There have been very few signature moments turned in this season by individual players. Curie’s Justin Oliver provided one over the weekend.
Considering the opponent, the stage and the result — Oliver’s Condors beat ranked Bolingbrook 71-67 in the Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul Prep — the senior guard turned in one of the best individual performance of the season.
There was a moment earlier this season as Oliver’s game-winner with two seconds to play took down ranked St. Ignatius last month. But this one was a complete and dominating performance.
Oliver had 23 points by halftime, helped Curie overcome a double-digit deficit and finished with a career-high 39. But it was more than just the whopping point total; it was how and when Oliver scored.
There is creativity to Oliver’s game, while his confidence has led to decisiveness in finding his spots and making shots.
He dazzled with deep threes and drives to the basket, step-back and pull-up jumpers –– and so many of them came with a hand in his face. His shot-making was at an extremely high level. When Bolingbrook would close the deficit late, it was Oliver delivering back-breaking baskets.
“Give him credit,” Bolingbrook coach Rob Brost said. “We knew he was a scorer, but he made several difficult and contested shots on us and his teammates did a great job of getting him the ball.”
There is an absurd lack of recruiting attention surrounding Oliver, whose sample size of performances extends back to his underrated junior season.
Glenbrook South alums producing
A pair of former Glenbrook South teammates are making their presence felt on the college basketball scene.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, former all-stater Nick Martinelli is college basketball’s second leading scorer in the country.
After scoring 34 points in Sunday’s loss to Rutgers, the Northwestern senior is averaging 23.4 points a game.
Former Titans teammate Cooper Noard is also among the nation’s top scorers, averaging 19.9 points a game at Cornell.
Martinelli and Noard, who led Glenbrook South to a 33-3 record and sectional championship in the 2021-22 season, are both seniors and are climbing their respective schools’ all-time scoring lists.
After scoring just a total of 52 points as a freshman at NU, Martinelli now has nearly 1,400 career points and could potentially finish his career among the top five scorers. Noard is set to eclipse 1,000 career points in a few games and is on pace to be among the top 10 scorers in Cornell history.
Marist is a threat
As I sat courtside with DePaul Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt for the Marist-Kankakee showdown in last Saturday’s Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul, he had glowing praise for a Marist team his Rams will face in two weeks.
“They are a real problem for teams,” Kleinschmidt said of Marist.
Marist won a school record 31 games a year ago. This year’s Marist team is even better.
The RedHawks are defending more consistently, playing more physical and have the potential to batter opponents on the glass with 6-7 Stephen Brown, 6-5 Kendall Meyers, 6-5 Charles Barnes and physical guard Karson Thomas, who is currently out with an injury.
The addition of Barnes, a high-profile transfer from De La Salle, has made a world of difference with his scoring, shooting and length. He leads Marist with 17 points and eight rebounds a game.
But there is depth and balance beyond Barnes and strong guard play with Adoni Vassilakis, TJ Tate and Thomas, along with additional scoring from Ryan Lawlor.
In search of their first sectional championship in 45 years, the 16-1 RedHawks will be the favorite in the Joliet West Sectional in March.