The holiday tournaments are underway and it was a fun opening day. I made stops at York, Proviso West and Hinsdale Central. Tomorrow I’m planning to hit DeKalb, Wheeling, York and possibly the Big Dipper.
Here are scores and highlights from every first round game at Hinsdale, Proviso West and York...
Hinsdale Central
Stevenson 82, Glenbard East 36: The Patriots closed the first quarter with a 28-3 run and never looked back. Brandon Sorokin scored 17, Aidan Bardic had 14 and Christian Uremovich added 12 poitns and seven rebounds. Stevenson shot 55% in this one. Ari Pierson and Trevor Rehnstrom each scored nine for the Rams.
Oswego East 58, Lincoln-Way Central 51: The top seed received a scare. The Knighs led by nine early and by three at halftime. Oswego East used a 15-5 run to take control in the third quarter. Mekhi Lowery and Bryce Shoto, back from his injury, each scored 14 for the Wolves. Jack Barrett led Lincoln-Way Central with 18.
Morgan Park 49, Richards 48: The Mustangs win it on a buzzer-beater. Randy Walls’ putback gets Morgan Park into the second round. Kyle Hudson-Duff led Morgan Park with 12 and Leon Cooks added nine points and 12 rebounds. The Mustangs won it despite shooting 1 for 17 from three. Camren King led Richards with 18.
DePaul Prep 59, Morton 37: Maurice Thomas scored 17 for the Rams and Fabien Tucker had 19 for Morton.
Marian Catholic 51, Maine South 39: Tre Davis scored 12 and James Bullock added 11 points as the Spartans led the whole way. Tyler Sierra scored 11 for the Hawks.
Auburn 60, Willowbrook 47: The Trojans shot 1 for 14 in the first quarter and never recovered. Adrian Agee led Auburn with 12 points.
Hinsdale Central 71, Oak Forest 52: Keep an eye on the Red Devils. They could easily be ranked. I saw the very end of this one, there was a decent crowd on hand to see the hosts. Ben Oosterbaan scored 27 points.
Homewood-Flossmoor 83, St. Charles East 58: This was closer than the score indicates most of the way, it got out of hand for the Saints late. Carson Brownfield was really aggressive throughout the game and finished with 23 points and eight rebounds and Jayden Tyler added 17 points for the Vikings. Edward Herrera led St. Charles East with 15.
Proviso West
Lincoln Park 67, Proviso West 63: A good first round game here. The hosts couldn’t quite pull it out. Jalen Calloway led the Lions with 20 points and Dekari Durham added 15 points and eight rebounds. I’ve been hearing that Proviso West has a promising freshman and he delivered. His name is Rajan Roberts and he scored 19 for the Panthers. Senior Keshawn Hobson had 17 points and 18 rebounds.
St. Rita 91, Gary Bowman 34: Total domination for the Mustangs, but the big news in this one was the season debut of sophomore Melvin Bell. He scored nine points in nine minutes in his first game back from an injury. Nojus Indrusaitis led the way with 21 and Morez Johnson added 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Hammond Central, Ind. 83, Bogan 72: The Bengals didn’t score for the first 4:10 and never recovered. Dauntrell Dixon scored 29 for Bogan in the loss.
Young 73, Zion-Benton 37: Unsigned senior Daniel Johnson continued his terrific start to the season with 26 points and eight rebounds as the Dolphins overwhelmed a very young Zion-Benton squad. Sophomore Antonio Munoz added 17 points. Sophomore Rmoni Beals led the Zee-Bees with 15.
T.F. North 65, Clark 40: The Meteors extended their undefeated start to the season with a 65-40 first-round win against Clark.
Jevon Warren scored 11 points and had six rebounds and two blocks. The 6-4 senior is a gifted athlete, which he showcased with a pair of above-the-rim highlights.
“That’s something I’ve always had,” Warren said. “I didn’t have to work for that.”
Proviso East 84, Crete-Monee 58: The Pirates dominate behind 16 points from Bryce Coleman and 12 for Jaloni Johnson and Michael Robinson. Proviso East forced 22 turnovers. Tay’Shun Russell led the Warriors with 25 points.
Fenwick 48, Farragut 46 OT: One of the best games of the day. Dominick Ducree’s three-pointer with 55 seconds left won it for the Friars. Darshan Thomas led Fenwick with 15 points.
Kenwood 122, Southland 48: Well, wow. Dai Dai Ames scored 65 points. That’s the most ever scored in a Proviso West game and tied for 20th best in state history. He was 28 for 41 from the field and 7 of 15 from three.
