Game 80: Galesburg @ Moline (Girl's Basketball)

Game 80
Galesburg @ Moline (Girl's Basketball)
1/6/11

The mode of transportation to Wharton Field House was a little different....it was my Explorer.  After 16 days of being without the old clunker, it returned from two trips to the shop.  The first trip was blogged about before my trips that took me all over the map of Illinois around Christmas.



When I went to pick it back up from my parents on my way north for New Year's, I was informed that the passenger side window motor had burned out, so it was another trip to the shop.  Funny thing is, it turned out to be a speaker installed in the passenger side door did not fit, and left it there anyway.  It was done, "professionally" a few years ago.  Everytime the window would go down, the speaker would not it out of track.  Needless to say, I have one less speaker, but a working passenger side window. 

I've owned my Explorer for 7 or 8 years now, and despite the cracked windshield, the broken console door, and the missing speaker, I missed the old thing.  I guess after driving it for so long, it becomes a part of you, and the comfort in driving it.  It must be like marriage, you come to accept the flaws, lol.

Despite doing the half day on game days a majority of basketball season for a year and a half now, it still screws up my eating schedule.  I had breakfast around 9:00 a.m. and then was at the office around 12:30.  At that time, I was just getting started at work, and really not that hungry.  For the rest of the afternoon, I squeeze in a full day of work in half the hours, so the hunger is non-existent.  It usually doesn't settle in until the start of my broadcast, when I realize I haven't eaten since the morning.  What I try to do is eat a lunch right before I leave for the game (usually around 4:00), and that will hold me over until I get home, which is anywhere from 10:30 to midnight.  This system doesn't always work, but it did today.  My lunch came at 4:00 as I headed to the Quad Cities.  I grabbed a foot long Black Forest Ham from Subway...

"You Don't Want Any Cheese?"
Today, it took me by surprise that the "sandwich artist" at Subway didn't ask me, "You don't want cheese?"  I only order (typically) three Subway sandwiches, and I eat there often.  My three sandwiches tend to be; 1) Cold Cut Combo, 2) Black Forest Ham, 3) Tuna.  My toppings are always; tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, black olives.  The bread I order fluctuates between Wheat and Monterrey Cheddar.  It's funny that I can make my order with no delay, such as:  "Black Forest Ham on Wheat, with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and black olives."  The response:  "You don't want cheese?"  I know there was confidence in my order and no hesitation.  If I had wanted cheese, I would have ordered cheese.  When posed that question, it takes me back and I wonder....should I have ordered cheese?  Today, I wasn't asked that question.  Sidenote:  I love cheese, but for some reason, I just don't want cheese on my Subway sandwich.

Wharton Field House
Normally, I like to get to the gym 45 minutes before the sophomore game tips off.  This gives me plenty of time to get my equipment set up, then conduct my pregame interviews.  Today, I arrived at around 5:00, just 30 minutes before the sophomores tipped off.  Even my broadcast partner, Jimmie Carr, beat me to the gym.  He had a much shorter trip to Wharton, as he works in Moline.  The Wharton Field House is such a historic gym, and I had not broadcasted a game there until last season.  Growing up near the Quad Cities, my connection with Wharton is remembering the old WWF matches held there as a kid, before the Mark of the Quad Cities (now I-Wireless Center) was built.  Galesburg coach Evan Massey wrote a nice blog entry about Wharton: http://masseybasketball.blogspot.com/2011/01/wharton-field-house.html#more

New Look Maroons
I really enjoy covering the Moline girl's last season, and ended up broadcasting five of their games, covering two games at the Sterling tournament, the two Galesburg games, and their Sectional championship against Edwardsville.  One of their guards last year, Emily Kauzlarich (now at Monmouth College) had plenty of family tuned in for those broadcasts.  Her aunt lived in Macomb and knew me from my days on the K100 morning show, so she recruited family members from across the country to listen to the WAIK and IHSSN broadcasts online.  That is the biggest disparity from last year's team and this year's Maroons team.  The three top guards were lost to graduation, this year's guards are still gaining that varsity experience.  It helps when you have a Division-One player on the floor, Marquisha Harris (Western Michigan).   The Maroons also lost senior Brittany Bush prior to the season for a second athletic code violation and was dismissed from the team.

