Boys Basketball: Stevenson gets back on track, thumps Palatine
BY DANNY MEHIGAN Contributor February 1, 2012 12:22AM
Jalen Brunson of the Patriots does all he can to maintain control of the ball during last week's game at Warren. | Joe Shuman~Sun-Times Media
Updated: April 2, 2012 1:55AM
Stevenson has its share of individual stars.
The Patriots rode senior Michael Fleming and freshman Jalen Brunson to a 10-1 record and statewide recognition in the first six weeks of the season.
But over the next month, something happened. The Pats lost six games in a row, each one by single digits. After a win over Zion-Benton, Warren avenged an early season loss by destroying Stevenson, 64-38, on Jan. 24.
The Patriots had to embrace the team concept to get back to their winning ways, and it started on Saturday night with a 65-49 mauling of Palatine.
“Since we had such a successful start in the beginning of the year, it kind of hurt us in the middle part of the year,” Fleming said. “We started losing close games to teams we were capable of beating. We just changed our focus back to where it was at the beginning of the season. We’re playing with energy, we’re sharing the ball, we’re playing more as a team and that’s definitely going to work for us the last six games of the year.”
Stevenson (12-8) jumped out to a resounding 31-7 lead midway through the second quarter against struggling Palatine (2-19). Though Brunson scored a quick seven points in the first quarter and Fleming led all scorers with 16 in the game (10 in the first half), it was the contributions up and down the lineup that led to such an easy victory.
Ten players contributed to the bottom line against the Pirates. Brunson finished with 11 points, while Danny Nowak led the bench brigade with 11 second-half points. Matt Morrissey added nine and Andy Stempel grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Stevenson also dominated the rebounding battle, 36-22.
“We have a deep team this year,” Fleming said. “That’s one thing that hurt us last year was that we weren’t very deep. This year we have guys who aren’t only scorers coming off the bench, but guys who know their role. That’s basically, if we key into those things, what will bring us success.”
The Pats also forced 15 turnovers and led by as many as 29 points before relenting in the fourth quarter as the reserves got some much-deserved time on the floor. Though just about everything went their way, there was no one area that coach Pat Ambrose could pinpoint for the early outburst.
“It was just a stretch of playing well on both ends,” he said. “It’s not like we outscored them by 50 and it’s not like we shut them down to zero, but you have to play defense on one end and it’s going to translate to the other end.
“We want to work hard on the defensive end and let the chips fall where they may on the offensive end.”
The losing streak took Stevenson out of the NSC Lake title race, but the ultimate goal — state tournament success — is still easily within reach.
“We talked about how this is our fourth quarter coming up,” Ambrose said. “We had seven games left, including tonight, so we want to finish strong in the fourth and we’re off to a good start.”
The Pats, who were slated to play Glenbard West in a marquee nonconference game on Tuesday, return to conference play with a visit to Libertyville on Friday (7:30 p.m.).
“We talk a lot in practice about what makes us successful and what doesn’t,” Ambrose added. “The test is the games. We’ve done a good job in practice of late. We have six games left and we want to get on a roll.”
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