By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglemewspapers.com
One would think game planning for Bolingbrook would be relatively easy — limit Division-I seniors Tyler Cochran and Joseph Yesufu and make someone else beat you.
The problem with that philosophy is — there is always someone else ready to step up.
Friday night it was junior guard Darius Burford that scored 24 points and led the Raiders’ (14-4) 89-63 blowout win at Homewood-Flossmoor.
“I was just hot and my teammates did a good job of finding me and I need to give credit to them,” Burford said. “The coaches got us ready for the game and it was fun. They did an extremely, extremely good job getting us prepared for this game. There was nothing out there that we didn’t go over in practice. The scouting was perfect.”
Burford’s offensive explosion may have been a surprise to some fans who expected to see the NIU-bound Cochran or Yesufu, a Drake recruit, but that was not a shock to coach Rob Brost.
Darius Burford and the Raiders won two of three games agains some of the state’s top team. (Photo by Mark Gregory)
“Everyone talks about how good our backcourt is and one of the reasons it is that good is because of Darius,” Brost said. “He is one of the best guards in the state and he proved that tonight.”
Burford tallied 17 of his points in the first half before H-F all but duct taped Damen Trice, Jr. to Burford’s hip in the second half.
“At the start it was frustrating, but then I realized that it was a four-on-four and if I set screens for them, it was a four-on-three and our team could just go to work and I just wanted to be a team player,” Burford said. “Our coaches make sure we are not selfish and we are always looking ahead and always keeping our head up and looking for our teammates. We are a very good team. We are very dangerous and it is hard for teams to defend us.”
Jordan Myrick picked up some of the scoring in the second half, scoring all 14 of his points after the intermission.
Anthony Thompson (10), Tyrique McMurrin (10), Yesufu (12), Cochran (13) rounded out the half-dozen double-digit scorers for Bolingbrook – something that was not unique to this one game.
“Our No. 1 key on offense is to share the basketball, no matter who we play or where we play,” Brost said. “You can see out team is hard to guard because we share. It is hard to match our speed and once we get ahead, it is really hard to guard us.
“Any time you are up 30 at H-F, that is a good thing. They are one of the best teams in the state for a reason. I think we were up 10 at half and they got it to four at one point and then we really put it on them for about five minutes and really put it on them.”
The Raiders defeated state-ranked Evanston, 70-6 Saturday at the War on the Shore Shootout at Evanston High School.
On Monday, Bolingbrook fell 67-65 to perrenial Class 3A power Morgan Park.
The Mustangs’ highly-recruited junior guard hit a shot as time expired to give Morgan Park the win.
The Raiders were paced by 21 points from Yesufu and 19 from Cochran. Kam Leonard added 13.