The box score doesn’t tell the full story of Community’s 40-35 loss to Downers Grove North in January.

Heading into tonight’s 4A IHSA Super-Sectional matchup between the Normal Ironmen (30-5) and Downers Grove North Trojans (29-4) at Illinois State’s CEFCU Arena, it’d be easy to look at the team’s earlier encounter-a 40-35 Trojans win-and draw your conclusions. 

But the box score from Jan. 15’s Wheaton Warrenville South MLK Shootout doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. 

Downer’s Alex Miller led the Trojans with 11 points, going 4/12 with three three-pointers; Jack Stanton, Jake Riemer and Owen Thulin each tallied eight.

But the Trojan’s offense was just one factor in the two-possession loss. 

When Community last faced the Downers North, the Iron were anything but well-rested. 

That contest capped the Iron’s streak of five games in three days, a run that included a 57-49 win over Richwoods and 6-foot-10 behemoth Lathan Sommerville, the third-ranked player in Illinois and a two-point loss to Waubonsie Valley, both AP-ranked teams. 

That span saw Jaheem Webber, Noah Cleveland and Dexter Niekamp all averaging 22 minutes a game; Niko Newsome clocked 24 and Braylon Roman rarely left the floor, averaging 26 minutes.

In the same span, the Trojans played just one game before matching up against Normal: Jan. 13’s contest against Niles Notre Dame (16-18).

Community never led against DGN, trailing by as much as 17 midway through the third quarter. But, despite the extended action, the Iron cut the lead to three with time waning. Forced to foul to stop the clock, the Trojans ultimately won by five. 

Community demonstrated they can’t be counted out against the Trojans, battling back from a double-digit deficit at the end of the third. 

And they did so, shooting just 26.3% from the perimeter. 

Newsome, Smith and Cleveland were the only Ironmen to convert from range in a contest that saw Community go 5/19. 

Newsome was perfect, connecting on both his three-point attempts on the way to a team-leading 12 points, while Smith went 2/3. 

The Iron’s three-point percentage highlights just how dominant Community was inside against the Trojans, as 18 of the team’s points game in the paint.

Cleveland’s three was the senior’s lone conversion in the game, as he went an uncharacteristic 1/10 with eight attempts from range.

With Cleveland posting an effective field goal percentage of 55.4 on the season and averaging 10.8 points per game, good for second on the team in scoring, the DGN game was an outlier in an otherwise impressive 2023-24 campaign. 

In the last five contests, Cleveland has upped that percentage to a 60.5 clip, shooting 33% from beyond the arc. 

The whistle was another factor in the teams’ earlier contest. Community committed 20 fouls in that matchup, well above the season average of 12.7. Both Webber and Niekamp ended the night with four fouls. 

The Trojans took 15 trips to the line, converting seven attempts from the charity stripe. 

Erase even a handful of these anomalies, and the Iron look to have the edge in that previous game.

If Community’s learned their lessons, watched their film and made adjustments, the Ironmen look to be a force to be reckoned with in this critical matchup.

The Trojans punched their ticket to Super-Sectionals in less nerve-racking fashion than the Iron on Friday night, posting a 17-point victory, knocking off top-seeded Bolingbrook 69-52 in the Edwardsville Sectional.

Downers Grove North’s Jack Stanton knocked down three three-pointers and shot 9/13 from the field. The Princeton recruit finished with 23 points to lead the Trojans to back-to-back Sectional titles. 

The Trojans’ 6-foot-5 Alex Miller had 16 points and four out of DGN’s nine threes on the night. Owen Thulin dished out nine assists and 10 points, and 6-foot-8 Jake Wiemer tallied 10 points of his own.

The four seniors combined for 59 points in Friday’s matchup.

The winner of tonight’s contest advance to the 4A IHSA Final Four in Champaign, taking on the winner between Palatine (27-8) and Gurnee Warren (31-4).