Blog Talk
Over the summer, coach Massey had approached me a couple times about starting a website.  I mentioned that it would be pretty difficult without much background doing it at first.  The best thing would be to pay for development, making it pretty cookie-cutter, hence easy.  I said the best route would be a Facebook page or a Blog.  Little did I know, just six months later, I would be going to him for advice!  All of my blog entries have been posted in their entirety, meaning visitors don't need to click on individual articles.  This makes it difficult for me to track what articles are the most read.  That's important, as it helps me research the content in those blog posts.  It gives me an overview of what people are reading, and what I should be doing in each entry.  Massey told me there is a little jump break icon on the top bar that you click wherever you want the "read more" button to be located.  Jay Redfern has been helping coach Massey quite a bit in the blogosphere.

Game Time
Moline's game plan for their matchup with Galesburg was to take away the three-point shooting.  Some opposition has tried this, and it has backfired, leaving wide open lanes for easy Streaks layups at times this season.  This game was a bit different, the three-point shots were being defended, but so were the lanes.  It was back-and-forth through much of the game, with the Streaks taking a 13-10 lead after the first quarter.  At halftime, the Maroons had rallied back from a short deficit to take a 24-23 lead.

Galesburg outscored Moline 22-16 in the third quarter, and would carry that momentum over into the fourth quarter to win 62-53.  This marked the first win for Galesburg at Wharton Field House since the 2006-07 season.

Moline's Harris Breaks Record
With her first field goal in the fourth quarter, there was a loud cheering section for Marquisha Harris.  With that basket, Harris became the all-time leading scorer in Moline girl's basketball history, breaking the previous mark of 1,394 points set by Holly Hallstrom.  Harris finished the game with 22 points and sits at 1,399 career points.

Game Stats
Harris had a game-high 22 points, while teammate Jordan De Los Reyes finished with 12 points.  De Los Reyes is the granddaughter of legendary Moline softball coach Bob Seitz.  De Los Reyes was on the Maroons softball team that went to the IHSA Class 4A state finals last year.  She was a freshman on the team that finished tied for 3rd (the 3rd place game was rained out).  Jamie Johnson was the only Silver Streak to score in double figures, 13 points.  Mickey Rodriguez hit three three-pointers and finished with 9 points.  Galesburg went 6-22 from the three-point line.  Galesburg forced 24 turnovers, and turned the ball over 19 times.  Moline went just 6-16 from the free throw line.  Galesburg went 18-28 from the line.

Media Contingent
A glut of media members were at Wharton Field House.  Those in attendance included; Dan Pearson (KWQC-TV), Matt Randazzo (WQAD-TV), Jay Kidwell (WHBF-TV), Marc Nesseler (Dispatch-Argus), Todd Rudolf (Galesburg Register-Mail), and Doug Green (Quad City Times).

Geneseo Heckler
Jesse Dobbels was in the (Wharton Field) House scoping the opposition.  He helps out the Geneseo girl's basketball team, and the Maple Leafs are in the same Class 3A Regional field as Galesburg, along with Rock Island, Dixon, and Sterling.  I did play-by-play on Geneseo girl's basketball games during the 2002-03 season.  During halftime, Dobbels walked by giving me some looks and hand gestures mocking my broadcast!

Future Plans
The schedule for January is taking shape after a long holiday of travel.  A pair of triple headers are on tap for next week, with trips to Williamsfield next Monday and Wednesday for the Inter-County Athletic Conference Tournament.  Next Thursday will be Quincy @ Galesburg girl's, Friday Galesburg @ Alleman boy's, and a full day of broadcasts at the Galesburg King Tournament on Saturday.  I will take two days and make my southern Illinois swing, with plans to cover three games at Carmi-White County on Tuesday and three games at the Benton Invitational Tournament next Wednesday. 

Game 80 Miles:  198