DeKalb blows out Lincoln-Way West for spot in Dayton championship game

DeKALB – Davon Grant emphatically slammed the ball home with a two-hand dunk but was called for a technical for hanging on the rim.

On the ensuing Lincoln-Way West possession, the DeKalb junior forward got a steal and again found himself lined up for an easy dunk.

This time he opted for a one-handed jam that pushed the lead to 29, the Barbs’ biggest at the time, in a 76-49 win over the Warriors on Friday.

DeKalb (7-4) will seek its second straight Chuck Dayton Classic title, facing DuPage Valley Conference foe Neuqua Valley in the final.

Grant finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals in the victory. On his second dunk, he said wasn’t worried about another technical as much as getting ahead of Marquise Bolden - who had a tomahawk slam in the first quarter that energized the crowd and was a spark in an early 15-0 run for the Barbs.

“I’m not even worried about the tech, what I worry about is coach is going to make me run for it,” Grant said. “The second one, I was just thinking, I don’t care about the tech, my teammate got one, I’m trying to catch one too.”

The game was tied 4-4 at the 6:22 mark in the first quarter after a layup by Max Gabriel. It was the last bucket for the Warriors (7-5) until a Drake Been 3-pointer 7:29 later.

DeKalb scored the next 11 to open up a 30-7 lead halfway through the second and led 39-13 at the break.

Coach Mike Reynolds said it was the best defensive half the Barbs have played in a long time.

“That was probably the best half of basketball defensively we’ve seen not only this year but in a while. That was pretty impressive.”

Reynolds credited Justin O’Neal for slowing down the Warriors' Wyatt Carlson, who finished with eight points but after scoring on a layup for L-WW in the first minute went 7:33 without scoring again.

O’Neal finished six points and 10 rebounds, while holding Carlson to 4-of-12 shooting.

“We’ve kind of challenged him because I think he’s been kind of holding back,” Reynolds said. “Last year he was a high-energy rebounder and defender. He did that all summer for us too. He’s better offensively but we need him to do those things too.”

The Barbs won their first two games in the tournament by triggering the running clock. While the lead did hurt 30 or higher a couple times in the third, the Barbs never could push things past 30 in the fourth to trigger the running clock.

But for the third straight game, the Barbs put forth a stifling defensive effort. The 25 points they allowed in the third quarter was almost more than they allowed in each of their first two games, but they still led 63-38 into the fourth and had pulled their starters midway through the third.

L-WW coach Tanner Mitchell said the Warriors had problems handling the physicality of DeKalb.

“We ran into a buzzsaw here,” Mitchell said. “They came out really physical and really aggressive and that really bothered us on both sides of the ball.”

Lincoln-Way West shot 29.6% from the floor. Carlson had a team-best seven rebounds.

The Warriors will face Phillips for third place at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“Hopefully this is a wake-up call for us,” Mitchell said. “You’re in a semifinal of a good tournament. So you’re playing against the other top three teams. I don’t think we were ready to start there in the first quarter. Hopefully that woke us up and we’re ready to go from the jump tomorrow.”

Myles Newman had 10 points and four rebounds for the Barbs. Sean Reynolds led the Barbs with 14.

The Barbs will face Neuqua Valley for the title on Saturday. DeKalb went back-to-back in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 season, although the latter of those two was held later than usual and featured just three teams due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The last team to repeat in full versions of the tournament was St. Charles, which won four straight from 1994-1997.

It will be the first of three meetings now between the Barbs and Neuqua Valley, who are scheduled to play a conference game on Jan. 7.

“It means a lot but we have to finish,” Grant said. “Neuqua Valley is a great team but we’re going to get the job done.”