Junior trio leads Phillips Academy past Benton to win Illinois Class 2A boys basketball championship

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS – EJ Horton had thought about it.

If he had the opportunity, the electric Phillips Academy junior guard was going to throw down a dunk on someone. He did.

Horton’s fast-break dunk with 5 minutes remaining put the exclamation point on the Wildcats’ 54-47 victory over Benton in the Illinois Class 2A boys basketball championship game on Saturday afternoon at State Farm Center.

“I seen him,” Horton said. “He was hesitant. So I’m like, I’m gonna rise up on him and I did. We were talking about that before the game, I was gonna try. I had the opportunity and it went in.”

Classmate Phoenix Childs, who delivered the pass that led to the dunk, was asked how that one ranked on Horton’s hierarchy of poster dunks this season.

“Out of all the bodies I’ve seen EJ Horton catch,” Childs said, “I think that was probably like No. 4.”

Elijah Harris, a senior point guard, nodded in agreement.

But, Childs added, that was the biggest one on the biggest stage.

Phillips Academy coach Paris Martin said that was the moment he knew the championship game was over. That his Wildcats (25-9) would be energized and refocused after Horton’s highlight, which gave Phillips a nine-point lead down the stretch.

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The junior guard trio of Horton, Childs and Amari Edwards led the way for the Wildcats, accounting for 38 of the team’s 54 points.

Horton and Childs each had 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals – all team highs – while Horton added a team-best four assists. Childs knocked down two of his team’s four 3-pointers.

“I told them all, if they all believe in each other, we can get us a state title this year,” Martin said of the school’s second state championship in school history and first since 1975. “A lot of people say that they need time to develop and get it together, but with these guys having high GPAs – they are student-athletes as well; we are averaging 3.3 across the whole board in the program, that’s freshmen and varsity – I’m just so proud of every legacy that they are building for themselves and to bring it back to Chicago Public Schools.”

Isaac Billington, a senior guard, led Benton (32-4) with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Senior guard Evan Munoz added 11 points, while 6-foot-8 junior forward Docker Tedeschi had seven points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots.

“I think if you’d have asked these guys at 1 o’clock who was the best team they would have said them,” Benton coach Ron Winemiller said. “I think they are still sitting here probably thinking that. I thought – and this is no disrespect to Phillips, they are a great team – I felt like we didn’t play a great game, not as great as we have throughout this run. It happens. We’re the second-best team in the state and there’s a lot to be said for that.”

Illinois Class 2A boys basketball championship: Phillips Academy - Benton

Photos by Nate Latsch

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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveIL