Old Photos Recovered

I started photographing sporting events in 2010. I didn’t start doing it regularly until 2011. At the time, I saved my photos to a Western Digital external drive.

At some point in late 2013, that drive failed. All drives fail. I learned a hard lesson that day. I looked into recovering the data at that time but I just didn’t want to spend the money. Frankly, it don’t even bother me that much. I just keep going.

With the COVID slowdown I was looking for photography stuff to do. I went back and took stock of my photos and my growth as a photographer. I wanted to see those photos again so I sent them off to a data recovery vendor. I am glad I did. They recovered 88,000 photos. Most of them I forgot all about. There are even some good ones.

I noticed a couple things. 1) I have learned a lot over the last ten years about exposure and composition; and 2) contrary to what many You Tube photographers like to say, the camera does matter—at least when it comes to sports photography.

In January 2010, I bought my DSLR, a Canon 2ti kit from Costco. The first basketball that I set out to photograph seems to the January 15, 2010, game between St. Benedict and Crane. I looked at the metadata for the photos. I was shooting at f4, 1/125 to 1/250 and ISO 3200. As I recall, I was struggling with exposure and had thought I needed to have the shutter speed that low. I learned later that shutter speed is king. One can boost exposure but there is no cure for blurry!

Since then, mostly through trial and error, I learned shutter speed is king. I learned composition mostly by imitating photographers that I was around, Worsom Robinson, Quinn Harris, Brian O’Mahoney, Allen Cunningham and Kirsten Stickney.

I watch a lot of You Tube photography videos, Tony and Chelsea Northrup, Jarrad Polin, Ted Forbes, etc. They all say—the camera doesn’t matter. Can one make great photos without a great camera? Yes. But if one wants to consistently make good sports photos—particularly basketball photos—you need good equipment; f2.8 lenses and a camera with high ISO capability.

The following are a few examples of my early photographs.

Who Else is Wondering About Basketball?

It happens about this time every year. The March playoffs fade. I spend time with my wife after not being around much in February and March. I go about other things long neglected. But by the middle of May, basketball returns to my mind. I put the dates of the Riverside Brookfield tournament, and the Ridgewood tournaments in my calendar. I fiddle with my cameras, charge the batteries, empty the memory cards. I get ready . . . and wait.

It happened this year too. I started to get excited. I was itching to start my basketball routine. I was curious about what was going on. How things were going to be different? I called a few people. I outlined an article and I started filling it in.

But in case you haven’t noticed, we have a global pandemic health emergency that has cost 100,000 lives in the United States. CNN held my attention when basketball would have otherwise. My day job tasks soaked up hour after hour that ordinarily would have been addressed by others, or not at all.

Nevertheless, basketball is the jealous mistress that demands my affections. And she must be obeyed.

June is ordinarily the time when high school coaches are allowed time with their teams. They practice and play in tournaments.

“Not gonna be a June,” DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt told me. “Ordinarily, this time of year I get anxious for some basketball too. I talk to Heidcamp, Livatino, Clancy. We talk basketball and get back into it.” When I talked to Coach Kleinschmidt early that evening in May, he was sitting on his couch watching television. I suspect any other year he would have been doing something else at that time of day.

The June “live period” for high school basketball is not going to happen. Chicago Sun-Times’ Michael O’Brien reported on May 19th that the National High School Sports Federation has come with a plan to phase back into high school sports. Here is a link to his piece. However, the IHSA has not yet published any plan or any guidelines to open high school sports as of the date of this writing.

“The NCAA and IHSA have suspended June live period dates as of now. So there have been no formal announcements made on June or July . . .. In addition to this, the NABC and NCAA met to consider postponing July live periods for AAU this week, but have not made a final determination,” DePaul Prep sophomore coach Sean Connor told me.

“I have been told there is potential for the NCAA to add live periods in the fall (August, September, October) for AAU teams to play, but this is just in discussion right now,” said Connor.

So June is a no-go. No R-B tournament. Coach Mroz at Ridgewood told me his tournaments will not proceed.

July is when the players are engaged in the bulk of the AAU tournaments. Tom Kleinschmidt did not think that college coaches would be attending these basketball tournaments so there wasn’t much reason to do them. However, I haven’t gotten any word yet on when any decision about the AAU tournaments will be made.

There is some hope that a “live period” may happen around the time of the girls live period in September. We could see some tournaments or one-day shootout style events for boys basketball in September. But that is largely going to depend on how high schools operate in the fall. There is likely to be some combination of in-school days and e-learning days. How sports fits into that is anybody’s guess.

