns here and there, but we ran into a team that played great defense on us.”
Geneva’s 36 points were 10 below its previous season low.
“They had to make a great play there at the end, throwing it off of the glass and having Peacock finish like that was a heck of a play,” Ralston said. “I thought we would have time to run a play full-court. There at the end they closed down all of our options.”
NCHS, which placed fourth in 2011, didn’t look like a title game qualifier while being outscored, 12-5, in the second quarter. Bogging things down were six turnovers including three by the otherwise impressive Peacock, who finished with 16 points.
The turnover bug returned to open the fourth quarter as NCHS gave Geneva four extra possessions the first 3:36 as the Vikings pulled into a 29-29 tie.
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