Boys basketball: Bolingbrook gets a taste of its own medicine

Raiders overwhelmed early, can’t fully rally against Brother Rice

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CHICAGO – Bolingbrook was subjected to a rather large dose of its own medicine on Saturday afternoon and found it didn’t much care for the taste of it.

Brother Rice used a fierce up-tempo offensive attack that seemed to bewilder the Raiders and they found themselves buried in a 15-point hole after a quarter and despite attempting a rally, they ultimately fell 73-61 at the Steve Pappas Shootout.

“We weren’t ready to go and play an elite team like that,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “Then that’s what’s going to happen. They were ready to go and they were a little more physical than us and they were a little more ready to play.”

Brother Rice (15-2) scored the first eight points of the game and then pieced together another 10-point run at the end of the first quarter to build a lead as large as 26-7 before Aries Hull capped the quarter with a pair of free throws for Bolingbrook (12-5).

The Crusaders built that lead by playing the style of basketball that Bolingbrook usually profits from - quick, aggressive attacks of the basket that came out of transition.

Bolingbrook did manage to find a stopgap to that problem for awhile and held the Crusaders to just nine points in the second quarter and somehow Bolingbrook had scratched itself back to within striking distance, trailing just 35-27 at the break.

“You saw once we decided we were going to play and then we could play,” Brost said. “So that part is a little disappointing.”

Bolingbrook climbed all the way back to within two points on a Mekhi Cooper basket that made it 39-37, but Brother Rice responded with a 10-2 rally, getting most of those contributions from its bench, that quickly pushed the lead back into double digits.

The Raiders got no closer the rest of the way.

“Whenever you play an elite team, like I said, it’s going to be an uphill battle all the way through,” Brost said. “So we have to show some growth here when we play really elite teams and now that’s the next step for us.

“So it remains to be seen more if we will take it.”

Bolingbrook did end up with four players in double figures as Cooper and Josh Aniceto finished with 15 points each. Hull added 13 and D.J. Strong chipped in 10 points.

Brother Rice’s Ahmad Henderson, a Niagara recruit, led all scorers with 22 points, while Khalil Ross finished with a double-double, scoring 16 points and collecting 10 rebounds for the Crusaders.