Ready-to-go Stevenson rolls past Foreman at Hinsdale Central
It's a rather simple philosophy that Stevenson junior Justin Smith and his Patriots boys basketball teammates live by:
Build a big lead early so that the other team has to play catch-up the whole game.
In the Patriots' opening-round game of the inaugural Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic against Foreman, Smith and the Patriots followed the script to the letter.
Stevenson started by scoring the game's first 12 points en route to a 22-6 lead after one quarter. With each quarter the lead grew and grew as the Patriots ran away from the Hornets with an 80-48 victory Saturday afternoon.
Stevenson (7-2) will face Richards, a 74-67 overtime winner over Chicago Hope, in a 3:45 p.m. quarterfinal Monday.
“If we get out to a big lead, then the other team is way behind and we can just play our game,” said Smith, who scored 20 points and hauled down 14 boards. “Coming into the tournament we were real excited to start playing against some great competition.”
Before Smith started rolling out his wide-array of high-flying dunks, junior Eric Zalewski (8 points) did his damage from deep, draining a pair of long 3s as the Patriots opened up a 15-2 advantage.
Out of a timeout, Willie Herenton floated a pass that Smith pulled from the air for a crowd-pleasing flush. That dunk ignited a wild burst in the second quarter in which Smith scored 10 straight points. Foreman (3-7) simply had no answer.
“We were pleased with how we got started today,” Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. “The kids were tuned in and were ready to go right away today.”
The balanced Stevenson attack got a nice boost inside as well from Kevin Yang. The 6-foot-6 senior poured in 10 points to go with 6 boards.
“(Kevin) gives us nice size and tenacity in the middle,” Ambrose said. “Kevin is a great kid and we are lucky to have him.”
Stevenson opened the second half much like it started the game — with another double-digit run. This time Willie and Rodney Herenton did the bulk of the damage for the Patriots. Rodney scored 6 of his 12 points in the third quarter while Willie also hit double figures, scoring 9 of his 13 points in the second and third quarters.
Eleven different players scored for the Patriots as Stevenson shot 46 percent from the floor while holding the Hornets to just 34 percent. Stevenson also forced 22 turnovers.
Foreman battled back in the fourth quarter and was led in scoring by sophomore David Forrest. He scored 15 of his 20 points after halftime. Sean Ballenger added a dozen for the Hornets, who continue play against Chicago Hope at 9:30 a.m. Monday.