When asked what’s going on in the Chicago Catholic League, Coach Kleinschmidt and DePaul Prep Athletic Director Patrick Mahoney, (son of the legendary St. Viator High School Dean of Men Patrick Mahoney), both told me there will be some changes in the Blue and White Divisions in CCL basketball. Some teams will be moving up and others moving down. More on that later.

Pat Mahoney said all is on schedule to open the DePaul Prep football season at the new DePaul Campus opposite Lane Tech. The new state-of-the-art football stadium will be ready. Exactly what the football season will look like is also yet to be determined but those decisions are months away.

I guess we will have to just wait and see what happens. In the meantime, still more of the same. Waiting.

4B0A0119.JPG

DePaul Prep v. Mather Senior Night

The end of this year’s basketball season was loaded with games for me and I simply did not not have the time to immediately process and post all the games I shot. I posted some photos and scores on Twitter during the DePaul Prep v. Mather game but could not give every game full treatment. I always try to shoot senior nights but I lost track of this one until now. Under the circumstances, I think it works about okay. Hopefully, you will have a little more of high school that is ending so unfortunately.

The exercise of processing the photos many weeks after taking them has proved instructive. This year I decided not to obsess on ISO and use as “auto-ISO” more than I every have. I did that that because it didn’t seem to effect the photos when posting on Twitter and Instagram.

But now, looking at these photos on a big monitor two months later, high ISO is soooooo grainy. We just gotta get better light in these gyms. I want to be shooting at no more than 1600 ISO. So you athletic directors out there better start budgeting for new and better lights in your gyms. Take a queue from the area arenas. Winstrust has great light. Allstate—very nice. Just saying.

As for these particular photos, l love the ones of the DePaul Prep coaches—some of my favorites of this season. I would post that photo in my website portfolio but it just seems too grainy. I guess I should try it out before deciding.

Congratulations to the DePaul Prep seniors. I have enjoyed watching and photographing Lance Mosley and DJ Shower over these past four years. Outstanding young men and basketball players. Hopefully this global pandemic won’t impact your college experiences too much.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Oh, ya. And the Rams won 63-25.

DePaul Prep Handles North-Grand 86-31 in Regional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated North-Grand 86-31 in the IHSA 3A Regional Semi-final matchup at DePaul on March 3, 2020.

My ability to timely post these photos right after the game was overtaken by events. The Election, the girls championship games, oh, and the global pandemic. It seems that we all will have a little time on our hands so I thought I would process these and extend the basketball season.

In these mismatch regional games, the coaches can go deep into the bench. That’s what happened against North-Grand. The bench proved more than adequate to the task. I venture a guess that the DePaul Prep Rams bench could beat most high school first teams.

So I hope you like the photos. I have a couple more game’s photos that did not get published. I will be posting those photos in coming days.

Fremd Wins 4A State Championship over Lincoln Way West

The Fremd High School Vikings defeated the Lincoln Way West Warriors 58-47 on Saturday (March 7, 2020) at ISU’s Redbird area to win the IHSA 4A State Championship.

See a full story about the game at IL Preps Insider (click here). It was great to get to work again with Luke Druze from IL Preps Insider. No one knows more about girls high school basketball than him. I sat next to him during the third place games and he filled me in. We’re gonna have to do more of that next year.

It’s just a pleasure to go to ISU for the girls championships. The Redbird area has great light. The facilities are first class. The IHSA does a great job putting on the event. I really enjoyed it.

And the games were great. Simeon made a remarkable comeback against powerhouse Morton. I know this is cliche but I was sad that some teams had to lose. The Morton Potters were crushed by their loss. The Lincoln Way West Warriors were equally devastated by their loss to Fremd.

God willing I will be back next year. However, we are looking at a whole new format next year with all four classes on the same weekend and probably in Champaign.

Lane Tech Drops Oak Park River Forest 48-40

Lane Tech defeated Oak Park River Forest 48-40 at Lane on Wednesday (March 5, 2020) in the 4A IHSA regional semi-final. I was working at taking photos so I was not following the game as closely as I would like but—wow—the Indians played hard and defeated the favored Huskies.

Lane missed a lot of shots. But it seemed like they got every rebound. The Lane players are tough with very high energy motors. There is only one speed—fast. They imitate their high energy coach, Nick LoGalbo. I have seen a lot of teams this season. No team has played as hard as Lane did last night. I was impressed.

