Game 101: Galesburg vs. York (Boy's Basketball)

Game 101
Galesburg vs. York (Boy's Basketball)
Galesburg Martin Luther King Tournament
(1/17/11)

Upon finishing up my late lunch/early dinner in the hospitality room, I made my way back to the broadcast booth to prepare for the final broadcast of the day. 



Referee Joe Thompson said, "You tired of this place, yet?"  I said absolutely not!  He then said that he thinks he sees me more than anyone else, which is probably the truth.  I didn't ask him how many games he does in a typical season, but the Galesburg/York game was going to be their 3rd of the day.  That's just one game less than I'm broadcasting, and all I have to do is talk.  Maybe I should take the test to become an IHSA official, and referee between broadcasts, for the sole reason to work off the extensive fast food and hospitality food I eat during basketball season.

Talk about a hot start, the Silver Streaks jumped out to a 20-4 lead after the first quarter, which ended on a foul, followed by a technical foul assessed to York head coach Dominic Cannon.  My broadcast partner, Jimmie Carr, said that he could have guessed that Cannon would be getting a technical, as he sounded very fiery when he spoke with him before the game.

That technical foul could have pushed the Dukes, as they outscored the Streaks in the next two quarters.  York outscored Galesburg 16-13 in the 2nd quarter, and 19-10 at the end of three quarters.  Galesburg held onto a 43-39 lead heading into the 4th quarter, and it was dangerously close throughout the 4th quarter. 

The Silver Streaks were able to hold off the Dukes and win, 56-50.  Galesburg went 11-12 from the free throw line in the 4th quarter alone and went 24-30 for the game.  York went 6-7 from the line.  However, uncharacteristic of Galesburg was their turnovers.  They committed 17 turnovers in the game, after having a stretch of games this week with single digit turnovers. 

WAIK broadcaster Jimmie Carr interviews Chad Thompson

Brandon Thompson was once again Mr. Clutch, scoring a game-high 22 points and went 14-16 at the free throw line.  Chad Thompson finished with 14 points, and talked with Jimmie Carr on the WAIK postgame show.  Both Thompsons were named to the All-Tournament Team. 

Will Sullivan, who will most likely take a scholarship offer from Tulane, scored a team-high 16 points for the Dukes.  Cody Kliethermes scored 11 points for York. 

With the win, Galesburg finished the King Tournament 5-0, and has now won 13 in a row (18-3).  Listed below are the final tournament standings.

King Tournament Final Standings
Galesburg:  5-0
Warren:  4-1
Maine South:  4-1
York:  3-2
Minooka:  1-3
United Township: 1-3
Marian Catholic:  1-4
Sterling:  0-5

Following the game, I packed up all of the equipment and looked like I had enough bags to climb the Himalayas.  Jimmie Carr and I were going to stop at Sully's afterwards.  Since he was parked right out back, and I out front, I said I would meet him there in about 15 minutes since I had to make two trips with all of the equipment.

With the total haul layed out on the bleachers in front of our broadcast booth, I thought about setting the 2nd half of the stuff at the doors of the gym, as to not climb the bleachers and walk across the gym.  Looking over the bags, I decided to try and make it one trip! 

I worked at a grocery store in high school, and routinely carried bags of groceries out for customers, and made deliveries.  During the cold winter months, and not wanting to spend any extended amount of time in the cold, I would load the bags of groceries up my arms and carry a large amount of them in one trip.  This strategy, however, was not utilized on the warm summer days, when as much time as possible was spent outside.  You've probably never seen an employee so adamant at beautifying the front of the store during those sunny days of summer.

Anyway, back to my story of hauling equipment!  Looking it over, there were four duffel bags, a laptop bag, and two briefcases.  One of the briefcases held a MARTI, and for those familiar with the MARTI units, they are fairly heavy.  I took the long shoulder straps of the duffel bags and put them around my neck (that sounds bad, but it wasn't choking me), held a briefcase and laptop bag in one hand, and the other briefcase in the other.  Let's just say by the time I got to my car, I was ready to drop it all, and fortunately did not.

Jimmie and I spent some time at Sully's, and ran into the Lieber's.  They were dining out after Jessica played in the Morton game, and then watched the boy's game against York.  We all had a long discussion about basketball, mainly of both Silver Streaks teams, as well as the Illini.

Game 101 Miles:  50