Game 28: Galesburg vs. Thornridge (Boy's Basketball)

Game 28
Galesburg vs. Thornridge (Boy's Basketball)
Galesburg Tournament
11/27/10

During my girl's postgame show, Jimmie Carr headed down on the court to try and grab Thornridge head coach Scott Alderson. Coach Alderson was very gracious and allowed a few minutes while his team warmed up to talk.

The Chicago Sun-Times had just released a story that Thornridge would keep varsity athletics in 2011-12, despite becoming a freshman academy.



Thornridge entered with a 2-1 record, and Galesburg was 3-1. Both teams lost to Moline, who was hosting Curie at the Wharton Field House. Moline hosted a game in the tournament in lieu of getting paid to play in the tournament.

The game at Moline turned out to be the de facto championship game. Curie won the game, going undefeated. Had Moline been victorious, it would have gone into a tie-breaker, in which the Maroons held by winning the head-to-head matchups.

Just like the Galesburg girl's were hot, the Thornridge Falcons were on fire to start the game against the hosts, jumping out to a 13-0 lead. The team hit four three-pointers, two each by Javon Kay and Anthony Dunbar. Honestly, I had not seen this type of offensive output by the Falcons, in all the games I had seen them play over the weekend. They had to slow down...right?!

Galesburg held Thornridge to 12 points in the second quarter, and it was a ten-point game at the break, with Thornridge up 31-21. The Streaks forced 11 turnovers in the first two quarters, while limiting turnovers themselves, with just 6.

We had a special guest join us up in the broadcast booth, as former Galesburg all-stater and Iowa Hawkeye Rod Thompson stopped up and talked with Jimmie. Thompson moved to Galesburg from Chicago in high school and teamed up with Joey Range (a regular at Silver Streaks games) to advance to a Class AA state championship.

Galesburg started making a run late in the third quarter. At one point in the third quarter, Thornridge led 40-30. The Streaks finished that quarter on a five-point run, to pull to within five points heading into the fourth quarter. It was all sparked by Aslan Butler's three-point play, who finished with 10 points and was named our First Glass Breakout Player of the Game.

That run certainly didn't stop there. Galesburg kept scoring...and kept Thornridge FROM scoring. The Silver Streaks scored 21 unanswered points, before giving up a free throw late in the fourth quarter. Galesburg finished the game on a 24-1 run, and won the game, 54-41. Brandon Thompson kept up his scoring pace, finishing with 24 points. He is averaging a tick under 25 points/game through the first five games of the season. Galesburg finished with just 10 turnovers for the second consecutive game, while forcing 24 Thornridge turnovers. The Falcons were led by Javon Kay (12) and Anthony Dunbar (11).

Since I had finished my Friday night with a stop at the Steak 'n Shake drive-thru, I passed against the junk, and decided to feast on some Thanksgiving leftovers when I got home. The weekend had tired me out so much, I ate, and fell asleep on the couch moments later. All of my blogging updates had to come on Sunday!

Game 28 Miles: 50