Going into the last few minutes, Lane had a ten point lead. When the Huskies went to a full court press and began to foul, sending the Indians to the free throw line, the Indians hit the free throws.

If a team gets a lead and hits its free throws at the end, it wins the game.

And another thing, there is no louder gym in the city. It almost hurts one’s ears. Everybody is high energy in that gym. It’s exhausting.

Well now they get Simeon on Friday in the Regional Championship. I wonder if Simeon knows what they’re in for.

DePaul Prep Falls to Riverdale 41-28 in 2A Super-sectional

The Riverdale High School Rams (28-3) defeated the DePaul Prep Rams 41-28 to win the 2A DeKalb Super-sectional Monday evening and earned a trip to the state tournament in Bloomington this weekend. 

The game was closer than the final score indicates. A low scoring first half, Riverdale 15, DePaul Prep 14, showcased the defensive talents of each team. 

First half turnovers limited DePaul’s shots. Riverdale’s size inside proved a challenge for DePaul. Despite finding openings in Riverdale’s defense, DePaul found it difficult to score.

“I thought defensively we were in pretty good shape. We only gave up 14 in the half,” said Riverdale head coach Jay Hatch who is making his fourth trip to the state tournament but this is the first for Riverdale.

“We weren’t really counting on [DePaul’s Trish Adams] stepping out and hitting 30 footers,” Hatch said. 

“Offensively we tried to get some more touches, more ball reversal, more movement,”

“Once we got inside, I think they chose to get out of the zone and we got some options for man-to-man.”

That seemed to be the difference for which DePaul Prep had no answer.  

“They were hitting shots and we weren’t. That was pretty much it in the second half,” said DePaul Prep’s 23-year-old first year head coach Sarah Zarymbski (Gordon Tech 2014 graduate).

The score got away from the DePaul with a few minutes left in the game when the Riverdale broke the press for some easy buckets and converted fouls into points at the charity stripe.

Riverdale’s senior center Sidney Garrett lead the Rams with 20 points. DePaul Prep’s senior forward Trish Adams lead the other Rams with 9 points. 

In an impressive start to coaching career, Zarymbski lead her Rams to their first sectional championship, in her first year. 

“We want to get back here next year. This isn’t enough,” said an emotional Zarymbski. Only losing four seniors players to graduation, DePaul Prep Rams may well be a power in 2A again next year.    

Riverdale is located in Port Byron, Illinois, about ten miles northeast of the Quad Cities. Port Byron has a population of 1,647. The IHSA website lists Riverdale enrollment at 327.5

DePaul College Prep, the former Gordon Tech High School, is located at Addison and California in Chicago. Gordon Tech first admitted girls in 2003. These Rams have enjoyed success over the years including five regional championships and an overall record of 217-198.

DePaul Prep Handles St. Ignatius 65-34

The DePaul Prep Rams rebounded Friday night (February 21, 2020) from consecutive CCL Blue losses to Fenwick and Loyola in a convincing defeat of the very good St. Ignatius Wolfpack 65-34 at DePaul Prep.

It’s been a rough couple weeks for the Rams with three Chicago Catholic League Blue division losses in a row. Even so, it’s only 5 losses on the season total but tough losses.

St. Ignatius ran into a buzz saw that cut them up in the first quarter. The Wolfpack worked to get up shots that did not fall. It was 16-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Rams wouldn’t let them back in. It seemed they enjoyed putting it on somebody for once. The Catholic League Blue schedule is brutal.

It was a special night at the Tom Winiecki Gym. Tom Winiecki, the former Gordon Tech football coach, was actually there. I have been in that gym a million times and I don’t remember seeing that many people in attendance. It was the 40th Anniversary of Gordon Tech’s 1980 state football championship. There was special half time commemoration and many members of that team were in the Gym for the celebration.

It was wonderful to see the student section break into Go Gordon Go (the Gordon Tech fight song) at the end of the celebration. One could see what it meant to the 1980 Rams. It was a special moment.

I would remiss not to mention that the girls team won the 2A Orr Sectional and will play in the Super-sectional championship on Monday evening at DeKalb High School. This is big. I believe this is Gordon/DePaul Prep’s first girls sectional championship. The girls’ head coach Sarah Zarymbski is only 23 years old but really has her girls dialed in. It must be her St. Benedict Elementary School training. We could be in Bloomington next week for the State Tournament. Just saying.

