March 25, 2025
Sports

Boys Basketball: Nick Kosich hits the spot for York, leads Dukes to Jack Tosh final

Dukes overcome injury to Nate Shockey to beat St. Laurence 63-38

By BOB NARANG

York's Nicholas Kosich (3) makes a basket in the fourth quarter Dec. 27 while being defended by Stagg on the second day of play of the 45th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic held at York High School in Elmhurst. (David Toney)

ELMHURST – York senior guard Nick Kosich slowly weaved around a few teammates to find his spot amid the halftime huddle on Saturday.

Standing to the left of York coach Vince Doran, Kosich had the ideal spot to hear any last-minute instructions for the second half.

Earlier in the second quarter, junior point guard Nate Shockey suffered a left ankle injury that forced him to miss the rest of the game. Due to Shockey’s injury, Kosich is slated to take on a bigger share of the ballhandling duties for the Dukes.

The Dukes managed to cruise to a 63-38 win over St. Laurence in the semifinals of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic. York (13-1) advance to play Downers Grove South in Monday’s 3 p.m. title game.

Sam Walsh scored a game-high 18 points and Erik Cohn added 14 for the Dukes. Kosich buried two 3-pointers to finish with 10 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists.

But the potential loss of Shockey cast a damper on York’s happiness over the possibility of winning their first Tosh title since 2015. After the game, Shockey said he “heard a crack” but didn’t know how he injured his ankle. Shockey said he was scheduled for X-rays on Saturday night.

Doran said he wasn’t sure on the extent of Shockey’s injury.

“He said he heard a crack, so that’s not good,” Doran said. “You just hope it’s not as bad as you think. He’s a great kid. He was playing so well for us. His teammates really stepped up when he went out of the game… They stepped up and won it for him.”

Once Shockey left the game, Kosich played the lead guard role on the majority of the possessions. After suffering two major injuries in his sophomore and junior seasons that caused him to miss two straight entire AAU seasons, Kosich is healthy and a major contributor for the one-loss Dukes.

But he can empathize with Shockey.

“I wanted to go over there and help him and hope he was OK,” Kosich said. “You hate to see it, but we’re going to pick it up. These wins are for him. I’ll now do little bit more ballhandling. It doesn’t completely change my role because I’m a ballhandler anyways.”

The Dukes have the benefit of a deep bench along with a guard-heavy lineup that will aid them if Shockey is out for an extended period. Shockey scored 23 points in Thursday’s win over Stagg and made five 3s for 24 points in Friday’s victory against St. Ignatius.

“It’s nice to have multiple guards,” Doran said. “It definitely hurts losing Nate, but we have other guys who can bring it up the floor. Nate did a good job, and Jeff Grace got a lot more minutes and handled the pressure. We will have multiple ballhandlers, so it was by committee for us.”