If you haven’t been to the Pontiac Holiday Tournament, you should go. It is far and away the best holiday tournament. Two hours south on I-55 from Chicago, it’s worth the effort. The people are friendly. There is an abundance of food choices served by dozens of high schoolers. The gym is big with good sight lines. Access to the gym is controlled but that’s good thing. Coming and going spectators don’t block views of the games.
The games were quick. An hour and a half and on to the next one. Frankly, I found myself wanting more time between games to rest and get something to drink. I was only there for the last four games of the third day so I saw the consolation championship, the fifth place game, the third place game and the championship. Good teams against good teams.
There are fans, and even some media, out there who are not fans of consolation games and I am one of them. But these consolation, third and fifth place games at Pontiac gave me an opportunity to see teams and players that I probably would not otherwise get to see. These consolation games aren’t going the find these teams at their best. But it’s still a chance to spend an afternoon and evening in the same gym and see good teams.
The first game was Oak Park River Forest (1-0, 7-4) against Joliet West (2-2, 6-8). This was my first chance to see Joliet West’s standout freshman Jeremiah Fears. He did not disappoint. And he is only a freshman. The Huskies survived a late comeback by the Tigers to pull out a 46-44 victory to win fifth place.
Did you see the size of the fifth place trophy that OPRF got. (If not see below.) Who even gives a fifth-place trophy? Pontiac does it up right.
Before I left Chicago, I watched the New Trier v. Simeon game streaming on the Pontiac Holiday Tournament website. What a game. Click here for a live stream recording if the game. No. 3 Simeon (1-0, 10-1) came back from a six-point deficit with 43 seconds to go to force overtime and pullout a 69-66 win to advance to an all CPS Red-South/Central final.
After New Trier’s heartbreaking loss, the No. 15 Trevians (1-1, 15-1) drew Benet Academy (2-0, 8-3). Gene Heidkamp’s No. 22 (2-0, 8-3) Redwings had fallen to Curie earlier in the day. I heard a lot about New Trier this season. I wanted to see for myself. I heard about Benet too. I expected to see Benet at DePaul Prep last Saturday but COVID stopped that game.
New Trier’s big man Jackson Munro struggled a little inside against Benet’s big man and St. Joseph transfer Kyle Thomas. Munro finished with one bucket, a three-pointer. Thomas on the other hand had twenty points.
The Trevians three-point shooting was the difference in the game. As a team, they were 12 for 21 from beyond the arc. Jake Feigen had four and Karlo Colak and Noah Shannon each had three. New Trier 53, Benet 42 final.
Then at 9:30, the championship game between Simeon and No. 5 Curie (3-0, 15-1). What struck me the most was how well these teams played. Up tempo from the start. Jaylen Drane and Jalen Griffith can handle the ball and make shots; the best guards that I have seen this season.
The Rubin twins, Wesley and Miles, played well finishing with eight and nine points respectively. Curie lead at the half 33-30. I thought the second half would be barnburner. Not so much. Simeon kind of just pulled away slowly as Curie struggled to get good shots.
Simeon’s Griffith and Drane spackled with 17 and 14 respectively. Interestly, Curie’s big man Chikasi Ofama disappeared with no points and four rebounds.
Final--Wolverines 71, Condors 58.
As for the photos, I want to be positive but the light in the gym left me wanting more. More light. It’s not that bad. I have a fancy camera so I should be able to make it work. But that fancy camera wants to shoot on auto at 20000 ISO. That’s way too much. I want my photos to be sharp. 20000 ISO ain’t gonna cut it. I dropped it way down and the photos came out fine.
The Pontiac gym is very spectator friendly. I appreciate that. However, as frequent viewers to this channel will recall, the light in the gym is the most important aspect of high school basketball. Let’s all just keep that in mind for the future.
I hope you like the photos.
