MV men’s basketball extends win streak to 5

Photo by Marcus Collins

Coach John Chappetto draws up a play during Thursday’s game against JJC, talking with Luis Acevedo (#3), Kobe Adams (#24), and Davion Lawrence (#33).

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By Mohammed Jbara, Freelance Contributor

After the first half of Thursday night’s game against Joliet Junior College, the MV men’s basketball team was up 52-33 at the break. The team began to take their feet off the gas to start the second.

In the end, the Cyclones finished what they started and won comfortably 86-67 against the Wolves, extending their win streak to five. Saturday’s game against Kennedy-King was canceled, for reasons currently unknown.

“I learned a long time ago that you have to enjoy every win,” coach John Chappetto said. “Even though it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t our best.”

The Cyclones were up 44-15 at one point in the first half. But they started the second half a little shaky. 

Sophomore guard Trace Williams said the second half was “a little sluggish, but once we started getting it going, we put it on them.” The Cyclones went on to seal the win by 19 points.

Williams has been one of the key components of the team and continued to show that during the game. 

“I just played an all-around game, trying to get everyone involved,” Williams said. “Just trying to do the best I can and win.” He finished with 12 points and 10 assists.

Chappetto put his full faith in Williams this season: “Trace is a fantastic point guard. I put us out there, I press the play button–which is Trace– and he runs the show.”

Chappetto wanted to instill fearlessness into his team. Not wanting to back down from any challenge became a theme throughout the game. 

Williams said it helped that Chappetto stuck to his plan.

“[It was] about being aggressive on defense and just playing hard the whole game because it’s always a long game,” he said. “The other team could go on a run and make a comeback, but if we can just keep playing hard, we can win the game.”

Kobe Adams and Davion Lawrence were both the leading scorers with 19 points. Lawrence made his presence known around the rim with 13 rebounds. Adams had the hot hand, scoring four 3-pointers and overall scoring 7 out 15 shots from the field. The Cyclones, as a whole, scored 49 percent of their shots taken.

The Cyclones are 7-2 and scheduled to face Concordia University on Tuesday.