The boys basketball team faced off against Marian Catholic Friday. New players Fullard, Eldridge show they have a good season ahead of them.
December 3, 2016
The broadcast of the game begins 28 minutes into the livestream video above.
West brought forward a good fight leading to a commanding 72-42 win against Marian Catholic from Eastern Chicago at the first home game of the season last night. After losing senior starters Nate Barnes, Wali Parks and Alex Henderson, West brought forward two new players in Izaya Ono-Fullard ’17 and Seybian Sims ’18 alongside returners Devontae Lane ’17, Connor McCaffery ’17 and Patrick McCaffery ’19.
Ono-Fullard, who played just eight games last year, was able to rack in quite a few assists, including one alley-oop to Patrick. It’s something that happens a lot in practice, he says, but he never expected it to happen in a game.
“Going in I wasn’t really expecting [to start]. I thought I would play some defense off the bench, so when I found out I was starting I was really excited, especially [for] playing with all of my friends,” he said. “That makes it really fun.”
Although they trailed by 30, the score doesn’t measure up Marian’s playing. Last year, Marian made it to the regional semifinal for their district. At the end of the first, West lead only 12-10. By the end of the first, West was up by 27-20. This lead was partly due to fouls on Marian that led to West being on the line eight times. In the last 20 seconds Patrick gave West much-needed momentum going in to the half with a dunk which lead to a West-dominated offense in the second.
“The crowd was all into it tonight. They were really excited to be here,” he said. “We weren’t playing well and we needed a little bit of energy, so it [felt] great [supplying that].”
The Trojans went on to lead by 51-29 by the end of the third, more than quadruple their points per quarter in comparison to the first. Evan Flitz ’18 sank a three and brought in for two while helping sophomore Dante Eldridge bring in some aggressive defense to let the scoring streak by the McCafferys going on the offensive side. It was both Flitz and Eldridge’s first varsity game.
West will play Keokuk at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m.
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