Burroughs Boys Surge To 7-0 With Impressive Win Over O'Fallon Christian

ST. CHARLES -- John Burroughs boys basketball coach Steve Wilcutt estimates that since the football season went so long, with the Bombers advancing all the way to the state championship game for the third straight year, that three weeks into the hoops season, his team has had eight practices and seven games.

For most teams that ratio might be a death sentence, with so few practices to get ready for a three-month long season.

But for Wilcutt and his Bombers, it's worked just fine, as Burroughs is now 7-0 on the season, thanks to another superb performance on Saturday at the Terrell Ramey/Midwest Showdown Shootout against O'Fallon Christian High.

"We showed we can guard a little bit," Wilcutt said, following JBS' 56-43 win over Christian. "We had a little bit of a lapse in the second quarter. I think we got up, and thought we were going to walk through it. But that team's pretty good, and they weren't going to quit."

Instead, the Bombers had to earn their victory over the Eagles.

But they did so with relative ease, as seniors Jimmy Carney, Foye Oluokun, and Ezekiel Elliott all scored in double figures to lead a JBS attack to proved too much for Christian.

"We all trust each other," Oluokun said. "We've played together for a while, and we all know each other pretty well. We don't really have any big egos on our team. So we all share the ball and share the spotlight. It went really well today."

Carney led all scorers with 17 points, including a layup midway through the fourth quarter that gave Burroughs its biggest lead at 51-37.

Oluokun, who filled the stat sheet again for the Bombers with 10 rebounds, six assists, and four steals, had 14 points as well, while Elliott added 12 points and four assists.

"We're not there yet as a team by any stretch of the imagination," Wilcutt said. "We've beaten people because we have good players. But what we really need is some practices to work on some things. We're going to get that now, with about six or seven days straight of practices. That's going to be great for us going into the Chaminade Tournament."

The Chaminade Tournament is traditionally one of the area's best holiday break boys basketball events, and this year, Burroughs is looking to defend its title after winning the event championship last year.

The 2012 Chaminade Holiday Tournament will begin on Wednesday, December 26, with the third-place and championship games scheduled for Saturday, December 29.

Christian was led by junior Deantrell Prince, who had 15 points and eight rebounds to pace the Eagles (6-4). Teammate and fellow junior Evan Marcks had 10 points in the losing effort as well.

Scoring Summary

Score by Quarters ........... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 -- Final Score

John Burroughs ............. 15 . 10 . 14 . 17 -- 56

O'Fallon Christian ......... 10 . 13 .. 8 .. 12 -- 43

Individual Scorers

John Burroughs -- Jimmy Carney 17, Foye Oluokun 14, Ezekiel Elliott 12, Trevor Bain 5, Chris Wetzel 5, Nate Van Slyke 3.

O'Fallon Christian -- Deantrell Prince 15, Evan Marcks 10, Kameron Dunlap 6, Jordan Norwine 5, Lance Lehmann 5, Frank Davis 2.