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St. Francis, Hinsdale South enjoy United Center's rare air

Wherever basketball or life in general takes Hinsdale South's Zion Griffin, he can look back on Saturday knowing he did something only an infinitesimal percentage of humanity has ever done.

Slam dunk at the United Center.

"Just to get a dunk on this court and say, 'Well, I dunked in this gym,' it's crazy," Griffin said.

The 6-foot-6 Iowa State commit's one-handed throw-down was the first basket in the Hornets' 49-39 nonconference win over St. Francis in the legendary Chicago arena.

"It was a great experience, like, coming here as a kid and watching and then getting a chance to actually play out here was good. It's a new experience, I loved it," Griffin said. "Played a good team, I know a couple of those guys from over there, they're pretty cool guys and playing against them in an atmosphere like this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Griffin's 18 points more than doubled any other player, including St. Francis' top scorer, John Detloff, with 8. But with St. Francis coach Erin Dwyer and Hinsdale South coach Brett Moore having prearranged five-man substitution patterns - while still chasing victory - a priority was getting everyone from St. Francis' Alex Rueth to Hinsdale South's Karolis Zinis minutes on the 94-foot court.

"As much as we wanted to win, we really wanted to just get everyone in, get everyone playing time and have everyone enjoy the experience as much as everyone else," said Spartans guard Matt Cooney. "I mean, we can't take it for granted, not many schools are able to do this. We've got to just be thankful for what we have."

St. Francis (1-6) quickly followed Griffin's opening dunk with Andrew Harvey's inside basket, but as players from both teams acclimated themselves to the surroundings Hinsdale South (7-1) pulled away.

"You get on this big court in this big arena," Moore said, "it's a lot different. I don't think our guys were quite ready for that. It's just another new experience that helps you grow as a team. It's a lot of fun for the kids and it was a good time coming in here."

The Hornets led 15-10 after one quarter and expanded that to 30-21 at halftime on Joe Mazzei's steal and layup.

Hinsdale South took 14-point leads in both the third and fourth quarters, but St. Francis rallied each time. Big Noah Howard ended the game with a fifth-chance putback for his seventh point.

Regardless of the outcome, some 900 people enjoyed the spectacle.

"(For) St. Francis, the athletic department and then our principal (Raeann Huhn) to support us and do this and our St. Francis 'Spartan Nation,' for them to be willing to support it - selling over 500 tickets - that was all from word-of-mouth from our fans and our students and our parents and our coaches and our alumni, so it was really cool," Dwyer said.

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