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Friday night Josh and I went to Wharton Field House to watch Moline High School take on Rock Island High School. Normally, I don’t attend a lot of high school games, but Rock Island features potential future Illini Chasson Randle, and I wanted to see him play. Due to the weather (and the AlWood Elementary Christmas party) Dad couldn’t make it, but Josh and I braved the freezing rain.

Since Moline–Rocky is a fairly big high school rivalry, and this year’s edition featured a future Division I player, I thought the field house might be a little more packed than it was. I’d say it was probably about 60–70% full, and we were able to find decent seats at mid-court in the upper deck. We arrived with about 5 minutes left in the JV game, so we watched the younger kids play as we settled in.

Both teams brought good-sized student sections that were having a good time. Rock Island had a bunch of guys with body paint spelling out ROCK TOWN USA. Moline had Santa Claus, some elves, and his security crew. Both teams’ cheerleaders got their student sections loud and rowdy.

Disappointingly, Moline’s aggressive zone defense effectively took Randle out of the game. Rock Island was pretty passive in attacking the zone, passing around the outside, occasionally throwing up a three-pointer. Their man defense was much more truculent, though, and they prevented Moline’s offense from doing much damage. At halftime, Randle had no points.

In the second half, Rocky started attacking the zone with a little more urgency. Their center, a beast at 6′4″ (I am also 6′4″. Rock Island had two kids listed at 6′7″, and Moline had one at 6′5″, and none of them saw any time in this game. Kinda surprising.), was fed the ball, and probably ended with about 15 or 17 points. Randle drained a couple shots and finished with 7.

With about four minutes in the game, Rocky was up by seven points and I thought the game was over. The slow pace of the game made seven points seem like an insurmountable lead. Moline went on a little run, tying the game up with just a couple minutes remaining, and made the final stretch more interesting.

In the end, Rock Island persevered, winning the game 36 to 33. Watching Randle specifically, he certainly showed signs of brilliance, but never really took the game over like I was hoping. There were a couple of passes and dribble penetrations that showed a lot of promise, though. His defense also looked strong, which I appreciated in such a low-scoring game.

After the game, Josh and I stopped in a small local tavern called the Hawkeye Tap near his house in west Davenport. Considering both of us have different Big Ten loyalties (myself to the Illini and Josh to the Hoosiers), we laid low. It was a fun place, though, with the DJ playing songs from 80s power ballads to the Macarena. They also had The Golden Girls on their big screen, and who can’t appreciate that?