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Boys basketball: East Chicago cruises past Roosevelt
EAST CHICAGO — While most of the high school activities on Friday night were postponed due to snow, East Chicago Central and Roosevelt played on.
The Cardinals even played on without three players — the snow didn’t get them, but “disciplinary reasons.” Despite the setback, EC Central was unfazed as it dismantled a short-handed Roosevelt, 75-49.
The Cardinals improved to 8-5 after solid performances from sophomore Tre’Quan Burnett, who scored 15 points, and 6-foot-4 senior Everette Coleman, who had to play a big man’s game in the absence of senior center Lee Epps.
Coleman — described as a “tweener” by his head coach Abe Brown — scored the bulk of his game-high 22 points on layups and kick started EC Central’s third-quarter run with a pair of easy buckets. Although the Cardinals only led Roosevelt 24-21 at halftime, the team ripped off a 13-3 run that lasted until midway through the third quarter.
“I told the guys, they need to pick up the defense,” said Brown, whose team created three turnovers during that stretch.
After two Coleman layups, senior Joshua Ochoa took advantage of his defender cheating off him and knocked down an open corner 3-pointer. At the buzzer, freshman Hyron Edwards went the length of the court and floated in another bucket to cap the quarter in which EC Central outscored Roosevelt 21-12.
For Roosevelt, now 7-6 overall, it’s been a difficult week. The Panthers played their third game in five days — all resulting in losses — and during the school day, the team learned that it had lost key seniors who have been declared academically ineligible.
“Well, it’s evident that it hurt,” Roosevelt coach Larry McKissack responded when asked if the loss of his second leading scorer, Christopher Porter, affected the team. “But, hey, what can you do. (There’s) no excuse, they had three players out.”
Roosevelt senior Rondell Gardner pulled down 15 of the team’s 21 rebounds while senior Michael Jenkins led the Panthers with 14 points.
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