York
St. Ignatius 64, Minooka 36: Sophomore Phoenix Gill got the Wolfpack off to a quick start, scoring 10 of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter. Iggy rolled from there. Jackson Kotecki and Reggie Ray each added 12. Isaiah DuPree led Minooka with 15 points. St. Ignatius will face Naperville North in the second round. My big takeaway from watching this one was the improvement football star Justin Scott has made since the Chicago Elite Classic. He only scored two points, but he’s agile and fast for a player of his size and sees the floor well. He will be really valuable piece for St. Ignatius.
Naperville North 49, Glenbard West 44: Keep an eye on the Huskies, they have a really solid young backcourt. This is a team that could pop up in the preseason Super 25 next season if they keep improving. Read all about this win here.
Riverside-Brookfield 59, Schaumburg 38: Arius Alijosius scored 29 points and made 7 of 9 three-pointers to lead the Bulldogs. William Gonzalez added 12 and big man Stefan Cicic added eight points and nine rebounds. I caught the first quarter of this one, a strong performance from R-B. Jordan Tunis led the Saxons with 10 points.
Glenbrook South 63, St. Francis 33: I left the R-B game after a quarter as soon as I heard that St. Francis had a freshman playing in this game. Gavin Mueller, the freshman, looked about 6-5 (no heights on my roster, sorry) and finished with eight points and eight rebounds. He has a strong frame and is definitely a name to monitor. The Titans rolled in this one. Gaven Marr scored 17 and had nine rebounds an RJ Davis added 13 points.
Waubonsie Valley 56, Hinsdale South 45: The Warriors took control with a 12-3 second quarter. Jackson Langendorf scored 16 and Shoe Rathi added 10 points. Brendan Savage led the Hornets with an impressive stat line of 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Rolling Meadows 72, Montini 43: Cameron Christie put on a show in the first half, scoring 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds. The Minnesota recruit finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, he was 5 of 7 from three-point range. Mark Nikolich-Wilson added 16 points and Foster Ogbonna had eight points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Tyler Pavilk scored 13 for the Broncos.
Lake Forest 52, Leo 31: Clemson recruit Asa Thomas didn’t play. He was injured late in the game last week against Glenbrook South. Tommie Aberle stepped up with 14 points and four assists and Noah Portalatin added 13. Jachi Lewis scored 11 and grabbed seven rebounds for the Lions.
St. Patrick 64, Glenbard North 52: The Shamrocks needed a big game from Andrew Ayeni to advance. The senior finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Antoine Thomas and sophomore EJ Breland each scored 12. Eddy Redento led Glenbard North with 17. The Shamrocks will face Rolling Meadows in the second round tomorrow. I’ll be at that one.
Lemont 37, Downers Grove South 28: The Mustangs gave undefeated Lemont a scare but then didn’t manage to score in the fourth quarter. Rokas Castillo scored 15 and Matas Castillo added 10. Daniel Laurich led Downers Grove South with nine points.
Conant 58, Andrew 42: The Cougars took control with 23 points in the second quarter. Camden Lathos led the way with 16 and Bradley Biedke added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Grantas Sakenis scored 13 for the Thunderbolts.
Yorkville 54, Nazareth 28: The Foxes dominated the boards 27-15. Yorkville had a balanced scoring attack with 11 points from Dayvion Johnson and Mike Dunn and 10 points and 11 rebounds from Jason Jakstys.
Palatine 55, Wheaton North 43: Connor May had a whopper with 36 points and 10 rebounds. That’s the biggest game I’ve seen so far today.
Lyons 61, Batavia 34: The undefeated Lions could make some noise this week. Niklas Polonowski scored 14 and Louis Kaminski added 11. CJ Valente led the Bulldogs with 13.
Bolingbrook 77, Highland Park 41: The Raiders have Donaven Younger and Aries Hull now and could be poised to make a serious run at the championship. Hull scored 17 and Younger had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Sam Rohn led the Giants with 15 points and seven rebounds.
York 74, St. Laurence 54: This might be my most surprising margin of the day? I don’t know much about the Dukes, but I expected this game to be close. But York has always played really well at its own tournament. AJ Levine led the way with 22 points and Braden Richardson added 21. The Vikings, pretty much all sophomores, was led by Emmanuel Mosley with 16 points.
Timothy Christian 56, Stagg 36: The Trojans broke open a close game in the fourth quater. Alex Keizer led with 18 points. Alex Czaja scored 10 for the Chargers.
