Recently in Boys Basketball Category

By Jason Ivanitz

Bolingbrook resident and current St. Patrick's student Bryant Smith will go on to play college basketball at the University of Texas at Arlington next year. Smith was the East Suburban Catholic Conference Player of the Year in his senior season at St. Pat's.

"I feel pretty good about the decision, because (UTA's) an up-and-coming program," Smith said. He plans on pursuing a degree in business management.

Senior Troy Snyder connected on a 15-foot jumper with less than a second to play on Saturday night, giving the Bolingbrook Raiders boys basketball team a 73-71 victory over Springfield Southeast in the championship game of the Decatur Turkey Tournament.

The Raiders held for a final shot, with Snyder keeping the ball for the final 15 seconds of the possession before driving to the left of the lane and hitting the winning shot.

Diamond Taylor led the Raiders (3-0) with 20 points. Synder finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Despite Snyder's heroics on offense, Southeast had a chance to tie the game at the end.

Southeast's Lawrence Thomas had a chance to tie the game after he got fouled with 0.5 seconds left, but he missed the front end of a one-and-bonus and time expired. Thomas finished with 25 points.

The Bolingbrook Raiders boys basketball team advanced to the championship game of the Decatur Turkey Tournament on Friday with a 66-59 win over Decatur Eisenhower.

Troy Snyder led the Raiders with 17 points. Diamond Taylor had 16 points and Antoine Cox had 10 points.

Trailing 53-49 at the start of the final quarter, Cox -- who began the game on the bench -- had three points, three blocks, a steal and a rebound in the final eight minutes.

The Brook (2-0) will face Springfield Southeast in the championship game today at 7:30 p.m. Southeast advanced to the title game with wins over Harvey Thornton on Wednesday and Mt. Zion on Friday.

Coach Speak details all the Bolingbrook Raiders results that coaches see fit to e-mail to The Brook Blog. If they add comments, we run them verbatim.

Bolingbrook 78 Peoria Central 68 Diamond Taylor 27 pts, Troy Snyder 22pts. Russell Burns shut down their leading scorer Bobo Drummond and played tenacious defense the entire game. Play Eisenhower at 6pm on Friday night.

The Bolingbrook Raiders boys basketball team won its first game of the season on Tuesday night, beating Peoria Central 78-68 in the Decatur Turkey Tournament.

Diamond Taylor scored 29 points in his first game as a Raider. Fellow senior Troy Snyder wasn't far behind with 25 points.

The Raiders (1-0) will play Decatur Eisenhower in the tournament semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m. The championship game is on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Second-year Bolingbrook Raiders boys basketball coach Rob Brost offers up his first post for The Brook Blog. His Raiders will open the season on Nov. 25.

When Sean asked me to write a blog about our team and the upcoming season, of course I said I would. I anticipated that I would simply summarize our collection of talent, give a brief description of their individual strengths and write about where I think our team fits into the conference, etc: a preview similar to the ones that every other paper wants.

Then Sean said, "There are a lot of high expectations for this team from the media, parents, fans and other coaches, could you write about what your expectations are for this team." This was no longer a fact finding article were I simply could list our strengths and weakness, player profiles, etc.

Simply said, I would hope that "my" expectations of this team would become "our" expectations. In other words, I hope that my expectations would become those of the players, assistant coaches and even our managers and OUR expectations would be one in the same.

If you are a fan of both the Chicago Bulls and the Bolingbrook Raiders boys basketball team, then the second annual Raider Madness is where you should be on Saturday night.

The showcase event, which features sophomore and varsity scrimmages along with 3-point and dunk contests, begins at 7 p.m. The $5 admission fee benefits the boys basketball team.

Coach Rob Brost tells The Brook Blog that there will be a silent auction and these Bulls items are up for grabs.

1) Autographed Ben Gordon Jersey
2) Autographed Derrick Rose Mini-basketball
3) Two skybox tickets to a Bulls game
4) Autographed picture of Chris Duhon
5) Autographed picture of Ben Gordon
6) Scholarship to Kimrossi Taylor's Basketball Camp
7) Scholarship to a Chicago Bulls Basketball School Camp

Also, tickets for Bolingbrook's Jan. 6 game vs. Bradley at the United Center will be on sale on Saturday. The $25 ticket gets you in for the 2:30 p.m. Brook game and the Bulls game against the Kings later that night.