You know things are rolling for the Oak Park and River Forest boys basketball team when even opposing coaches are ready to jump on the bandwagon. After Friday night’s 59-45 loss to the host Huskies, St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi was so thoroughly impressed with his opponent, perhaps the OPRF Dog Pound student section should have saved him a seat.
“First of all, Oak Park is a team that has a chance to win a state title,” Clodi said. “They are that athletic and they really defend. The [Iman] Shumpert kid can take over a game for them. We have seen St. Joseph and Lake Park [a pair of Top 20-ranked teams] this season, and we think they are better than both of those clubs. I would not want to run up against these guys in the state tournament.”
Although by his own postgame admission, Clodi felt the Huskies would probably beat his squad 10 out of 10 games, the Saints (10-14) conceded nothing in terms of effort. Unfortunately for the St. Charles East, these are pretty heady times for the streaking Huskies, as evidenced by their 11-2 spurt during the last 5:02 of the first quarter to seize an 18-10 advantage.
“We just want to have fun and play together,” OPRF 6-foot-3 swingman Daniel Barnes said. “You can put any team in front of us, and we’ll try our best to win. Our goal is to win our remaining games and get ourselves set for the playoffs.”
The Huskies (20-4, 8-1) continued their pressure defense and balanced scoring to add another 12-5 spurt in pushing out a 30-15 lead with 3:01 until the half. To the Saints’ credit, they actually outscored the Huskies 25-24 in the second half behind the effective play of 6-5 center Collin Pryor (14 points and nine rebounds).
However, Iman Shumpert (21 points), Barnes (14 points, seven rebounds), Jamis Nelson (eight points), Lamont Sanders (six rebounds) led a comprehensive effort for the Huskies on both ends of the floor. OPRF forced 24 turnovers against St. Charles East.
Quinn Peterson, Adam Taylor, Phil Gary, Nate Willey and developing 6-6 junior center Blake Austin also played well for the Huskies.
OPRF consolidated its win over St. Charles East the following night with a critical 64-50 West Suburban (Silver) Conference victory at Hinsdale Central. Trailing the Red Devils 42-32 in the third quarter, Barnes (23 points) and Sanders (16 points) spearheaded an unbelievable 21-0 run.
While it’s evident the Huskies are gearing up for a strong finish to a splendid season, a pair of difficult conference games await them this weekend-most notably Friday night’s showdown at home versus conference leader Proviso West at 7:30 p.m.
“We’re in a tough position,” Allen said. “There’s a lot pressure because you have to win every game. We were certainly hoping, just like Proviso West was hoping, that somebody would lose one game. We gave them their wish and lost to Glenbard West. Now, we both have one conference loss [heading into Friday’s game].”
The Panthers (18-4, 9-1), led by the talented duo of Justin Hightower and Nigel Jackson, currently are in first place ahead of OPRF by a half game; however, the Huskies won the teams’ first encounter and seem focused on a similar result come Friday night
“We’re really excited about playing Proviso West,” said Shumpert, one of the top-rated juniors in the state. “Our team is special because everybody can do a little bit of everything.”
It’s likely the Huskies will see their WSC rival down the road as both teams are in the Hillside Regional. OPRF was given a No. 4 seed in the Lyons Township Sectional, while Proviso West will come in as a No. 5 seed. The two teams will likely meet March 2 for the regional championship.