By Michael Wojtychiw
When the Sides Collide is an annual event in the Chicagoland area that brings together a number of top teams for one exciting day of high-level basketball.
The 2023 version at Benet was possibly even more loaded that normal as it featured seven of the area’s top eight teams and a Moline team many feel has a chance to make to state and features two players signed to play at the University of Iowa starting in the fall.
Simeon got the privilege of facing off against that Moline team Saturday and played in arguably the night’s most exciting game, pulling out a 67-66 win against the Maroons.
“The guys got it done on the defensive end,” Simeon coach Robert Smith said. “We had three or four stops in a row and the last play was huge for us. There’s no better way to win a game than on a defensive stop.”
“These type of games are great for us,” Simeon’s Jalen Griffith said. “They allow us to compete against good teams and help us get ready for the state and city playoffs.”
A basket by Simeon’s Wesley Rubin gave the Wolverines a 9-7 lead with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter, a lead they would hold most of the game.
Simeon, with the help of its senior class, built an 11-point lead three minutes into the second half when Griffith hit a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines a 45-34 lead.
But that’s when the Maroons would slowly claw their way back in the game behind the play of their two Iowa-bound players, Brock Harding and Owen Freeman. The connection between the steady point guard Harding and his 6-foot-9-inch post player Freeman was evident and the two connected multiple times on dunks.
“We knew coming in that we had a good chance to win the game, so we got down eight, 10 and knew if we keep working and getting stops, we’re going to start hitting shots on the other end,” Harding said. “As a team, we were cold in the first half, but knew if we started hitting shots, we had a chance in the second half.”
Harding, who struggled shooting in the first half, got more comofrtable in the second half once he started making shots.
“I know that I’m going to hit shots,” he said. “The guys have faith in e, coach has faith in me, so I wasn’t sweating it. The guys got me open looks in the second half and I got going, which opened things up in the second half.”
Moline took its first – and only- lead of the game at 64-63 with 2 minutes, 6 seconds remaining on a Freeman basket, but Simeon took the lead back a little over a minute later when Griffith put in the 14th of his team-high 16 points.
The senior would add two more with 25.9 seconds left to give the Wolverines a 67-64 lead, setting up Wesley Rubin’s game-saving block as time expired.
“We pride ourselves on defense,” Rubin said. “I saw the guard try to break Jalen down and he was able to get a pass through, but I was behind him and able to just make the extra effort and go up and block the shot.”
Of all eight teams playing Saturday, Simeon was the lone school that isn’t a Class 4A school – it’s in Class 3A. But that’s not something that makes Smith hesitate. In fact, he welcomes the fact he and his Wolverines get to play a loaded schedule like they have this season.
“I think we’ve probably played the best schedule in the state of Illinois, there’s nobody that’s played the type of teams we’ve played,” he said. “I think a lot of the top teams in 3A can be 4A. It’d be a great tournament if we could play against each other.”
