Another year of Palatine Basketball has kicked off over the past week. The boys team always opens up with their own tournament hosted here inside Palatines walls, known as the Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Classic.
The classic entered its 14th year of hosting and included six teams from around the Chicagoland area: Glenbrook South, Hersey, York, Jacobs, Stevenson, and of course, the pirates. Teams like Glenbrook South and York ended up being powerhouses, and were two great challenges for head coach Eric Millstone and company.
“There’s some other teams in the area that go and rack up wins, but they don’t play the teams that we played last week,” Millstone said. “So I think as we move forward in the season, when we play a good team, we can kind of make a withdrawal from our competitive bank based on who we played so far.”
Palatine opened their tournament and season play on Monday against the Glenbrook South Titans, a team projected to do some damage in the Central Suburban South conference this year.
These two teams went basket after basket, the largest lead in regulation being only a 20-14 lead by Palatine. Later on, Connor May was able to make a free throw with 20 seconds left under extreme pressure to send us to overtime. The overtime went just as regulation, neck and neck until the final minute, where the Titans would jump ahead with free throws to end up winning by a score of 56-50. Nick Taylor would end up registering more than 45% of the Titans points, with a 26 point night. He would later on be named MVP of the tournament. Connor May shined with 18 for the pirates.
Junior guard, Carter Monroe reflected on a game in a positive manner.
“Even though we lost, that is one game that I think will take the most away from,” Monroe said. “It would definitely be because the caliber of that team is high.”
Wednesday was an MSL Crossover with the Hersey Huskies, who the pirates met twice last year, defeating them 61-22 in the previous Ed Molitor classic, and defeating them 59-51 inside Hersey’s home court in January.
Palatine jumped out early, just to be caught up at halftime, with a tie game, 24-24. Whatever motivation came out of the locker room, it worked. The pirates looked unstoppable after that, having gone on a 7-0 run right out of the gate to give them a 31-24 lead. They never looked back and ended up cruising away with a 53-41 victory. Four different pirates went into double figures in points, which included Connor May, younger brother Kasey May, Carter Monroe, and Tommy Elter.
The matchup with the Huskies was also a game where their defense impressed.
“I think defensively we’re a little further along than I thought we would be at this point,” Millstone said. “We’ve got a lot of new kids running a new type of defense.”
On Friday, it was the York Dukes, an opponent they haven’t met in this tournament in 2 years, when they lost a 53-55 thriller in 2021.
York was ready from the moment of tip-off. The Dukes felt invincible in the first 10 minutes of play, running away with a 19-2 lead at one point in the second quarter. The pirates would start to claw their way back throughout the remainder of the game, but it wasn’t enough. York’s dominant beginning led them to a 52-38 victory. May was the point leader once again for Palatine, dropping 16 on the scoresheet.
To cap off their tournament, they seeked to make their way back to .500 once again with a matchup against Jacobs High School, who they opened the season with last year and won against. This was the game Monroe believed they played their best possible offense.
“I think offensively the second half first against Jacobs we really brought everything together,” Monroe said. “ I think we shot 60% from inside the arc.”
After only having 27 in the first half, Palatine’s offense and defense emerged with a 35-17 second half that delivered them their second win of the season, with a final of 62-41, leveling their record to 2 wins and 2 losses. May had 23 points and Monroe notched 16.
The Pirates have a 3 game homestand next week that begins with Elk Grove, after that it’s Hoffman Estates, and then they finish with Von Steuben on Saturday. The Hoffman Estates matchup will be broadcasted by PHS PTV for those who cannot make the Friday night tilt.
