Green blog: The scariest team in Illinois
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I know it's the holiday time, but I want to talk about the scariest team in basketball.
Boys, girls, metro or area, the scariest team in the state of Illinois just might be the Galesburg girls.
That Grinnell style that they play is just mind-boggling. The only state record that the Streaks don't own (yet) is most consecutive games with a 3-pointer. That number by the way is 232 set by Rockton Honenegah from Dec. 2002-10.
And those records just continue to fall. Just an hour before I wrote this post they set a state record (again) with 21 made 3-pointers in a game against Paris. They had tied the previous record on Jan. 30. Jessica Howard set the school mark of 3s made in a game twice last week. Then for an encore in the second game of the day, the Streaks went ahead and canned 21 again.
Galesburg coach Evan Massey made the switch before last season because he wanted more production to keep up with the likes of then-veteran squads Alleman and Moline who could churn out points in bunches.
He got his wish.
Breaking down the numbers is just as crazy as the setting of records. Galesburg leads the league in points scored and points allowed, no surprise there. They have the largest point differential (difference between offensive and defensive average) among the Big Six teams. Their offensive average is 22.2 points per game more than United Township who is second on the list. The Streaks average 71.6 points per game. The only team in the Western Big Six to even break 70 this year is UT against, shocker, Galesburg.
I wouldn't want to be an opposing Western Big Six coach trying to figure out how to stop this team. Heck it's probably worse to be a non-conference coach. The Big Sixers at least get two whacks at slowing them down, if you only get to see them once, you've got no shot. The best defense, as near as I can tell, is hope that the night you play them is the night the Streaks go cold. Even then that's no guarantee. And that's exactly what Galesburg coach Evan Massey is hoping for come playoff time.
They press. They rain 3s like they come from Seattle. And the really crazy part? They are a talented bunch that would be contending for the conference title even without all the shots from downtown. If Galesburg ran the same style as Moline, UT, Rocky or Alleman I believe that they would contend for the Big Six title and make noise in the postseason. Massey obviously believes that this is his ticket to Bloomington-Normal.
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