Girls Basketball: Bloom overruns Joliet Central
By Tim O’Brien For Sun-Times Media December 3, 2012 10:56PM
Joliet Central's Juatece McNear (11) drives to the basket around Bloom's Mariah Middleton (24). | Larry Kane~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 5, 2013 6:16AM
The countless jump shots attempted in practice. The drills. The repetition.
Despite the hard work, though, sometimes the basketball gods have the last laugh.
Hosting Bloom on Monday night in a battle of two of the oldest high schools in the state, Joliet Central could not overcome its offensive struggles, falling 50-27.
“The ball just doesn’t drop sometimes,” Central coach Brian Reed said. “The only way to get out of that is to keep shooting. We shoot a lot of jump shots in practice, and I tell the girls ‘Sometimes it doesn’t fall.’ I’m proud of the girls, though.”
Central (2-5) was led by Bernasia Fox’s 10 points with Chavon Banks, Gina Ramirez and Chantell Mack (12 rebounds) each scoring four points in the losing effort.
The Steelmen shot just 3-of-20 in the second quarter and 6-of-32 overall in the first half. Bloom led 8-5 late in the first period before the Blazing Trojans went into high gear offensively, ending the half on a 26-9 run.
The main culprit? Central’s offensive struggles, including eight second-quarter misses in the lane and a five-minute scoreless streak.
“We need to keep working at it in practice because when we play teams like this, they have a different game speed,” Reed said. “We’ve got to replicate that in practice. Bloom is a well-coached team. If some of our shots fell (early), it would have been interesting.”
Katherine Strong (11 rebounds) and Mariah Middleton had 15 points apiece for Bloom (5-3), with Bria Gaines contributing 14 points and nine rebounds.
“The key we’ve been focusing on is defensive rebounding,” Bloom coach Ron Newquist said. “We’re not always going to have good offensive nights. Right now, we’re struggling to find our way as a shooting team.”
Bloom opened in 1900 while Joliet High School opened a year later.
