Filippone still filling it up for Antioch
Dan Filippone's creativity isn't limited to his playground skills.
Antioch's junior guard had a barber shave what resembles a lightning bolt into his hair on the left side of his head.
"I just want to be new and different," Filippone said.
Well, that would describe his game on the court.
Filippone led Antioch in scoring for the second night in a row Tuesday, as his 18 points helped the Sequoits beat Round Lake 57-28 at Woodstock in the Hoops for Healing tournament. He poured in 31 points the previous night in a win over Woodstock.
Against Round Lake (0-2), Filippone scored on a variety of shots, including drives, floaters, pullups, jab steps and runners. He scooped in a reverse layup, swished jumpers and banked in shots. He didn't sink any 3-pointers (0 of 1), but that's also part of his game. With Antioch enjoying a comfortable lead, he sat out half of the third quarter and the entire fourth.
Talk about an electric display from the kid with a lightning bolt shaved in his hair.
"He lives with that ball," Antioch coach Jim White said. "And he lives in the gym."
The 5-foot-11 Filippone is a returning starter who was called up to the varsity freshman year at Christmas to help fill out a roster that was being quickly depleted by injuries and illness. He was a dynamic scorer as a junior, with his season including a 30-point effort against North Chicago.
"I've just always played AAU and stuff, so I've always created moves," Filippone said. "I just want to be efficient and keep coming up with new moves to add to my arsenal."
"He'll pick up something new, or we'll do something and he'll just do it 20 times until he gets it," said White, whose Sequoits wrap up the tourney Wednesday with an 8 p.m. start at Woodstock North against the host Thunder. "That's his work ethic."
Filippone doesn't want to be known as just a scorer. He made improving his defense a priority in the off-season.
"I really want to take pride in that," he said.
With the graduation of Logan Weber, White is starting Filippone at the point. MJ Balagot will handle the point when he comes in off the bench, allowing Filippone to shift to two guard.
Filippone heated up in the second quarter against Round Lake, scoring 11 points (4-of-5 shooting) to help Antioch stretch a 15-5 lead after one quarter to 32-10 by halftime. The Sequoits got back returning starters Branden Gallimore and Andrew Hare along with fellow senior guard Peter Boeh, all of whom sat out the season opener against Woodstock. None of the three started. They had been on a school trip to Dallas.
"It wasn't punitive," White said of his decision to sit all three players in the season opener. "It was just that they missed practices and we were repping things. They get it. They're great leaders and they were great teammates (Monday night) on our bench."
Junior guard Robert Christiansen scored all 9 of his points, including a 3-pointer, in the fourth quarter for Antioch.
Round Lake, which trailed 41-13 after three, was led in scoring by senior guard Chris Pierre with 7 points.
"Our offense didn't click tonight," Panthers coach Jeremy Fisher said. "We had a couple of early opportunities in transition, we didn't convert those, and that just set a bad tone for the rest of the game. Props to Antioch. They played great defense. They had us flustered a little bit when we were trying to get our offense going."
Round Lake plays Cary-Grove at 5 p.m. Wednesday in its tourney finale.
"I'm excited about this group," Fisher said. "I feel like we got something that we can work with. A lot of them are a little inexperienced. We just got to learn those lessons and keep working on it."