Boys Basketball: Simeon cruises past Brooks

Updated: April 11, 2012 8:13PM

Playing the Simeon at full strength is hard enough, but it’s even tougher when your team is battling through the flu.

So it was Wednesday for host Brooks, which lost 95-61 to the No. 1 Wolverines in the Red-South.

On hand to watch the game were Illinois coach Bruce Weber and North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

The game started out with a alley-oop lob from Jabari Parker to Steve Taylor and it was off to the races as Simeon (14-0, 4-0) led 25-13 at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter belonged to Parker, who scored 16 of his 23 points on an assortment of shots dunks and jumpers. He also had nine rebounds.

Taylor matched Parker’s output, scoring 23 points – including 13 in the second quarter – along with 11 rebounds and eight assists. The third member of Simeon’s big three, Kendrick Nunn, scored nine points and had 10 assists.

Coach Robert Smith was pleased with his teams unselfish play: “I liked the way we shared the ball; Jabari and Steve feed off of each other. We just have to stay humble and focused.”

The Eagles (6-11, 2-3) were led in scoring by Xavier Wells with 23 points and Erick Locke with 19.

Brooks coach Bobby Locke said his team was just overmatched. “Simeon is a outstanding team,” Bobby Locke said. “They are where we want to be and with hard work we will get there. It didn’t help that we were banged up the way we were.”

He also singled out the play of Taylor. “Parker gets all of the attention and he is a fantastic talent. But people just don’t realize how good a player Taylor is.”

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