BRADLEY — Fresh off of winning the WJOL Thanksgiving Classic MVP award and the team’s tournament championship, Nick Allen and the Bradley-Bourbonnais boys basketball team brought their red-hot start home with them to Donald K. Turner Gymnasium Tuesday night, where Allen’s fourth double-double in five games lifted the Boilermakers to a resounding 78-43 victory over Manteno.
The Boilers improved to 5-0 while the Panthers dropped to 1-4.
Allen, who entered the game averaging 28.8 points and 12 rebounds per game, poured in 27 points and 12 boards, as well as five blocks on the defensive end. Seventeen of his points came in the first half, where seven of his eight field goals ended with slam dunks that ranged from traditional post moves that finished with a flush, an offensive rebound slam and perhaps most impressively, a perfectly-timed alley-oop from Ty Dangerfield just before the half.
“He did some things tonight that are just, wow, and he’s done that in about every game that we’ve played this year,” Boilers head coach Ryan Kemp said. “He deserves it — he’s worked his tail off in the weight room, and that’s been his biggest development, his strength.”
The Panthers got off to the exact start they needed to, pulling ahead 8-2 in the first 90 seconds after early 3-pointers from Andrew Norred and Ray Lee.
But the Boilers quickly turned it around, with Allen snagging a rebound and taking it coast to coast, finishing with an electric jam that gave the hosts a 9-8 lead three minutes into the game. What was a 7-0 run at the time of Allen’s dunk became a 16-0 run by the time Kobe Lawrence put the Boilers up 18-8 with 2:33 on the first-quarter clock.
With senior guard Gavin Kohl out of the lineup due to injury Tuesday, Allen, also a senior, was the lone starter from last year’s squad to suit up against the Panthers. But thanks to growth from several players, ranging from his cousin, junior forward Lim Martin, to seniors like Dangerfield and Timmy Pfrommer, to junior guard Rontez Smith and the sophomore Lawrence, the 5-0 start the Boilers have gotten off to has been a pleasant surprise for the future Illinois State big man.
“The summer, at the start, was very rough, but you could tell that every day we got a little bit better,” Allen said. “The guards are getting comfortable and I’m really surprised by how well they’ve played.”
As the Panthers turned their attention to Allen, the Boiler guards were able to take advantage of the open looks they got from deep. As a team, they were 5-for-9 (56%) from downtown in the first half and 8-for-16 (50%) for the game, with Dangerfield and Pfrommer each going a perfect 2-for-2 in the first half.
“We said all along that if they hit the 3, that would be how they beat us,” Manteno head coach Zack Myers said. “We held Nick under his season average, which was our goal. But he still got 27 and is incredibly tough to stop. They had some shooters step up and hit some 3s for them, and that was just something we couldn’t adjust to.”
After setting a new school record with 27 wins last season, the Panthers have a win, a pair of three-point losses and a pair of double-digit losses with their own new nucleus around a returning star, Lee, this winter.
“It’s definitely been an adjustment in getting the kids to understand what we are as a team and what we can do as a team,” Myers said. “We’ve had two kind of bad blowouts, but we’ve also had two close games and a win. We just have to keep plugging forward, make some adjustments here and there and I think we’ll be where we want to.”
As the Boilers get used to their own new rotation of talent, they’ve been able to win their first five games, including four by at least 15 points. Between their frontline size, highlighted by the 6-foot-11 and supported by the 6-foot-5 Martin and 6-foot-3 Pfrommer, and speedy backcourt, Kemp and his coaching staff have a fun collection of players to work with.
“I think the interesting thing about this group is the make up we have with our size allows us to protect the basket and the makeup we have on the perimeter allows us to get after people,” Kemp said. “We’re not super tall on the perimeter, but we’re fast and quick, and we can cause some problems for teams.
“It’s like, where do you go?” he continued. “There’s 6-foot-11 (Allen) guarding the rim, there’s Liam playing volleyball and skying for rebounds. It’s a unique makeup of a team, which we’re trying to figure out how to put all that to our advantage, schematically and bench-wise.”
STAT BOOK
Allen’s 27 points came on a 14-for-17 night from the field and 3-for-5 effort from the free-throw line. Dangerfield was 3-for-4 from deep, finishing in total with 14 points, three assists and two steals. Pfrommer had 10 points, two rebounds and two assists. Martin had a well-rounded six points, five rebounds and five assists. Smith, Lawrence and Dazhon Horton each had five points.
Lee’s 15 points led the Panthers. He also had three rebounds and an assist. Cooper Monk added eight points, two boards and a block. Norred had seven points and a rebound.
UP NEXT
The Boilers begin SouthWest Suburban Conference red season when they host Sandburg at 7 p.m. Friday. The Panthers begin the Illinois Central Eight Conference season at Peotone at 7 p.m. Friday.
