By Mark Gregory
Sports Editor
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
The near capacity crowd at Romeoville High School Wednesday night got exactly what it wanted to see for the first half of the Valley View showdown between Bolingbrook and Romeoville.
The second half, however, was all Raiders as the Brook used pressure defense and a big run to climb out to a 15-point lead and all-but put the game away.
Joseph Yesufu had 11 points in Bolingbrook’s win (Mark Gregory)
“We thought we could wear them down by the second half and that is exactly what happened. We thought we could really get after them for 32 minutes and it didn’t really happen until the third quarter, but once it started to happen, it happened in a big way,” said Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost. “I told our guys we didn’t play very well in the first half and we were still up one, on the road, against a pretty good team. That was the good news, the better news was the third quarter.”
The Raiders were led by 19 points each from Kaleb Thornton and Tyler Cochran, who suffered an ankle injury against Lockport.
Cochran didn’t start, but came off the bench and aided the win.
“Everybody worked together and we tuned up the pressure. We tuned everything out and just played basketball.
This was a big game and we just wanted to come out and perform.
If we play in the system and play right, we will win and that is what we did in the second half. We played Bolingbrook style of basketball.
Joseph Yesufu and Simeon transfer Jordan Myrick each scored 11 for Bolingbrook, while Plainfield South transfer Joey Saracco added 10 points.
“This is our sixth game and we have had five guys lead us in scoring. Our guards can really come at you in wave. Today when we were making our run, we were all guards. We wanted to bring Donita Johnson out away from the basket. We have some options as how to play.”
Romeoville was paced by Joliet West transfer Eddie Creal’s 16 points, Johnson had 11.
“I thought we played them pretty even the first two quarters and I thought we played them again after the catastrophe in the third, but we spotted them a good 11 or 12 points because we had so many turnovers and they were getting layups,” said Romeoville coach Marc Howard. “You can’t let a good team like that speed you up and have you throwing the ball all over the place. Credit to Bolingbrook, they did a good job applying that pressure and we just have to learn from it.
Eddie Creal had 16 points to lead the Spartans (Mark Gregory)
“We have to take a lot from this game. The good thing is, it is the mid part of December and we still have a lot of basketball to be played. We will come back and work on the weaknesses that we had and see if we can get better.”
Romeoville has tough games coming up as the Spartans will play over the break in the Rich South Big Dipper Tournament and will travel to Joliet West Dec. 21 for a game that is sure to have a lot of emotion as Creal faces his former team.
Bolingbrook will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa to play in the Jerry Slykhuis Showcase against some of the top teams in the Hawkeye State.
“One of the things last year, we really didn’t play anyone who really challenged us until Simeon (at state). We had some close games and games where we didn’t play well, but (against Simeon) we didn’t really react well when we got down,” Brost said. “So, I wanted to ramp up the schedule and Romeoville being really good helped us with that and going to Iowa and we play Morgan Park in January and the Hinsdale Central tournament is one of the top ones. And in in our conference, Homewood-Flossmoor is very good and Lincoln-Way East, then we play Joliet West and Joliet Central and they are very good, so our schedule is rough.”
That doesn’t mean a win over a district rival wasn’t a big one.
“I am proud of our guys, I am proud of how they carry themselves and I am proud of how we do things at our school and we hold our boys accountable on and off the floor and I am proud of how they played tonight,” Brost said. “But now this is over and we go on to the next thing, because that is what teams of our caliber do.”