Benet 60, Oak Park/River Forest 48 on Friday at Pontiac

Friday was a full day. First a morning trip down to Pontiac for two games then a quick trip back to Hinsdale for two more games.

Benet (14-1, 6-0) defeated OPRF (5-7, 0-2) 60-48 in the third game on Friday. The Redwings have since advanced to the Pontiac championship game by virtue of an overtime 59-58 victory over Bloom on Saturday only to lose later in the day in another overtime game to Curie 69-66 and finish second in the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.

Previously unbeaten and ninth ranked Benet certainly proved that is team, largely made up of sophomore, is an elite team that will surely rise in the rankings given its showing at Pontiac.

These are a few photos from the game.

Lane Tech Drops Oak Park River Forest 48-40

Lane Tech defeated Oak Park River Forest 48-40 at Lane on Wednesday (March 5, 2020) in the 4A IHSA regional semi-final. I was working at taking photos so I was not following the game as closely as I would like but—wow—the Indians played hard and defeated the favored Huskies.

Lane missed a lot of shots. But it seemed like they got every rebound. The Lane players are tough with very high energy motors. There is only one speed—fast. They imitate their high energy coach, Nick LoGalbo. I have seen a lot of teams this season. No team has played as hard as Lane did last night. I was impressed.

Going into the last few minutes, Lane had a ten point lead. When the Huskies went to a full court press and began to foul, sending the Indians to the free throw line, the Indians hit the free throws.

If a team gets a lead and hits its free throws at the end, it wins the game.

And another thing, there is no louder gym in the city. It almost hurts one’s ears. Everybody is high energy in that gym. It’s exhausting.

Well now they get Simeon on Friday in the Regional Championship. I wonder if Simeon knows what they’re in for.

Team Rose Shootout--Sunday Edition

I saw three really good games on Sunday (December 9, 2018). It was the first time I saw Leo this year. They looked really talented if a little undisciplined. The Lions came back and beat Bloomington. Bloomington is talented by not closers.

Kenwood v. Hillcrest was next. Those were two big, strong and talented teams. It was great to see them. It gave a some great perspective on the good teams out here.

The third game I saw was Orr v. Oak Park-River Forest. It was my first time seeing Orr this year. It is not the same Orr team as it has been for the last few years, but still very talented—and entertaining. The same Lou Adams. Lou has to be my favorite coach to photograph. I have talked to him a few times over the years. He is a very nice man.

Oak Park is good. They caught Orr in the last to minutes and then quickly closed the deal. Wasn’t even close at the end. I was impressed. It was a bit of a sloppy ending. Technical fouls, officiating screw-ups, pissed off coaches. Nevertheless, it was very entertaining.

I experimented with the settings on my camera. I changed around the auto-focus settings to see what works best for basketball. I moved the ISO around. The photos seem quite grainy to me but look okay on the webpages.

These are not my best photos. Not sure why. I have to keep working at it.