Galesburg High School boys basketball team riding three game winning streak into Moline
GALESBURG — The Galesburg High School boys basketball team rides a three game winning streak into Friday's Western Big 6 Conference road affair against Moline at historic Wharton Field House.
The Silver Streaks' last two defeats came in league play.
Galesburg (18-4, 4-3) suffered a 55-53 loss to Quincy last Friday night at John Thiel Gymnasium. Last Tuesday evening, the Streaks went on the road and fell to the Rock Island Rocks 84-63.
Galesburg broke the trend with a pair wins this past Saturday in MLK Shoot-Out action at Thiel. The Streaks beat the Gary Comer College Prep Catamounts 57-46 in the morning, and GHS handed then No. 2 ranked in Class 2A Chicago Orr a 64-57 loss that evening.
The Spartans fell two spots in the latest AP Top 10 poll, which was released Wednesday night.
The Streaks ended up with a 60-47 road victory against the Morton Potters on Tuesday night.
“We had that emotional loss to Quincy but our senior leadership really didn’t let us stay down on it too long. Once we left the gym that night, it was on to the next game," Galesburg coach Chad Thompson said before Wednesday night's practice. "We had really good moments against Comer. It was a no scout game. We kind of rolled the balls out and played. We adapted, we adjusted as it went on. We played good enough to get a win.
"Later that night, we came in locked in, focused and we got a huge win over Chicago Orr. The three time defending state champs," Thompson added. "What we saw was some of the little miscues in the Quincy game were immediately cleaned up a day later. We didn’t have any practice time or film time. That’s just a team growing from an experience and going right into the next one.”
Galesburg's 1st loss was to Moline
The Streaks' first loss in the 2021-22 season came against the Maroons (18-3, 6-1). At the beginning of December, Galesburg went toe-to-toe with Moline at Thiel.
More: 'Our guys grew today.' Takeaways from the Galesburg boys basketball team's loss to Moline
The Streaks were handed a 77-59 loss by the Maroons. However, the end result could have ended up much worse. Galesburg was down 17-13 against Moline after the first eight minutes of play. Behind 32 points in the second quarter, the Maroons held a 49-27 advantage over the Streaks at the half.
Moline junior Brock Harding, who has netted over 1,000 points in his career, torched Galesburg for a game-high 26 points. Only seven of Harding's points came in the final 16 minutes. He scored nine points in the first quarter, and Harding had 10 points in the second stanza.
“They present a lot of problems for everybody that faces them because of their speed, their 3-point shooting ability, and they have Brock Harding. He’s a player you have to be able to stop," Thompson said of the Maroons. "In our first matchup with them, he had a big second quarter and that’s when they really blew that game open. We got it within seven in the third quarter and it’s because we are able to neutralize him a little bit. We were able to get back to our brand of basketball and not get up and down so much, which is what Moline likes to do.
"They have great shooters in Kyle Taylor and Grant Welch that space the floor so well that you have to stay home on your guys, which that allows Harding a lot more room to create," Thompson added. "We’re going to have to use our physicality and size against them to kind of give us the edge, and we’ve got to keep their athletes off the glass.
"They’ve got a lot of good players but we’ve got a lot of good players, too. It’s just about getting the right scheme in place to get a win.”
Streaks are executing game plans
Against the Maroons, the Streaks have to stick to the game plan, which is something they've done an excellent job doing lately.
"One thing the coaching staff is really loving is even in a loss to Quincy, even in a loss to Rock Island, which was a little bigger loss, and in these last three games we have executed our game plan as well as humanly possible," Thompson said. "Sometimes the shots don’t fall and that’s part of the game of basketball. It’s one of the reasons you love it and one of the reasons why you can’t stand it because sometimes the ball bounces in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t.
“We have done a really good job buying in as a team," Thompson added. "You’re starting to see it all click together right now which is going to be huge heading into Moline."
Regular season winding down quickly
The Streaks have seven regular season games remaining on the schedule after facing the Maroons.
“It’s absolutely insane to me how fast this has all went. Every basketball season you blink and it’s already over but this one has really gone by quickly," Thompson said. "I think that speaks to the fact that our guys are so fun to be around. We all love each other and care about each other so much that when you fully invest in something in a blink of an eye it’s gone.
"My challenge to our team, our staff and our players is we’ve got to take this game by game but we’ve got to really live in these moments and enjoy them because once the regular season is over it’s go time," Thompson added. "We will play until we lose and we don’t want that to be early.”
Galesburg's schedule
Wed., Nov. 24: Galesburg 73, Dunlap 64
Fri., Nov. 26: Galesburg 63, Madison 44 (Thanksgiving Tourney)
Sat., Nov. 27: Galesburg 72, Limestone 54 (Thanksgiving Tourney)
Fri., Dec. 3: Moline 77, Galesburg 59
Tue., Dec. 7: Galesburg 65, Sterling 61
Fri., Dec. 10: Galesburg 59, United Township 55
Mon., Dec. 13: Galesburg 57, Peoria Manual 50
Tue., Dec. 14: Galesburg 76, Burlington 66
Fri., Dec. 17: Galesburg 76, Geneseo 46
Sat., Dec. 18: Galesburg 60, Bettendorf (Iowa) 56 at Iowa/Illinois Shootout,
Tue., Dec. 21: Galesburg 70, Kewanee 48
Mon., Dec. 27: Galesburg 63, Decatur Eisenhower 46 at Taylorville Holiday Tourney,
Tue., Dec. 28: Galesburg 76, Mt. Zion 58 at Taylorville Holiday Tourney
Tue., Dec. 28: Galesburg 53 Taylorville 45 at Taylorville Holiday Tourney
Wed., Dec. 29: Sterling 48, Galesburg 47 at Taylorville Holiday Tourney
Wed., Dec. 29: Galesburg 61, Dunlap 58 at Taylorville Holiday Tourney (3rd place game)
Fri., Jan. 7: Galesburg 73, Alleman 32
Tue., Jan. 11: Rock Island 84, Galesburg 63
Fri., Jan. 14: Quincy 55, Galesburg 53
Sat., Jan. 15: Galesburg 57, Gary Comer College Prep 46 (MLK Shoot-out)
Sat., Jan. 15: Galesburg 64, Chicago Orr 57 (MLK Shoot-out)
Tue., Jan. 18: Galesburg 60, Morton 47
Fri., Jan. 21 at Moline, 7 p.m.
Tue., Jan 25 vs. Sterling, 7 p.m.
Fri., Jan. 28 at United Township, 7 p.m.
Sat., Jan. 29 vs. Richwoods at Manual Shootout, 2:30 p.m.
Fri., Feb. 4 at Geneseo, 7 p.m.
Tue., Feb. 8 vs Rock Island, 7 p.m.
Fri., Feb. 11 vs Alleman, 7 p.m.
Tue., Feb. 15 at Quincy, 7 p.m.
Matthew Wheaton can be reached at (309) 315-6073 or at mwheaton@register-mail.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewlwheaton
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: IHSA Basketball: Streaks boys seek revenge against Maroons
