Since his auspicious return to Riverside Brookfield in 2001, boys basketball coach Tom McCloskey has guided the Bulldogs to an impressive 103-52 record overall and six consecutive conference titles.
While winning is always a top priority for the competitive McCloskey, a split in the results ledger worked out well enough last weekend for the Bulldogs. Despite a 75-50 non-conference loss at Lincoln-Way East on Saturday night, the Bulldogs captured the win they had to have with a huge 76-41 Metro Suburban Conference victory over Elmwood Park on Friday.
The host Bulldogs’ 35-point thrashing of Elmwood Park enabled RB (9-15, 7-2) to clinch their first Metro Suburban Conference championship, and sixth consecutive conference title overall (2001-06, five-time Suburban Prairie Conference champions).
Clearly, the pressure was on the Bulldogs to win Friday night, especially after Fenton notched its sixth league win over Ridgewood 56-45 the same evening. For RB to clinch the conference outright, the Bulldogs simply needed to defeat Elmwood Park.
The poised Bulldogs responded to the challenge early, taking a 21-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. Led by the inspired play of 6-foot-3 junior forward Chris Parrish (26 points, six rebounds) and 6-6 senior center Jon Baldermann (13 points, 16 rebounds), RB extended its lead to 39-14 at the intermission.
“We played pretty well,” McCloskey said. “This is an exciting time for us. I think when we started winning conference championships [here] that instilled a certain winning mentality. A lot of outstanding players have come through RB, and we also have a tremendous coaching staff.”
Against Elmwood Park, versatile sophomore Dan Oswald also played a solid all-around game with six points, five assists and four rebounds. Jake Nash, Shane Kilcoyne and Dan Szczesny chipped in six points each.
“Lately, we have been playing better, but we didn’t shoot or handle the basketball effectively against Riverside Brookfield,” said Elmwood Park coach Dennis Keizer. “RB was on a mission and they handled us pretty well. They proved that they are the best team in the conference.”
Although the Bulldogs celebrated Senior Night in fine fashion with their conference-clinching win, it’s been a different story for McCloskey and his charges outside of the Metro Suburban (2-13 non-conference record). The Lincoln-Way East loss was no exception as the host Griffins seized a 20-12 lead and never looked back, sparked by a game-high 28 points from John Lorenz.
“Our non-conference schedule has been very tough this season,” McCloskey said.
The Bulldogs managed to threaten briefly in the fourth quarter by cutting the deficit to 51-41 with six minutes remaining. The Griffins promptly squashed any hopes of a comeback after a 16-1 spurt extended their lead to 67-42.
Parrish, who has verbally committed to play at Southern Illinois University, achieved a personal milestone scoring the 1,000th point of his RB career during the game. Baldermann added 19 points and 12 rebounds.
The Bulldogs host their regular season finale tonight (7 p.m.) against Brother Rice.
