When you're here, you're family: Reunions all around in Lanphier-Springfield High clash
Plenty of storylines will be told from Lanphier’s 63-56 home win over Springfield High in a nonconference boys basketball game at Lober-Nika Gymnasium on Friday night.
Here are four takeaways from the game that will be memorable in more ways than one:
Clash of familiar coaches
Their uniform colors may have changed, but their goals are the same.
Former Lanphier assistant Marques Warfield is in his first season at the helm as head coach at Springfield High. Warfield spent three seasons on the bench with current Lanphier coach Blake Turner, and the respect between the two runs deep.
“Our relationship goes way back to the '90s,” Turner said of Warfield. “He’s a Lanphier guy and a Lanphier alum. We’ve been in the basketball community for a long time. He did a really good job, and he gave me a call when that Springfield job opened, and I encouraged him to go for it. We’re still really close and talk every day. I know that he’s got it going in the right direction, and they’ll get going.”
Said Warfield, “Coach Turner is my mentor. I come off his coaching tree, and I'm familiar with how Lanphier plays historically. It has never changed, and I’m trying to bring a little bit of that juice from (Lanphier) and take it over and infuse it on the west side.”
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Friday’s loss dropped the Senators to 0-7 overall. That hasn’t deterred Warfield, who has seemingly been upbeat through it all.
“We’re taking it inch-by-inch,” Warfield said. “For us, our goal is February, everybody is 0-0 and gets into the playoffs. It’s how good can we get each game because we didn’t have a June and a fall, so everything is ground zero. We’re still putting plays in while all the other (teams) have chemistry.”
Lanphier assistant Julian Gorens is also a part of the coaching equation. Gorens spent 15 seasons as an assistant at Springfield before joining Turner on the Lanphier sideline this season.
“Springfield High School will always be my family; it’s 15 years in the game,” Gorens said. “I’m a people’s person, and we’ve got great relationships. I fit right on in (at Lanphier), and I love the culture; it’s a winning culture. It’s a little something different, and it’s another level. But nothing taken away from any other school.”
Lanphier sharpshooter delivers again
Junior guard JaiQuan Holman scored a bucket midway through the second period to give Lanphier an 18-17 lead, an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish.
But it was what Holman did from beyond the 3-point arc that helped the Lions improve to 4-4. Holman nailed 6 of 11 3-point attempts and finished with a game-high 26 points. His fourth trey gave Lanphier a 26-19 halftime lead, and his final one was from deep territory to extend the Lions' advantage to 48-32 near the end of the third period.
Holman has built a reputation as being one of the deepest 3-point shooters in the conference, and even Turner realized the guard bailed the team out on several occasions.
“We’re not moving the ball well; we’re not cutting well,” Turner said. “Sometimes in the offense that we’re running, that’s the best shot that we can get (Holman’s deep 3s).”
Lanphier put four players in double figures. Junior guard Amari Anderson scored 13 points, and senior guard Jessie Bates III added 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Junior forward Shaun Hatchett Jr. had eight of his 11 points in the fourth period. All five of his baskets came on dunks.
Senators hang tough
Springfield trailed 51-34 after three quarters but outscored Lanphier 22-12 in the final period. Sophomore guard Brody Scheffler made three 3s in the fourth and 4 of 5 overall to lead the Senators with 14 points.
Senior guard/forward Kevin Crews played big and scored 13 on 6 of 10 shooting. Junior forward Valor Komolafe made 6 of 9 shots and contributed 12 points to go with six rebounds. Springfield got within 57-51 until Hatchett scored on a putback dunk to push the lead back to eight with 2 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in regulation.
“My kids played hard — the biggest thing that we’ve been focusing on is winning the inches,” Warfield said. “We just want to compete in every game, and they’re buying into competing. Our last two games have been peaks and valleys, but they’ve been great learning lessons. Our practices have been good, so now it’s transitioning into the game and trusting of what I'm saying to them.”
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Turner praised the Senators' play.
“They played hard with toughness. I thought they were the more aggressive team, the tougher team. They just weren’t the most skilled team,” Turner said of Springfield High. “Hats off to them, they played hard, and they came to beat us. They want to win just as bad as anybody else, and I think that was proven tonight.”
Lanphier starts next week with some common rivals.
"When we’re passive and nonchalant and try to go through the motions, you can’t do that,” Turner said. “Our schedule is not forgiving (at Peoria Manual on Tuesday and at Southeast on Friday). If we play like this, we’ll be 0-2 next week.”
Goodbye old gym
Lanphier played its final game at the old Lober-Nika Gymnasium on Friday. Its next home game is Jan. 5 against Jacksonville when the new fieldhouse will be christened.
The first game played at the old Lanphier gym was 55 years ago in 1968.
Contact Trevor Lawrence: trevor.lawrence@sj-r.com or at 217-788-1548.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA basketball: Lober-Nika closes with Lanphier win