Go Rams.

DePaul Prep v. Loyola CCL Blue Showdown Preview

Frequent viewers to this channel will recall that I have this practice of breaking the basketball season into parts; early season Thanksgiving games; Christmas Tournament, Chicago Catholic League play and IHSA Playoffs.

We are at the end part three and the CCL title is on the line. The annual showdown against rival Loyola Academy Ramblers and then the pesky and always dangerous St. Ignatius Wolfpack.

Loyola comes into tonight’s game against DePaul Prep atop the Chicago Catholic League Blue Division with 24-4 overall record and 12-1 conference record, ranked #20 in Sun-Times Super 25. Our Rams are ranked at #19 with 21-4 overall and 11-2 in the CCL.

The Ramblers are always tough. Tom Livatino’s teams are skilled and disciplined. They always give me fits. I always have an pit in stomach in advance of those games, no matter the records, no matter the stakes. The stakes are high today. And so is my anxiety.

Pat Mahoney expressed confidence last night at the girls sectional semi-final victory stating that he thought DePaul would beat Loyola tonight. His confidence did little to relieve my trepidation. I pretty much have to think our Rams are the underdog.

It would be a huge win if the Rams can find a way to win, giving them a share of the CCL Blue title with Loyola and Fenwick (assuming a victory over St. Ignatius, you’ll have to indulge here). A victory would also give the DePaul Prep two CCL titles in a row.

The Chicago Catholic League Championship is what I like to see. My dad used to talk about winning the Catholic League. He attended the long-ago closed St. Phillip High School on the west side. St. Phillip won the CCL in 1945 after my dad graduated and while he was in Europe during WWII. Before that they won a few times and he talked about it a lot. His high school winning the Catholic League was a big deal for him. And so it has become with me.

The third part of the season basically ends tonight with a deciding game in the CCL Blue. The Sun-Times identified this game as a key game of the season in a season preview. For me, as accomplishments go, winning the Chicago Catholic League and then win the state championship are the top goals. It all builds up to tonight’s game.

Go Rams.

4B0A0207.JPG

DePaul Prep Edges Timothy Christian 53-51 in 2A Sectional Semi-final

The DePaul Prep Rams edged the Timothy Christian Lady Trojans 53-51 Tuesday evening (February 17, 2020), at Orr Academy. The Rams advance to the 2A Orr Sectional Final against Walther Christian on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

In the first half, the Rams opened a ten point lead on the Lady Trojans by scoring in transition while shooting enough threes to keep pace with their excellent shooting Opponents.

In the second half, the Lady Trojans dialed up the defense and the Rams struggled. The Rams excellent free throw shooting in the fourth quarter sealed the win.

It was an excellent game, well played and well coached by both teams and coaches. I can’t overstate how impressed I am with first year head coach Sarah Zarymbski. It seems like just yesterday Sarah was an eighth grader winning a championship with Bernadette Molloy’s St. Benedict Bengals. Now she is part of Bernadette’s coaching tree. Bernadette’s daughter Megan is the girls head coach at Lane Tech.

Sarah has her Rams playing at a level greater than the sum of their parts. The Rams are a team that works together. They move the ball around quickly and commit very few turnovers. And foul only when they need to. Well, okay, not only when they need to but they don’t commit needless fouls and get into foul trouble.

I was looking at the 2A bracket. I thought Latin was the likely sectional winner but the Romans fell to Walther Christian in the second game last night. The Rams are poised to make a deep playoff run.

See you Thursday at Orr and 7:00 p.m.

And did I mention how wonderful the light is in Orr’s gym since the changed the lights this year? It is seriously one of the best gyms for light in the City. Another reason to love Lou Adams.

DePaul Prep Handles Northside 64-24 on Senior Night

The DePaul Prep Rams handled Northside 64-24 on Senior Night last Wednesday (February 5, 2020).

It was a night for the Rams seniors, Chloe Anne Cox, Nora Roe, Patricia Adams and Avery Downes. The convincing defeat of Northside put an appropriate finish to this regular season and a successful four years of basketball at DePaul. I have to hand it to the Northside team. They were just over-matched but they never quit.

The Rams finished the regular season with a 18-8 record. First year head coach Sarah Zarymbski, (2014 grad) improved a little on last year’s record with the help of assistant coaches Sammy Colon and Leah Czuhajewski.

