Romeoville's Season Comes to an End, Coach Pleased With Effort

One shot clanked. Then another. Then a layup sailed over the rim. 

As the missed shots piled up for the Romeoville boys basketball team Monday night, Spartans coach Jeff Bambule felt like déjà vu all over again.

“The cover on the hoop that plagued us for the first half of the season came back a little bit today,” Bambule said after the game.  “It hit us at some inopportune times, and we had some point blank shots there and you gotta make ‘em. You gotta make plays.”

Romeoville lost to Thornwood 56-48 in their opening round playoff game, ending the Spartans season. Romeoville, which got down by as many as ten points in the third quarter, cut the lead to three with less than a minute remaining in the game. 

But Thornwood’s Darrell Combs then hit six-straight free throws, and a turnover and another missed layup from the Spartans would end any chance of a comeback. 

From the opening tip, Romeoville had trouble scoring and at the end of the first quarter, the team had scored only six points.  Thornwood’s full court press gave them some trouble, but it was the lack of perimeter shooting that caused the Spartans to fall behind early.

“We were gonna try to see if we could apply pressure and frustrate them a little bit then sag off and get in the gaps and make them try to shoot a little bit from the outside,”  Thornwood coach Paul Slavich said after the game. “So I think we accomplished our goal of doing a little bit of both.”

“Their record does not indicate how they play, they were a tough opponent tonight.  They’re a tough team,” added Lavich.

The two teams traded baskets in the second quarter and although Romeoville picked up the scoring, they still went to halftime trailing 27-20. 

Romeoville opened the second half with Antwan Hill finding Bo Goshorn for a 3-pointer, but Thornwood responded with six-straight points to take a 10 point lead. 

Romeoville’s Donald Miller then provided a spark, feeding Goshorn on the break for a layup and following that up with a 3-pointer and two free throws.  Miller would fill up the stat sheet, finishing with 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and three steals.   Despite Miller’s offensive resurgence the third quarter ended with Thornwood leading 37-31.

Rebounding was the other important factor in this game and Romeoville had trouble with that also.  Thornwood dominated the glass, outrebounding Romeoville by a margin of 27-13.  Junior Khapri Alston controlled the middle for the Thunderbirds, scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

“We’ve got a couple of horses inside,” Slavin said.  “Khapri’s been strong for us all year, and Corey Robinson – number 21 – is a good size kid and he jumps well.  We rebounded the ball pretty good tonight.” Robinson finished with six points and three rebounds.

Romeoville finishes the season with an 8-18 record, but coach Bambule had nothing but praise for the way his team never gave up in spite of a tough season.

“I just thanked them for their perseverance. We played hard, tough defense and they never quit. We’re better now than we were in November and we got progressively better, especially on the offensive end so that’s definitely a positive,” Bambule said. 

“Once the disappointment of the game wears away maybe they’ll look back on that.”