Milestone for Epting as IC Catholic Prep rolls
A flying start led to some history being made at IC Catholic Prep as the Knights defeated Evergreen Park 75-47 in the ICCP/Westmont Christmas tournament on Monday.
IC Catholic missed just 5 shots in the first half while dominating the Mustangs 39-12. And midway through the second quarter on a 3 from the top of the key, Knights junior Rhashaun Epting scored his 1,000th varsity point.
IC Catholic stopped the game after the basket to commemorate the occasion, though Epting seemed a bit puzzled as to exactly why.
"I was so confused," Epting said, not realizing the benchmark until it had happened. "It's just a night to remember. It's a good team win, that's the most important thing. We got the win, and championship game (Tuesday) against St. Edward."
The junior guard/forward finished with 18 points, putting him at 1,013 in his time at IC Catholic.
"(It's) really exciting," said Knights coach TJ Tyrrell. "Being still a junior and halfway through, that's very impressive. We're proud of him and excited that he's gonna keep going for more."
Yet it wasn't Epting who got the Knights off to the hot start. Instead, it was the man who assisted his good friend's milestone basket, junior Troy Burrows.
Burrows had 12 of his team's 22 points in the first quarter and had 16 points in the half after going 4-for-6 from behind the arc. Burrows finished with 18 points.
"We started off real strong," Burrows said. "We've been working on playing as a team more.
"It was a good start and we hope to continue it tomorrow."
The Mustangs struggled in the first half, to say the least. They went 3-for-24 from the field in the half, scoring just 7 points from the field. Isaac Matthews helped Evergreen Park by 4-for-4 at the foul line.
"They shot the ball well," said Evergreen Park coach Pat Flannigan. "We had a lot of just bizarre things happen to us. Kicking the ball out of bounds, just a whole storm of bad things happened to us."
The Mustangs had a better second half, just barely being outscored 36-35.
Junior Tyler Sorbellini had a team-high 15 points, all from behind the arc, but Evergreen Park couldn't cut the deficit from the first half.
"We've been really talking about the guys focusing on the 'we' over 'me' mentality," Tyrrell said. "Really good ball movement tonight, especially in the first half. Making that extra pass, really unselfish play - it was a really good team win."