Chris Watkins steps into the spotlight as Kenwood survives New Trier

It may be tempting to paint Kenwood as a high school basketball villain. The Broncos’ eligibility scandal put all their wins over the last three seasons into doubt. Kenwood’s cheating took opportunities away from other Chicago kids and hurt teams all over the state.

It’s too late to change that now. But that’s no reason to hold anything against the current Kenwood team. It’s a group of quality kids worth rooting for. Two of those kids, Chris Watkins and Aleks Alston, combined to provide the key moment in the No. 3 Broncos’ 69-66 win at New Trier’s City/Suburban Deep Dish MLK Classic on Monday.

Watkins is an excellent student and a four-year Kenwood player. He’s easily the least well-known player in coach Joe Mason’s rotation. But he’s worked his way into the starting lineup.

Alston, a talented 6-9 senior, made the play. He took a dribble with his right hand, broke through two defenders, and whipped a pass with his left hand to Watkins in the corner. Watkins made the three to give Kenwood (19-1) a 67-66 lead with 18 seconds left.

“It was a combination of instinct and practice,” Watkins said. “I knew I had to shoot it and I got a good result.”

“Just trust,” Alston said. “When Chris is wide open I’m going to give it to him. He works hard every day in practice getting his shots in that corner. I knew that moment he would be ready.”

Alston had 15 points and six rebounds. Watkins scored eight. Senior guard Amare Edwards led the Broncos with 18 points. Sophomore Devin Cleveland scored 14 and senior TJ Seals added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

“[Watkins] is an extremely hard worker so it is only fitting that he comes up in a big moment like this,” Mason said. “He listens to the coaches and does what we ask of him. It’s only right that this happens for him.”

Alston has been on the recruiting radar of college coaches for most of his life. He’s lived with the ups and downs of heavy expectations and is now playing his best basketball.

“It’s just getting comfortable and cutting out the outside noise,” Alston said. “Every single day there is someone saying something negative to me. I’m 17 years old, about to be 18. Now I’ve matured enough to block that out and just play basketball, the game that I love.”

Kenwood is the only team that has beaten No. 1 DePaul Prep this season. The Broncos’ only loss was on the road to Rich in the Big Dipper Holiday Tournament semifinals.

Junior Christopher Kirkpatrick led New Trier (16-6) with 26 points and eight rebounds. Junior Danny Houlihan added 25 points and senior Colby Smith scored 11.

“There were a couple of rebounds we had to go get and we didn’t,” New Trier coach Scott Fricke said. “And we had some really good looks in the fourth quarter that we didn’t make.”

The Trevians led by nine at halftime. Kenwood took its first lead of the second half on a three-pointer from Cleveland with 5:40 left in the game.

“We probably played one of our best games at Deerfield on Friday,” Fricke said. “Then we played maybe our worst game on Saturday against Lane. And today we could have won, the game was in our favor. It’s going to make us better. We are playing a lot of good teams.”

Bolingbrook handles Benet

Benet guard Blake Fagbemi managed to contain Bolingbrook star sophomore Davion Thompson during the second quarter.

It was an impressive feat and helped the No. 10 Redwings build a nine-point halftime lead.

Thompson got loose in the second half. He scored 14 in the fourth quarter and finished with 25 points and eight rebounds to lead the No. 4 Raiders to a 64-53 win in the opener of the event.

Senior JT Pettigrew added 18 points and 10 rebounds and senior Kendall Cutler finished with 12 points for Bolingbrook (20-2).

Fagbemi led Benet (18-4) with 17 points.