Bloom wins McDipper Tournament title

By Dan Ruane
YourSeason.com

Bloom knew exactly what it had to do to win the championship game of the McDipper tournament. The Blazing Trojans took the air out of the ball and came away with a 52-45 victory over Crete-Monee to win the 39th Tournament at Rich South high school.It was Blooms first title at this tournament since the Blazing Trojans downed Crete-Monee in 1995.This is the most versatile team that I have ever coached, Bloom coach Jasper Williams said. We wanted to get Crete into a half-court game because we did not want to go ninety-four feet up and down the floor with them.The key to the tempo was Bloom point guard Donald Moore, who was named the tournaments most valuable player. Moore was controlling the ball while working the 35 second shot clock down to single digits in most cases before either shooting or creating for his teammates. Moore finished with 14 points.The plan worked well for the most part as Bloom (13-0) held the lead for the entire game and edged out to a 40-24 lead just past the midway point of the third quarter. Moore keyed a big run in the third quarter by scoring eight points and assisting on Lejavious Johnsons three pointer for an 11-2 run to start the third that all but buried Crete.They beat us three times last year including in the playoffs, Moore said. It felt good to beat them finally, especially in the Dipper championship game.Donald is the leader of our team, Williams said. We want the ball in his hands at the end of games. He is one of the best point guards in the city.Crete (10-3) whittled away at the lead to cut the score to 50-45 with just over a minute left to play. LaQuon Treadwell willed the Warriors back into the game with 10 second half points including a base-line jam that had the standing-room only crowd out of its seats. Treadwell finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.We all love being around each other. We are like brothers, Johnson said. Teams think that they just have to stop me and Donald but we are way more than that. Every guy on this team can step up and play.