Bogan blasts Johnson
Thirteen Bengals score in 63-21 regional opener
By Steve Metsch
Regional trophies are nice. Sectional championships? They’re great.
But the Bogan basketball team – driven by the memory of last year’s 68-63 loss to East St. Louis in the Class 3A state title game – has a bigger prize in mind.
The Bengals want to win state. Considering how well they’ve played this season, they might.
“We’ve got a good chance. We’ve got a great chance,” Head Coach Arthur Goodwin said.
Bogan served notice Wednesday night in its regional opener at St. Laurence, crushing 16 seed Johnson, 63-21. The win put Bogan (26-3) against the host Vikings (15-16) at 7 p.m. Friday in the regional final.
All 15 players on the Bogan roster played, and 13 Bengals scored.
“Wear people down,” Goodwin said.
Johnson (15-11) was still in shouting distance at halftime, trailing Bogan, 29-13. Then the Bengals got serious with good shooting and tenacious defense.
“We turned it up a little bit,” Goodwin deadpanned.
Bogan held Johnson scoreless in the third until Darrius Ready scored with 1:30 left. Bogan outscored Johnson 24-7 in the third, and 10-1 in the fourth quarter.
“I was trying to be smooth with it, not run them out of the gym early, trying to give some other guys a chance to play a little bit more. That’s why we played 15 people in the first half. The guys I played in the second half, that was the third string,” Goodwin said.
He cautioned Bogan fans to not get carried away by the big spread.
“We’ve got teams in our conference who are better than those guys, like Hyde Park (and) we beat them by 30. They’re one of the top seeds in the sectional. We weren’t trying to prove anything (against Johnson). We were just trying to maintain,” Goodwin said.
Kyndall Davis and Tyrell Isom both scored 10 points to lead Bogan. Antoine Odom scored seven for Bogan which won for the 11th time in 12 games.
“Coming into the state playoffs, we’re just trying to get a run,” said Odom, a 5-foot-9 junior guard. “Every day in practice, Coach Goodwin has been on our heels. So, we just tried to get the win.”
Isom said Bogan’s three losses this season “have made us better, because we’ve learned from the mistakes … Handling the ball. Free throws. Boxing out. We have to do a lot more of that.”
Odom said the Bengals did not take Johnson lightly: “Especially in state. Everybody’s trying to win.”
“Anything can happen,” noted Isom, a 6-foot-5 senior forward.
That includes winning some state hardware.
“We’re going downstate,” Isom predicted, “because this team is built on defense, and defense wins games. We know if we are locked in on defense, the offense will come.”
Every coach has something he doesn’t like, even those whose team just won by 42 points.
“A couple guys didn’t take charges, stuff like that,” Goodwin said, “but for the most part, everybody did their role.”
Email Steve Metsch at sm4610@sbcglobal.net
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