Boys Basketball: Playoffs begin milestone rush for teams
By Tina Akouris takouris@suntimes.com February 26, 2013 7:02PM
Updated: March 28, 2013 6:20AM
The regular season is over, and with that came a bevy of statistical milestones for a couple of teams.
Plainfield North may be just a .500 team at the end of the regular season, but the Tigers ended the campaign having won eight of their last nine game. And their assist-to-turnover ratio is close to 2 to 1.
“A ratio like that is hard to do in a short high school game,” coach Nick DiForti said. “This shows how much trust our players now have in each other.”
Among North’s highlights was sophomore Trevor Stumpe scoring a career-best 37 points Feb. 21 against Plainfield Central. Stumpe is shooting 47 percent from the field this season. Senior guard Marcus Fair also is close to getting 300 career assists.
At Providence, the Celtics — another .500 team that is better than their record indicates — are aiming for back-to-back regional championships, which hasn’t been done at Providence since the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons. The Celtics also boast a player averaging a double-double in Catholic League play in sophomore forward Miles Boykin. The two-sport star — Boykin also plays football — averages 13.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
Kudos to you, kid
Homewood-Flossmoor did a number Friday at Joliet Central, beating the Steelmen 78-51. The Vikings defense held Joliet’s leading scorer, Jalen Heath, to just seven points, but that freed up Jonah Coble to knock down a game-high 26 points.
Vikings personnel were impressed with Coble.
“The kid can shoot the basketball,” H-F coach Jim McLaughlin said. “We know him, but he didn’t play against us the first time because he had some (disciplinary) problems. Last year he scored on us real well and we’ve seen him on tape, so we knew that if he hits a shot that he becomes a very streaky shooter and he got rolling pretty well there.
“We were up by 22 at one point (in the first half) and then he knocked down two threes and we were only up by 16 at the half. We knew we had to give him extra attention on the defensive side.”
