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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.