The Rams open the IHSA 2A playoffs hosting a regional. The Rams will face the winner of Monday’s Marine v. Josephinum game on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., in the Tom Winiecki Gym.

DePaul Prep Falls to Brother Rice 46-40

The DePaul Prep Rams (19-3, 9-1) lost to the Brother Rice Crusaders (16-7, 8-2) 46-40 at DePaul on Friday night (January 31, 2020). The Rams fell behind in the first quarter.

The DePaul Prep Rams fell to the Brother Rice Crusaders 46-40 Friday night (January 31, 2020) at DePaul. Basically, the Crusaders made the Rams play a half-court game. Then the Crusaders played defense and made their shots on the offensive end. Plus, the Rams just didn’t make shots they ordinarily do.

To open the second half, the Rams did what they wanted to do. They almost erased the 32-19 deficit with a 12-1 third quarter run.

The Rams lead with under two minutes. Crusaders never quit. Rams simply did not make shots to win at the end.

Rams rebounded to take down always dangerous Benet 45-30. I could not get to that game.

So . . .

St. Joseph

DeLaSalle

Fenwick

Loyola

St. Ignatius

Mather

Still the major goal to go—the Chicago Catholic League blue division championship.

Oh, ya, and then the IHSA 3A state championship run.

DePaul Prep Defeats Regina Dominican 50-44

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Regina Dominican Panthers 50-44 Thursday night (January 16, 2020) at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. The Rams controlled the well played game by both teams.

The Rams welcomed an honorary captain, Ellie O’Keefe. Ellie is the niece of former DePaul Prep Dean of Students and Chicago Catholic League legend, Dan O’Keefe. Great to see Coach O’Keefe again. Best of luck to his charming and inspirational niece Ellie.

DePaul Prep Handles Deerfield 55-24 in Steve Pappas Shootout

The DePaul Prep Rams (15-2, 6-0) defeated the Deerfield High School Warriors 55-25 in the final game of the second annual Steve Pappas Shootout Saturday evening (January 11, 2020). It wasn’t that close.

The Rams handled the Warriors from the opening tip. The Rams defensive pressure gave Deerfield fits. They had trouble moving the ball. DePaul’s Tyler Johnson repeatedly picket the pocket of the Warriors’ point guard like he was a gypsy in a Paris subway. The Rams finished on the offensive end as well.

I guess I was expecting Deerfield to be better. Maybe I was just expecting a competitive game because the preceding games were so good. I seem to remember some pre-season talk that Deerfield was good and that it would be a contender with its move to 3A. Deerfield will be in the Grayslake Sectional and will have to contend with Notre Dame, St. Viator and St. Patrick; not likely to be Deerfield’s year.

It was just Tom Kleinschmidt’s Rams taking care of business—as usual. I guess I expected that this year’s Rams would not be a good as last year’s 3A third place finishers with stars like Perry Cowen, Raheem Anthony and Pavle Pantovic. The record to date suggests otherwise. At this point last year, the Rams were 13-4, pretty good. This year’s group is 15-2 with wins over ranked teams Niles North and Marian Catholic. The Rams opened the season ranked #21 and are #11 at the moment.

Coming up the Rams enter the meat of the schedule including all seven games in the Chicago Catholic League Blue: St. Francis de Sales, Montini, Peoria Manuel, St. Laurence, Brother Rice, Benet, St. Joseph, De La Salle, Fenwick, Loyola, St. Ignatius and Mather.

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again,” win the Catholic League.

Loyola Edges St. Viator 40-39 in OT

If you like defense, you will like this year’s #19 ranked Loyola Academy Ramblers. The Ramblers (17-1, 6-0) edged the St. Viator Lions (11-6, 2-1) 40-39 in the second annual Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul College Prep Saturday afternoon.

The Ramblers win by playing defense. They just wear you down in their zone defense until you turn the ball over. St. Viator lacked the three point shooter to loosen that zone but the Lions fought and got some inside points. The Lions also played equally good defense.

With a chance to win with a few seconds left, St. Viator’s standout Connor Kochera could not get a shot off before the buzzer and there you have it. 40-39. Another eighth grade score in Loyola game.

Marian Catholic Shocks Morgan Park 71-69

The Marian Catholic Spartans (13-4, 3-1) upset the #8 Morgan Park Mustangs (9-6, 3-1) 71-69 last night at DePaul Prep’s televised Steve Pappas Shootout.

