ICC playing at home vs. Olivet JV

[smitty]

One note- Shang Ping will not play tonight. He injured his left hand and has it in an air cast. No word how long he will be out.

[Da Coach]

Halftime score--

ICC 34 Olivet Nazarene JV 24

[mexicobufan]

Any idea how D.W. did in the first half?

[Da Coach]

He played well, but was a little out of control. The officiating allowed a lot of rough play.

[Da Coach]

Final score 76-67. ICC kept a lead around 10 points most of the game. DeAaron Williams had 15 points.

[tornado]

I was at the ICC game vs. Olivet, so if anyone is interested, here's what I saw.

--first the people in attendance included Matt Roth watching some of his old Washington HS teammates who now play for Olivet (freshmen Kris Irish and Ty Wallenfang). Marcello Robinson was there, and he seemed to know some of the folks from Olivet, as he was originally from Kankakee. I also saw a few posters, lefty, Go Birds Go, Tguy.
Zach McAllister was watching, too.

--Ping was on the bench in street clothes. He had his left hand covered by what appeared to be an air cast but took it off at halftime, so it may have just been a wrap that was holding ice. Either way, he didn't play nor warm up at all. One thing I noted was his dress. The Bradley kids who don't play such as Ray Brown and Jeremy Fears come to the game dressed nicely and wear a tie. Ping was wearing a shaggy old hooded sweatshirt, torn, frayed blue jeans, and looked incredibly sloppy.

--The officiating was horrible. The refs allowed all kinds of slapping, poking, contact, hand checking, and ICC apparently knew this style of reffing was coming so they took advantage. ICC got away with murder, and in the end the refs lost control of this game. By the late 2nd half, both teams were really getting physical and fouling hard. One apparently intentional hard hit on an ICC player happened right in front of Tony, and he lost it and walked out onto the floor to scream at the ref. he got a "T", but the refs let lots of this stuff go.
If the refs were anything like the ones at Carver on Sunday where they called all the ticky tack stuff, then I am sure ICC would not have won.
They got half their points by slapping away at the Olivet kids until they got a loose ball then were off to the races.

--ICC plays out of control a lot of the time, taking wild shots and looking for alley oop dunks and breakaway slams.
They were clearly the more athletic and talented team last night but they almost let a far inferior talented team sneak up on them as a result.

--Olivet is having a down year. They are NAIA and their varsity is 1-4. This team was their Junior Varsity, and they have not won a game yet. These kids were mostly freshmen plus a couple sophs. Three of the kids were Peoria area kids.
One of the kids on the Olivet JV is sophomore Ryan Paxson, son of Bulls' GM John Paxson.
Ryan is a strong 6-2 SG and had an off night.
I think he missed 3-4 3-pt attempts, as the Cougars seemed to key on him and guard him with one of their taller players.

--I would estimate DeAaron had 15 points but he was not the high scorer. Jones had 17 and Baptist had 18. DW took a lot of shots from inside out to the 3-point line, and was 5-5 from the line, too.
He is a very talented player but takes a lot of ill-advised shots, but then so do all the ICC players.
Wendell Mardis is a very impressing PG, as is Jeff Wires. I'd be surprised if both don't get some DI looks.

--ICC built a 10 point lead in the latter 1st half during a run where they hacked and jabbed the Olivet guards and got several steals without anything being called. That 10 point lead stayed about the same, varying at times from maybe 6 to 15 all the way until the end.
Olivet got within four points near the end but had to foul to stop the clock.Two breakaway dunks right in the final 15 second gave ICC the 9 point final margin, but this was way closer than most in the gym ever thought it would be.

--Just on talent and quickness, ICC is going to beat most teams, especially if they get officials like tonight.
But they really must play better as a team, they aren't always going to get all the non-calls like they did tonight. They need to pass better, take better shots, or they will get knocked off by any well disciplined team they face.

--Remember, this was the JV squad of a tiny NAIA school who is having one of their worst years ever.

--ICC definitely has the talent to win every game they play the rest of the season. They seem to have so many different weapons, and almost every kid on the squad can score or hurt you. I wish them well, and hope DeAaron continues to have a fine year.
By the way Marcus (LaMarcus) Anderson was not dressed, and ICC had only 14 of their 20 rostered players in uniform.
Matt Nicholson played a ton in Ping's absence and played fine defense. He doesn't score a lot.

[Da Coach]

Report in PJS-

http://pjstar.com/stories/112106/ICC_BBJBBPV9.081.shtml