Game 20: Moline @ Galesburg (Boy's)

Game 20
Moline @ Galesburg (Boy's)
Galesburg Thanksgiving Tournament
(11/24/10)

The day before Thanksgiving and the boy's basketball season opener for the Galesburg Silver Streaks and Moline Maroons. For some reason, I had thought an earlier schedule that was released had a sophomore game tipping off at 6:00, followed by the varsity game at 7:30.



I was wrong! After getting to the office at 1:00, I had a few hours to get my duties for the day finished, and work a little ahead due to the holidays. As the clock passed 5:00, I got worried since I wouldn't be arriving at John Thiel Gymnasium until 5:30, since I needed to put some gas in the car.

Around 5:30, I pulled into an empty high school parking lot. No buses, not even a single car. Uh oh! This game couldn't be at Moline, it's the Galesburg Tournament. Maybe the Moline buses parked in back, although the front door setup had a game night look, with the barricades blocking the front door for the bus dropoff.

When I walked in the front doors, Galesburg sophomore coach Ryan Hart was running practice. Obviously, there was no sophomore game tonight, just varsity only. Oh well, better to be two hours early, than in a rush setting up equipment and filling out the scorebook.

I was able to watch a little practice, and take my time with the equipment, and even did some extra game prep while I waited. My broadcast partner, Jimmie Carr, showed up about 15 minutes after I did, and he was under the assumption there was a sophomore game, also.

All the talk in the weeks leading up to this season opener, was why two league rivals would play in the first game of the season. They will play at GHS again on January 21st, and at Wharton Field House on February 25th. Both Jimmie and I posed that question to the head coaches. During the season, Jimmie will conduct the pregame interviews with the opposing head coach, while I will talk with coach Reynolds. Here was there responses regarding the season opener between Western Big 6 teams.

Galesburg's Mike Reynolds: "It's obviously not an ideal situation, and we worked diligently to get some Chicago teams down here on this night, but with the budget situation everybody's in, it's hard to get people to travel an extra night, unless you're going to pay them an exuberant amount of money which I don't think we have here either, we wanted a fifth game and wanted one before Thanksgiving and to keep our tournament afloat we need three night sessions, so this was an attractive game from that standpoint, not an attractive game from our standpoint, or probably coach (Ryan) Webber's standpoint."

Moline's Ryan Webber: "Well I think when we agreed to come to this tournament last year, what was intriguing was that it was close, we would get five games, which was an upgrade from our tournament, was just three (games), so the five games was a really good draw for us, and we would get a home game, instead of getting paid to come. So thats something that intrigued us, I kind of thought we were going to play five teams outside of Galesburg, and they would do the same, but it's been something that Mike (Reynolds) has chosen to go to this year, us play them the first game of the year."

The last time these teams met, on Galesburg's Senior Night last season, there were heated words exchanged by some of the coaches. Coach Reynolds said, "it is what it is," and that there wasn't any carryover for the Streaks, but that he knows the two teams will play hard.

Once again, fireworks ensued between the teams. With 0:9.8 to play and the Maroons leading by five with the basketball, the Streaks were trying to send Moline to the free throw line. Chad Thompson drew the personal foul on Anthony Lindauer, and some incidental contact in the same exchange occurred as Trimaine Carson bumped into Lindauer. The latter took exception and shoved Carson, drawing an immediate technical foul. Galesburg's Ryan McElmurry charged at Lindauer (the two had a tight battle guarding each other throughout the game), and drew a technical foul. After what seemed like eternity as the officials sorted out the mess, Galesburg coach Reynolds drew a technical foul, trying to get an explanation on what was going on. In the end, Lindauer made one of four free throws, and the Maroons held on for a 54-51 win.

Dalton Davis hit a long three-pointer at the buzzer to set the final score. Lindauer finished with a game-high 27 points, and went, 6-10, from outside the three-point line, and just, 4-10, from the free throw line. Galesburg was led by Brandon Thompson's 24 points.

It was a low scoring start, as the teams were tied, 7-7, at the end of the first quarter. Galesburg took a 19-18 lead at halftime, and led by nine points with one minute left in the third quarter, before the Maroons finished that frame on a 5-0 run. That run carried over into the fourth quarter on a pair of three's by Lindauer, giving Moline a two-point lead at the end of their 11-point run.

Seeing signs: The Galesburg student section was fiery, with several homemade signs in the stands. There were a few "big heads" of Coach Reynolds. Another sign seen amongst the GHS faithful was one that read, "Baby Lindauer Has Bieber Fever," a reference to teen pop sensation Justin Bieber.

Emotions ran high, and this was a season-opening non-conference game. Can you imagine the competitiveness between the two squads by the time late January rolls around at John Thiel Gymnasium, or on Moline's Senior Night, February 25th?!

Clips of the Galesburg/Moline game can be seen at: http://www.ihssn.net/boy-s-basketball-news/dramatic-end-in-molines-54-51-win-at-galesburg

Faces in the Crowd: Former Streaks All-Stater Joey Range was in the stands, as he is for most Galesburg games. Last year's star, Victor Davis, now at Illinois Wesleyan was back home. There was a slew of recent Galesburg graduates back home from college in an area below our WAIK broadcast booth.

Game 20 Miles: 100