Game 148: Galesburg vs. Peoria Notre Dame (Boy's Basketball)

Regional Championship at Richwoods HS

Game 148
Galesburg vs. Peoria Notre Dame (Boy's Basketball)
Class 3A Regional Championship (@ Richwoods)
(3/4/11)

Following my drive-thru trip to Popeye's, I was on the road.  It was between 4:00 and 5:00 on a Friday, so the traffic was a little tricky getting out of Bloomington.  Even the interstate from Bloomington to Peoria was pretty jammed up.

I pulled up behind Jimmie Carr at the stoplight across the street from Richwoods High School.  He pulled into the gas station, getting his lottery ticket.  It was raining, but very warm (for early March).  When I left in the morning to Bloomington, I walked out with my coat on.  I quickly realized there was no need for a coat today.  When I drove through Peoria, I had considered putting the coat on, but saw one of the banks reading 58 degrees. 

There was not a soul in the gym at Richwoods, and I felt that I was running a little later than normal, it was about 5:45.  Jimmie was the second one to arrive, and just a few minutes later the WGIL guys, Brad Bennewitz and Jim Lee came in.  They had eaten at Five Guys Burgers, a joint I have yet to try, but they said it was really good...a little pricy, but very good.  Jimmie had gone to Chili's. 

Speaking of eating out, there is an unwritten rule of being a "road warrior," that you do not eat at a restaurant that you have back home.  This was a topic of discussion before the game on Twitter, as Todd Rudolph of the Galesburg Register-Mail had tweeted he went to Buffalo Wild Wings.  His cohort at the Register-Mail tweeted back that he broke the rules of traveling the road by eating somewhere that was back home, adding #boring.  Rudolf defended his decision, saying it was based on time.  Don O'Brien of the Quincy Herald-Whig was also in on this Twitter talk.  Speaking of dining, and Twitter, Dennis Jacobs was one of the first Silver Streaks fans to arrive, and he came up and talked with us for a few minutes.  He had tweeted to me in reply to my Popeye's selection, that he and his wife had dined at Avanti's. 

Here's where I would rank my top five restaurants on the road, but it would be pretty boring since I don't have much time to do the sit-down places.  I like to arrive at the gym early and get things prepared, so if I eat before a game it's in the car.  After the game, I speed home to blog and update the website, so it's a meal on the go again. 

Another fan who came up and talked was Eric Lieber.  Speaking of dining, he runs Hungry Hobo in Galesburg.  We talked about the Class 3A/4A state finals.  His daughter is Silver Streak Jessica Lieber. 

As I scanned the crowd, I noticed Ryan Ricketts on the other end of the bleachers.  He had asked me to burn a copy of the Richwoods/Galesburg football game for him, it was Senior Night and the Silver Streaks lost by just a touchdown to the highly ranked Knights.  It seemed like every week I would forget about getting him the copy, until I was on the road to a game.  Finally, two weeks ago, I put a couple blank CD's in my laptop bag, so I could burn them at the gym.  With plenty of time, I popped the CD's out for him, although I did have to do a little editing because each cut was over 80 minutes allowed on CD.  It was also fitting because my guest announcer for the game was Silver Streaks basketball coach Mike Reynolds.

Jimmie went down to interview Peoria Notre Dame head coach Eddie Matthews, but came back and said that coach Reynolds was in a hurry.  I walked down to the other end of the upper section at Richwoods where our broadcast location was, and conducted the pregame with Reynolds.  In an odd twist, Matthews came over and sat behind us just after I started the interview.  In Jimmie's pregame with Matthews, he mentioned he had never seen a coach listen to another coaches interview, and he replied it was a time management issue.  After the interviews, Reynolds commented on Matthews' red shirt.  Eddie said it was Brimfield red, his alma mater.  Reynolds said, it should be Orion red, they beat Brimfield.  Reynolds is an Orion alum, and the Chargers beat Brimfield in the Sectional semifinals earlier this week.

I had a strange feeling this morning, that Galesburg was going to pull off a monumental upset.  I mentioned it on Facebook, in response to one of Todd Rudolf's Twitter feeds.  Nick Vlahos of the Peoria Journal-Star commented on Todd's tweet that the line is -21.5, but anything can happen.  I replied back that I had a funny, funny feeling that the talk around the state on Saturday morning would be the enormous upset after Galesburg defeats Notre Dame.  I texted the same thing to Jimmie in the morning, on my way to Bloomington.  I really felt that Galesburg would win by a basket.  Boy, was I wrong! 

Galesburg hung tough, and actually took a five-point lead in the 2nd quarter (25-20), but Notre Dame took advantage of some Silver Streaks turnovers, and capitalized.  It was in this run that Max Bielfeldt also took over, scoring 11 points in the quarter alone.  The biggest basket of the first half for Notre Dame, and maybe the game, came in the final seconds.  Off of a Streaks turnovers, holding for the last shot in a 36-30 game, Notre Dame's David Molinari hit a three in the left corner just before the buzzer sounded, giving the Irish a 39-30 halftime lead.

The Streaks couldn't keep up in the second half, and Notre Dame outscored Galesburg 22-11 in the 3rd quarter, and went on to cruise to a 17-10 4th quarter advantage.  Notre Dame improved to 28-0 with a 78-51 win.  Bielfeldt finished with a game-high 28 points.  Molinari had 13 points, and Cody Gilfillan added 10 points.  Dalton Davis led Galesburg with 15 points.  Chad Thompson scored 14 points, and Ryan McElmurry added 11 points.

All five starters graduate for Galesburg, and they had a heck of a season, finishing 25-7, and won three tournaments, the Galesburg Thanksgiving Tournament, Charleston Holiday Tournament, and Galesburg King Tournament.  It's always tough to see a class go like this.  Emotions were certainly running high after playing their last basketball game in a Silver Streaks uniform.

While we were packing up, Eddie Matthews came up, and asked where I was at in the Quest.  He said, "Ahh...I can see why you can do all these games, there's no ring on your finger!"  He has a great point!  Now that would be something to talk about....a married man broadcasting 150 games in a season.  Matthews asked us where we were headed next, as far as broadcasting.  For me, it was back to Bloomington/Normal for the girl's basketball state finals, with next week up in the air.  Brad and Jim are done for the season.  Both of them said it was good working together throughout the season. 

On my way back to Bloomington, I thought about next week.  Over the last several days, I had considered just calling it a broadcast season after the girl's state finals.  This is more due to the fact that gas prices are ranging between $3.49 and $3.59, and the nearest games next week are in Moline and Peoria.  Since I broadcast for free, it's quite costly!  After the Galesburg loss, I thought it would certainly put an "end" to the broadcast season, and my focus would turn to basketball.  When I considered my basketball options for next week, the hunger for more basketball took over.  I will be in contact with the hosts of next week's Sectionals and could add three more broadcasts to the year.   I have already been in touch with Moline athletic director Todd Rosenthal, about the Class 4A Sectional at Wharton Field House.  Since the Moline Maroons are playing there, I will most likely broadcast their game(s).  It all depends if any outlet will broadcast next week's Peoria Sectional at Bradley University's new Coliseum.  If not, I will head over on Tuesday night for the Notre Dame/Central game. 

Game 148 Miles:  80