Game 77: Bloomington @ Galesburg (Girl's Basketball)

Game 77
(1/30/10)
Bloomington @ Galesburg (Girl's Basketball)

A Saturday afternoon non-conference affair at John Thiel Gymnasium. The Streaks are hot in non-conference action (13-5), and they have also had some of their hottest shooting days on these Saturday afternoons.

I arrived at the gym about 20 minutes before the sophomore game was to tip off. I set all of the equipment up and filled out the scorebook. Then I scanned the gym, on the lookout for coach Evan Massey.

As I walked down to the floor, I headed out to the concession stand for a Gatorade (Orange) and watched the first half of the sophomore game from the floor. During the second quarter, Coach Massey emerged and we did our pregame talk.

Back in the broadcast booth, I met Jeff Findley. He is the husband to Bloomington varsity coach Sondra Findley. Jeff runs Voice of Season (www.voiceofseason.com), a sports photographer. He also maintains the website, www.bhsraiders.com and works on the State Farm Classic Tournament, with public relations. We talked about the State Farm Classic, Bloomington basketball, and our websites.

Before the pregame show, another visitor came up to chat, Tim May. Tim is one of the founders of the Illinois High School Sports message board (www.illinoishighschoolsports.com). He was in town watching the Silver Streaks. He also took great video of the record setting three-pointers at Normal West earlier in the season. Always fun to meet some of the other posters from the message boards. By the way, my screen name on the message boards is "bpcbroadcaster".

It was a typical hot start for the Streaks, as they poured in 25 points in the first quarter, and knocked down eight three-pointers. Jessica Howard made three of them in the opening eight minutes. It continued to rain three's in the second quarter, with five more. That guaranteed fans in the stands a free triple cheeseburger from McDonalds, for those fans wearing the "3Diculous" t-shirts. This is the first time, 13 three-pointers has been reached in the first half at home.

The Raiders had kept up in the second and third quarters. Bloomington scored 21 points in the second quarter, and 20 in the third quarter. At halftime, the Streaks led 48-32, and took a 72-52 lead into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Bloomington's Teasha Harris was whistled for her fifth foul, and apparently didn't agree with the call, and was called for a technical. Harris, headed to Kirkwood Community College, finished with 17 points. Kirkwood has won the NJCAA National title the past three seasons.

The three-point barrage carried over to the fourth quarter, as Kat Mangieri hit one, and Jessica Howard knocked down two more, including the 20th of the game late in the fourth quarter. The 20 three-pointers made ties an IHSA single-game record.

Galesburg finished (20-50) from outside the three-point line (40%), and made just 12 of 27 free throws (44%). Howard finished with 20 points for the Streaks, while Mickey Rodriguez poured in 18 points, Shelby Pacheco had 13 points, and Tai Peachey added 11 points. Both Rodriguez and Howard hit six three-pointers. Bloomington's Amanda Hainlen finished with 20 points. Hainlen will be continuing her basketball career at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

For the first time this season, the Streaks hit the 90-point plateau, beating visiting Bloomington, 90-70. The Streaks forced 30 turnovers, while giving the ball up 16 times themselves.

In our postgame interview, coach Massey finished by asking me how many games broadcasted I was up to. When I replied, 77, he joked that I had a ways to go to catch up to Cal Ripken.

I had some down time before the next broadcast, though I needed to head out to Knox College to drop off equipment for our Knox/Monmouth broadcasts. Since I was behind on the blog writing, I decided to run down to our WAIK studios in downtown Galesburg to write the blog for broadcast 76.

Eating a late lunch, I made the old fast food plunge once again, swinging into McDonalds. With the dual lanes in the drive-thru, a car ahead of me cut off the other car, butting in on that car's turn to proceed. This, apparently, made the passenger in that car a little upset. The angry woman rolled her window down and yelled something and held her hand up. A moment later, that door opens and the woman walks up to the van guilty of cutting and yells, "It's common courtesy to take turns." She stormed back into her car, while screaming out an obscenity that rhymes with itch. I chuckled.

After my meal of two cheeseburgers, fries, and a coffee (black), I finished my blog just in time to head down to Knox College for a bit. I pulled up to Knox at about 4:30. My broadcaster, John Ring, had also just arrived. He was doing play-by-play for the men's/women's doubleheader, and also had a hoarse voice. He had plenty of his staple Diet Mountain Dew, along with some Hall's cough drops. I hung out at the gym and filled out the scorebook for him, and talked with a couple coaches to get the starters for the women's game. I stayed for the first 10 minutes of the game, and then headed out to return to John Thiel Gymnasium for the next broadcast.

The Quest File Notes
Game 77
Date: 1/30/10
Result: Galesburg ties state record, making 20 three-pointers in 90-70 win over Bloomington
Miles: 60