Two wins!

The boys and girls traveled up to Des Plaines last night to play Brentwood Baptist Christian School's boys and girls teams, and the results were two wins and experience gained for the bench players, especially the girls. The girls were victorious by the score of 49-33 and the boys got their first win of the year, 47-32.

After walking down the seemingly endless hallway, we got to the door to the gym. We didn't think that it was the gym. We thought maybe it was a large conference room. However, there was a scoreboard on the wall. Maybe they kept score of their meetings. No, that wasn't the case. It was the gym. A dark, worn, small, low ceilinged gym. Even smaller than Southside's. So playing at the Southside gym was good preparation for these games.

The only info we had on Brentwood's girls team was that they had played Gurnee and lost by 38. Since our girls had lost to Gurnee in overtime, we had an idea that we should be able to handle Brentwood. Our idea was correct. Once again, the game started out with one team scoring a lot of points, and the other team scoring none. But in this case it was HSRC scoring all the points. 14, to be exact, before Brentwood got on the scoreboard by free throw. Brentwood had one player, #12, about 5'7", who was taller and more talented than the rest of her team. She was throwing up shots from all over, including half-court, which in the case of this gym was about 26 feet from the basket. Her ninth shot, a three, was the first to go in, shortly before the end of the quarter. By this time, Coach Boss has started substituting. Ashley W. came in first. In the second, the substitutes played extensively. And the Brentwood star kept shooting. And missing. Her teammate made a couple of baskets and #12 made three free throws. However, Alyssa made three shots to go with a basket by Lee and one by, drum roll please, Ashley W., her first basket of the year. So the Patriots outscored Brentwood 10-7 in the quarter to lead 26-11 at the half.

The starting lineup returned for the third quarter, but not for long. HSRC pulled out to a twenty-something point lead, and so the subs started coming back in. Brentwood's shooter did get a couple of threes to goin in the quarter to go with a two and free throw, but HSRC was not missing in the early part of the quarter. They finished shooting eight for fifteen for the quarter, and the score at the end of three was 40-20. Becca, Kara and Alyssa started on the bench, and Carolyn and Lee soon joined them. Ashley VP was the point guard, Emma at the other guard, with Hannah, Rachel and Ashley W down low. Very valuable experience was gained, as were a lot of turnovers. Lee made a three before she went to the bench and Rachel made the only shot she took in the quarter. And shortly after the quarter started, Hannah made a shot, her first points of the year. Ashley W tacked on another basket to finish the Patriots scoring for the quarter. Meanwhile. The Launcher was making some shots. She ended up with ten for the quarter and twenty-five for the game. Her teammates scored three in the quarter and eight for the game.

Stat summary:  Lee led in scoring with thirteen, Alyssa had ten, and Becca, Kara and Carolyn had six. Carolyn led in rebounding with eight. Alyssa had nine steals and Kara had six. Becca led with three assists.

On to the boys. We saw that Brentwood did not have much height. We found out they were pretty quick, pretty quickly, as Brentwood got the first points of the game on a drive along the baseline for a layup. At the other end of the court, HSRC's offense appeared to be, throw up a shot and have Luke L. get the put back. Three times this worked early, and on the third one Luke got fouled and made the free throw. Back to Brentwood's end of the court. HSRC started out in a man-to-man, but Brentwood was very quick and were beating our guys one-to-one. Luke L. had trouble keeping up with his guy and got called for two very early fouls Thankfully one of the Brentwood players that was good at beating our guy was not good at finishing. Justin was working hard underneath and got a couple of short ones. Dustin made a couple of mid-range jumpers and Luke D. made one. Luke picked up his third foul in the quarter and he had to sit, so Adam got some playing time. The score at the end of one was 19-13.

With Luke out, the Patriots had trouble getting offense going. They also had trouble stopping Brentwood. The one who had trouble finishing in the first started making them in the second, shooting four for eight, but the rest of the team went cold, shooting one for twelve. On offense, the Patriots shot three for sixteen, with Justin, Teddy, and Dustin each getting a basket. Halftime score: 25-25. We think. The Brentwood scoreboard apparently was using another numbering system.

Luke was back in the third, and the Patriots went to a zone defense, so he wasn't as likely to pick up fouls. But the defense was noticeably tighter. HSRC only allowed four points in the quarter. On offense, five different Patriots scored: Luke L., Teddy, Luke D. and Justin with two each and Dustin with four. The fourth quarter mirrored the third, except that Justin (6) and Dustin (4) did all the scoring. Brentwood was limited to one shot made out of thirteen attempted, a three pointer. We think the score was 37-29 at the end of the quarter.

Because of the frenetic nature of the game, and the low shooting percentages, especially by Brentwood, there were a lot of rebounds. Three Patriots had fourteen or more rebounds: Justin (17), Luke L. (16) and Dustin (14). Dustin and Justin led in scoring with fourteen each. Luke L. added eleven, Teddy and Luke D. four each. Dustin had four assists and Justin had three. Dustin had three steals and two blocks, while Luke L. added two steals and one block.

Romeoville next week Thursday. Boys get a chance for a rematch against the team that beat them 38-16 in December. Girls will get their first look at Romeoville's girls, who have just started a high school team. On Friday and Saturday, the girls will play in the Grace Baptist tournament. Opponents and times are not known yet as a seventh team was recently added and it will now be a double elimination tournament instead of pool play and single elimination. I will post as soon as I hear. We have also added a January 25 junior high scrimmage against Glenwood School for Boys and Girls at 6:30 at Balmoral School, and a February 5 boys game against Southside (following the already-scheduled girls game).