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Purple Raider News
Saturday January 20,2007

BHS holds off Champaign Central
 
By Jim Benson
jbenson@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- It wasn’t like Justin Bocot took the first half off Friday night. He did break a sweat while scoring 12 points.

Yet Bocot noticed something different after listening to Bloomington coach Jamie Codron’s halftime speech.

“I was kind of feeling it coming out in the second half. I was really loose coming out of warm-ups,” said Bocot. “Coach told them to give me the ball.”

The Purple Raiders heeded Codron’s advice. The 6-foot-3 Bocot scored 23 of his team’s 31 second-half points as BHS held off Champaign Central 68-66 in a battle of undefeated Big 12 Conference teams at the Robert Frank Sports Complex.

“He’s a gamer. Players make plays. He stepped up for us tonight,” said Codron. “We didn’t have a lot of other scoring tonight, but that’s what seniors do. He’s a heckuva competitor.”

BHS, which improved to 13-3 overall and 7-0 in the league, extended a four-point halftime lead to 50-39 on Bocot’s 3-pointer with three minutes left in the third quarter.

Yet, as has been the case the past couple seasons when these teams meet, this game was far from over.

Champaign Central (14-7, 6-1) closed the gap to 54-51 heading into the fourth quarter before Donald Stewart’s 8-foot jumper put the Maroons ahead 57-56 with 5:14 left.

“We should have slowed it down more and gotten back on defense. They’re a good ball club,” said Bocot, who also grabbed 11 rebounds. “I knew they were going to make a run. We knew it was going to come.”

BHS answered with a run of its own. Sophomore D’Mitri Riggs sank a short jumper in the lane to start a 9-3 BHS spurt. Champaign cut the deficit to 66-64 on Jordan Walker’s layup with 14 seconds left before Bocot made two free throws with 11.2 seconds remaining to clinch the victory.

Bocot’s 35 points were three off his career high set last year against Central Catholic.

“Justin seems to rise to the occasion against us and has great games,” said Champaign coach Scott Davis. “Donald Stewart got three fouls early … and that hurt us. We put Jordan Walker on him, the big sophomore, and he did OK, but that’s a tough assignment. Maybe we should have put Donald back on him, but we didn’t.”

Kenny King, who finished with 11 points, held the hot hand for BHS early. The junior guard sank two 3-pointers as the Raiders closed the first half on a 13-2 run to grab a 37-33 lead.

Stewart sat out the entire second quarter and didn’t score in the first half. But the 6-5 junior scored nine points in the final 2:40 of the third quarter to fuel the Maroons’ rally.

“We have to get a little smarter. We were up 11 and they have some people in foul trouble. We have to milk some time off the clock,” said Codron. “It’s hard to slow some of these kids down. They want to go, go, go.”

Stewart and 6-6, 280-pound center Keith Biggers scored 14 points each as all of the Maroons’ starters reached double figures. Biggers also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

However, all-Big 12 junior guard Verdell Jones went only 4-of-17 from the field and scored 11 points. Champaign shot 41.8 percent from the field (28 of 67).

“Late in the game we had a couple key possessions where we took shots we didn’t need to,” said Davis. “We have to learn when games are tight and this possession is key, no matter how long it takes, you get the shot you want.”

BHS hit 45.5 percent from the field (25 of 55) and held a 36-28 rebounding advantage. Center Lonnie Lawrence contributed 10 rebounds and three blocks.

Champaign won last year’s regular-season meeting against BHS and finished tied for the Big 12 title with Decatur Eisenhower. However, the Raiders got their revenge by beating Champaign for the sectional title.

“Maybe this year it’s our turn,” said Davis, eyeing a possible rematch in the Ottawa Sectional.

 

 

 

This story was published in The Pantagraph - www.pantagraph.com

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