Timothy Christian putting the pieces together
Timothy Christian's boys basketball team has a lot of pieces.
Saturday they combined to ease past Metro Suburban Red foe Elmwood Park, 66-47 in Elmhurst.
Despite a game-high 25 points from Tigers forward Adrian Lach, Timothy Christian's three-headed monster of Joey Davidson, Jonny Strube and 6-foot-6 junior Brandon Orange paired with a solid supporting cast to win decisively.
"I think like everybody, we're just trying to figure out what we have early and how you can get better," said Timothy coach Jack LeGrand, whose Trojans improved to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the Metro Suburban Red. "Elmwood Park got some things working and then we had to try to adjust. Their big guy had a really good game shooting the ball."
Both LeGrand and Tigers coach Anthony Sylvester of Elmwood Park (0-6, 0-1) bounced between man-to-man and mainly 1-2-2 zones.
Strube, who scored 18, hit one of his four 3-pointers to give the Trojans a 22-15 lead after one quarter. Elmwood Park's Alexis Lopez and Lach scored in the paint to trim the margin to 22-19. Timothy went on a 9-0 run and was never fully threatened again, up 38-25 at halftime.
"I thought we started off kind of slow in the first quarter," said Orange, who led the Trojans with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. "Our defense wasn't up to what we wanted to (be), but throughout the game we started bringing the energy more and I thought we played a pretty good game on both sides."
The Tigers pulled within 44-34 at 5:06 of the third quarter on guard Jack Gavin's steal and layup. With junior David Wnuk's 7 points the second-most behind Lach, who also hit four 3-point baskets, Timothy's overall firepower was hard for the Tigers to counter.
LeGrand brought in 6-3 Nick Tameling and then 6-6 Nick Huisman off the bench. Disruptive guards Michael Thomas and 5-4 Trayvon Williams subbed for starters Jimmy Allen and Ty Merrick. Williams and Merrick each registered 5 assists and combined to score 9 points with 8 rebounds.
"We've got a few guys that are certain ballhandlers, and then we've got the shooters, and then we've got the big guys, finally. It's pretty much a good mix," said Strube, son of Trojans girls basketball coach Michele Strube.
Orange, at 230 pounds a true post presence, made 9 of 12 shots from the field while committing only 2 fouls.
"He really opens things up for everybody, especially in a zone," said Davidson, a team captain and three-year starter who scored 14 points. "Get it to him in the middle. He brings so much attraction on him that it really opens everything else up, which is really nice."
Nice enough that LeGrand could empty the bench with nearly four minutes left to play, right around the time Thomas canned a 3 to bring the score to 62-42.
"We're trying to find out what we're really good at," LeGrand said. "What I like is that we have good depth and we have some bigs, some littles and guys are coming along, so it's nice interchangeable parts."