By Eugenio Torrens
Through one quarter, it was hard to tell which team was the No. 1 seed in the Class 8A-District 7 tournament.
After three more quarters the picture became much clearer.
Top seeded Wharton (24-3) won its district semifinals game over Bloomingdale 54-23 on Feb. 8.
“We fully expected it to be a tough game, and it was,” said Wildcats coach Tommy Tonelli. “District play is like that.”
Wharton extended its win streak to nine games by defeating Plant 68-48 Feb. 10 for the championship, its third straight district title. The Panthers were the only 8A-7 team to beat the Wildcats in the regular season.
Wharton bested the Bulls (10-15) in their two regular season games by an average of 21 points. That could explain why Bloomingdale, which played a man-to-man defense against the Wildcats this year, opened in a 2-3 zone to control the paint and force outside shooting.
It worked, as the Bulls’ defense held Wharton to five points in the opening period, but the Wildcats held Bloomingdale to the same total.
“We were just pretty off, just taking bad shots, not moving the ball around, not getting transition points and some layups,” said Wildcats junior guard Jaken Grier, who finished with 14 points.
In the second quarter, Wharton found an offensive stride while holding strong on defense, outscoring Bloomingdale 16-6.
At halftime, Tonelli preached passing and attacking. His team heeded his advice and came out in the third quarter scoring as many points (21) as it had in the first half.
By the time the final period started the Wildcats were up 42-17.
“We just go out there and play tough defense and let it all out there on the court,” Grier said. “We have that mentality — that assassin’s mentality — that we’re going to go out there and get it.”
