Simeon threw Isaiah Coleman into the fire last season. The Wolverines don’t have a traditional big man, so the 6-5 Coleman became the key defender against any opponent with size.
Coleman held his own as a sophomore and is now excelling as a junior this season. His defensive effort on Lane’s 6-10 senior Dalton Scantlebury was the key to No. 17 Simeon’s 72-62 road win on Tuesday.
“I just had to fight with him,” Coleman said. “He’s big and strong so it is about heart. I had to keep battling with him and be aggressive.”
Coleman spent the last two years battling in practice against one of the state’s best post players in the past two decades: Simeon coach Tim Flowers.
“[Flowers] is definitely still good,” Coleman said. “He gets me sometimes. That’s training me for these moments.”
Scantlebury finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
“What I love about Isaiah is he’s one of the toughest kids mentally and physically,” Flowers said. “He just wants to win and help the team. And he loves these kinds of matchups.”
Simeon’s ballhandlers dominated the game. The Wolverines (16-6, 7-2 Red Shield) controlled the ball and got the shot they wanted on most possessions.
Junior Andre Tyler led Simeon with 23 points and six rebounds. Senior Lorenzo Shields had 20 points and seven rebounds and Julien Doyle added 18 points and six rebounds.
“We knew we had to be strong with the ball,” Flowers said. “[Lane’s Nick LoGalbo] can coach his butt off.”
Lane (13-10, 6-4) has three players taller than 6-7 in the starting lineup, but Simeon won the battle on the boards 28-26. The Wolverines led by more than 20 points for most of the second half.
“We talk about playing 32 minutes and we only played 25,” Flowers said. “We have to get better. We were missing Armon Augustus and Kassidy Nelson with an illness but that still isn’t good enough.”
Drew Bartolai led Lane with 28 points and 6-8 senior Zach Mazanowski added 12 points.
Simeon has been out of the spotlight since the holidays. The Wolverines were upset by Crete-Monee in mid-January and spent last weekend at a shootout in Quincy with some of the best teams in the country. Simeon defeated Quincy Notre Dame and then lost to a team from Omaha.
“I really like the shootout [in Quincy],” Flowers said. “This was our second year there. We turned around in that second game and just didn’t have the legs. But it was a good experience for us. We want to try to win the city. We want to try to win state. That prepared us for it.”
The Wolverines host Westinghouse on Thursday and are at Curie on Friday in their final regular season game. The Public League playoffs begin on Tuesday.
Lane had a successful January overall with wins against Young and New Trier. The Champions close out the regular season with home games against Hyde Park and Schurz this week.