The Spartans hung around and hung around all game, slowing erasing a small deficit late in the game. Morgan Park had all kinds of chances to win. They just missed shots in the lane they ordinarily make. Marian didn’t.

Marian’ s senior guard Ahron Ulis played as well as I have seen him play. I did not get any stats on the game he had a lot of points. Marian Catholic as a team impressed me. I saw them lose against Notre Dame. The Dons handled them even without Anthony Sayles. Granted it is tough to go to Notre Dame and win a conference game, especially this year. DePaul Prep dropped them in the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic. Frankly, I expected more out of the Spartans.

I saw it yesterday. When they play like that, they can play with anyone.

It was fun to see Ulis matched up on Morgan Park top prospect senior Adam Miller. For much of the game, Marian was in a box-and-one with Ulis shadowing Miller all over the court. It seemed at points that Ulis got under Miller’s skin. I can’t say how effective the box-and-one actually was, but it was fun to watch.

Very high level basketball. A marked contract to the Loyola/St. Viator game a few hours before. Not that that was not high level, just a different kind of high level. Loyola would prefer to score as few points as necessary to win. Frustrating to watch; exasperating to play against. But an interesting and effective style.

Taft Stuns Von Steuben 52-50

The Von Steuben Panthers (7-7, 4-1) hosted rival Taft Eagles (13-5, 4-1) at Northeastern Illinois University for an important game between leaders of the CPS White North Division.

Taft lead the game for only 3.2 seconds. But when those are the last 3.2 seconds, well that’s the important part.

The Eagles tied the game at 50 with 58 seconds to play. The Panthers brought the ball up and were content to run down the clock and take a last shot.

With thirteen seconds on the clock, Panther point guard Sr. Jerry Karr drove the right side of lane. Taft guard Alexei Vlahos tipped a pass. Taft’s Dexter Stigall grabbed the deflection and raced up court for a layup to give Taft its first lead of the game. He missed.

Trailing the play was Taft’s senior guard Matt Leach who in one motion, rebounded the ball and dropped it in the hoop giving Taft its first lead of the game with 3.2 to play.

Stunned, Von Steuben didn’t call time out. They inbounded the ball for a full court last shot. It missed. Taft had pulled off the unlikely comeback after not playing defense or shooting well throughout the preceding thirty minutes.

Taft 52, Von Steuben 50.

The White-North now sits in a four-way tie at the top between Taft, Schurz, Von Steuben and Mather.

Curie Defeats Bogan 69-66

Last year’s 4A third place finisher #1 ranked Curie Condors (13-1, 4-0) hosted last year’s 3A runner-up #4 Bogan Bengals (14-2, 4-1) in a showdown of the current top teams in the CPS Red-South Central Division. The Condors came into the game hot off their victory at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament with a 3-0 conference and a 12-1 overall record. Bogan was hot too, and confident. I am not sure I have seen a team with such swagger as Bogan.

Bogan showed up for their 5:00 p.m. game at 4:56. When I pointed this out to someone at the game, he said, “You must not get to too many Public League games.” Well, now that I think about it, a lot of the games do start late. I must not have I noticed because I am rarely early myself.  

The first quarter was tight with neither team seeming like it could get in any rhythm. In the second quarter, Curie took control going on an 21 to 9 run and took a 39-30 lead into the locker room.

In the third, Curie charged back despite Raheen Hinton’s cold shooting. Elijah Pickens and Saiveon Williams came through for the Condors with clutch defense and inside points done the stretch. The Bengals did not help themselves with missed free throws late in the third quarter which would come back to haunt them.

The officials called a lot of fouls in this game. It seemed like every player on the floor was playing with four fouls at the end. Both coaches were going crazy over the foul calls. I don’t think the problem was the lack of fouls but the lateness of the whistles.

But that is just me. I am not really watching the refs through my camera lens. Neither am I in any position to criticize the refs. It’s a very tough job. (I officiated a parents v. grade school kids game years ago. Even that was hard. I took a lot of grief—in a kids v. parents game. Can one imagine a CPS game between top teams? No thanks.) 

Curie held off furious charges by Bogan throughout the fourth quarter. The Condors stayed just out of reach and closed with a 69-66 victory to take the lead in the Red-South Central Division.

Still plenty of basketball to play including the City Championship. Looking forward to it.

As for the photos, I like the Curie gym. It was my first trip there. There is not a great deal of light but it is better than most and has good color. I boosted the ISO higher than I would like but the photos looked okay. I hope you like them.