Illinois High School Basketball

In the eyes of Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter, there’s no rivalry with Kenwood. His team beat the Broncos 75-62 at UIC to win a 4A Super Sectional, send his team downstate and take bragging rights.

“There is no rivalry,” Slaughter said. “They have no state championships, we have five. They’ve never really beaten us in anything substantive. I don’t know how that ‘rivalry’ has come together.

“As of today, we have shown that we are the superior program, we are the superior team,” Slaughter continued. “Our girls beat their girls in the state playoffs, sent them home. Our boys have done likewise. … There is no rivalry, that myth is over. You have to beat someone to have a rivalry.”

It was an intense, often chaotic rubber match between the city’s top two teams. Young jumped out to a 23-13 lead on a Dalen Davis jumper to beat the first-quarter buzzer. Kenwood clawed back many times, but the early hole was too much to dig out of.

“You can’t come into these games, in the [Super] Sectional final and jump down to a team like Whitney Young,” Kenwood coach Mike Irvin said. “They’re a veteran team, they’ve been there. We started from behind and never could get over that hump.”

Young got contributions from across its veteran stars. Senior forward Xavier Amos had eight points in the first quarter and the first five of the final frame, finishing with 19 points. Senior forward AJ Casey scored 14 points, including six points and an assist over the final 2:34. Junior forward Daniel Johnson added 15 points and nine rebounds.

But the star of the night was Davis, who scored 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, adding seven assists. He hit a number of contested mid-range jumpers and seemed to get to the rim at will for his patented left layups.

“We have the best guard in the city,” Slaughter added.

Whitney Young heads back downstate for the first time since 2017-18, when it finished second. It won its most recent state title the year before, in 2016-17.

“It was our last time here, so we wanted to leave a mark,” Davis said.

Kenwood’s junior stars Darrin Ames and Davius Loury were electric: Ames scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting; Loury scored 16 points and added 11 rebounds. Sophomore big man Calvin Robins scored 12 points and added seven boards.

But 13 turnovers and 3-16 shooting from beyond the arc cost the Broncos. Senior and Nevada commit Trey Pettigrew went 3-for-10 from the field. Fellow senior and backcourt starter Darius Robinson went scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting.

The Broncos project to return several top-rated players in their respective classes to a team that went further in the playoffs than any in program history.

“Next year, with what we have coming back, we should be in position to be No. 1 in the state,” Irvin said.