If Proviso East`s Ray Gay does his Christmas shopping like he plays basketball, his family and friends are in for a prosperous holiday season.
Gay slithered through a maze of bodies and eluded a whole bunch of hands and elbows in his face to lead the Pirates to a 70-51 West Suburban Gold victory Friday night at Willowbrook.
At times, the lane was as crowded as the mall on the day before Christmas. But Gay scored eight of his game-high 26 points over, around and through defenders to spark an 18-4 third-quarter run that snapped a 29-29 tie.
”We concentrate our offense on Kenny Davis and Jamal Robinson,” said Proviso coach Bill Hitt. ”Ray is usually our third option. But we know where he is all the time. He`s very deceptive on the court. He`s extremely quick, and he`s a strong jumper.”
After connecting on just 10 of 31 shots in the first half, Proviso East
(6-0, 2-0), No. 3 in the Tribune rankings, heated up in the third quarter. After Willowbrook (3-2, 1-1) knotted it 29-29 on a basket by Brian Frohnapfel, Gay sank back-to-back short jumpers to give the Pirates a lead they`d never relinquish.
Offensive rebound baskets by Tony Barthelemy (eight points, eight rebounds) and Robinson (nine points, eight rebounds), plus a fast-break layup by Davis (17 points), capped the run and made it 47-33. After Willowbrook`s Lance Bettini hit a three-pointer, Davis drilled three straight ”threes” to turn it into a rout.
”Physically, in the second half, we did some things purely on athletic ability,” said Hitt, ”and that made the difference in the ballgame.”
Willowbrook came out strong, jumping to a 15-9 lead before Proviso rallied for seven straight points. The period ended in an 18-18 deadlock. Gay`s layup with 6:33 left in the half was Proviso`s last field goal before halftime. But the Pirates managed to maintain a two-point lead by sinking seven free throws down the stretch.
Then, after a blink of the eye in the second half, it was a rout.
”At the start of the third quarter, we didn`t execute our spread offense as well as we would have liked,” said Willowbrook coach Wil Wagner.
Bettini and Randy Malloy led the hosts with 13 points apiece.
”As much as we try to pretend, the kids read the newspapers,” Hitt said. ”Kids are aware of tradition and won-lost records. Willowbrook doesn`t have a great tradition, but they have a better team than our kids were aware of.”
