Eye openers on the court

One of the best exercises for your mind is reading the daily high school sports roundup. Your thoughts roam all over the place.

There are plenty of moments when you think, "Yep, I figured that would happen." You can usually count on a "Hmm, closer than I thought it would be," and a "Wow, nice upset."

And every once in a while you come across something that makes you say, "You've gotta be kidding me."

I ran across a couple of jaw-droppers the past two weeks. And I'll bet you did, too.

Like, I'm sure we all thought to ourselves Feb. 11 after seeing that Crete-Monee murdelized Beecher 106-23 in boys basketball, "What in the heck was Rocky Hill thinking last night?"

And I'm sure you'd just love to know how the Feb. 20 game between Homewood-Flossmoor and Lincoln-Way North resulted in a 40-7 final score.

Well, I wasn't at either game so I can't give you an eyewitness account. But when I see smoke and think there might be fire, I can head for the telephone. First, I called Rocky Hill at Crete-Monee.

"Uh, I guess they lost their best player (Brett Ociepka) to an ACL," Hill said. "When they were without him, that really crippled them."

Yeah, I know. But 106 points? Seriously?

"Man, we're definitely not in the business of trying to embarrass anybody," Hill said. "I didn't play my starters in the second half and we didn't press after the first quarter.

"I think the people at Beecher knew we weren't trying to run the score up. Coaches know that if you're not pressing and you've got your second and third unit in, that's pretty much all you can do."

Well, no. It isn't. You can run time off the clock, make a ton of passes, don't go for layups.

Hill believes that wasn't the fair thing to do to his second unit.

"They're obviously trying to impress the coaching staff, their parents and the rest of their friends," Hill said. "They're trying to play well, too. I can't tell them, 'Don't score.' "

Beecher coach Tony Waznonis took it all in stride.

"When they got to 100 they were congratulating each other, so I think that when they saw 100 was in sight they went for it," he said. "I mean, as a coach I would understand that you might want to get to that point. It's something that rarely happens.

"We don't see teams like (Crete-Monee) in our conference so we knew, especially without Brett, what could happen. It was upsetting for the kids, but I didn't try to make a big deal out of it, nor do I want to."

Well, if you're OK, I'm OK. Next?

H-F and Lincoln-Way North combined for the lowest point total I can remember since Crete-Monee and Marian Catholic combined for 32 on Jan. 24, 2001. In that one, Marian played a stall game before a jeering crowd and the two teams went scoreless for an incredible three quarters before Crete-Monee finally won 24-8.

This game was a little different. Nobody stalled, although Lincoln-Way North was verrrrrrry patient - so patient, in fact, the Phoenix held the ball the last 3:52 of the second quarter down 21-4.

"They were in a packed 1-3-1," North coach Bob Curran said. "We tried attacking it, but we weren't getting the looks we wanted. So we held for the last shot. That slowed the game down right there."

According to Curran, his Phoenix had more turnovers (16) than shots (15), was unable to get any offensive rebounds, but in general played better than it did when the two teams met the first time (69-18).

In other words, he was pretty happy despite his team scoring just seven points.

"We've got two juniors and five sophomores on the roster who are physically outmatched," Curran said. "I was happy to hold one of the best teams in the area to 40 points. I know that when these kids become juniors and seniors they're going to get better at putting the ball in the basket.

"The kids are learning how to control the tempo of the game. It's not always done with defense to keep a team to 40 points. When you're physically outmatched you can shorten the game with your offense. I'm very excited for when these kids are juniors and seniors. They're going to understand how to win basketball games."

Now, if we can all just stay awake that long.

Tony Baranek can be reached at tbaranek@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5947.