Bolingbrook’s Trinity Jones corralled the rebound with two hands before starting her dribble. Dribble. Dribble. Dribble. There Jones was, finishing through contact for two of her 22 points.
All it took was three dribbles for Jones to go coast-to-coast.
Jones is one of the top-rated sophomores in the country, and it’s easy to tell why when you watch her. Her transfer to Bolingbrook positions the Raiders to potentially make a deep postseason run.
The Raiders haven’t lost this season, and the games haven’t been particularly close.
Bolingbrook’s (12-0, 3-0 Southwest Suburban/Blue) average margin of victory is 27.5. They’re not just beating opponents; they’re dominating them.
Bolingbrook’s combination of size and skill allowed them to overcome a sluggish first half — they led 35-28 at halftime — into a 78-54 conference win against Homewood-Flossmoor (9-4, 2-1).
H-F’s Jaeda Murphy was scoring in various ways all over the court. She scored 15 first-half points and finished with 33 points. But she was the only player on her team to score in double figures.
Bolingbrook doesn’t have that problem: They’re one of the most complete teams in the state and boast a stable of capable scorers. Sophomore guard Ciyah Thomas came off the bench, scored 13 points and had three steals.
“I tell her all the time that she’s one of the best players on this team,” senior guard Angelina Smith said. “We had four people in double-digits, a lot of teams can’t say they’re doing that. It’s a good spark that a good team has, and that’s what makes us a state-caliber team.”
Smith — a DePaul commit — has been a four-year varsity player for the Raiders. She gives them their spark. Her 12 second-half points and pressure defense helped flip the game.
“She’s the engine and the catalyst for this team,” Raiders coach Christopher Smith said. “When she gets out and leads us with her gritty, hard-nosed effort, the team feeds off of that.”
Smith is the stabilizer for this team. When things get out of sorts, the ball is in her hands to calm everything down.
But Jones raises the ceiling for Bolingbrook. The talented Sophomore dazzles in the open court. However, her scoring belies her tremendous all-around play. Jones finished with a double-double — 22 points and 13 rebounds — but she also had eight assists, blocked four shots and accumulated three steals.
These blocks aren’t of the ordinary, run-of-the-mill variety. Jones is sending the ball back in the face of the shooter.
But ask her about her sensational all-around play, and she’s very ho-hum about it. She expects brilliant performances of herself.
“That’s what I’m supposed to do,” Jones said. “I’m a 6-2 guard, that’s just how I play basketball, and it’s fun.”
She brings the energy, also. Before halftime — when the Raiders weren’t playing with a ton of energy — Jones threw a dime to guard Yahaira Bueno, who scored, and Jones started passionately screaming, slapping the hands of every one of her teammates.
“I’m really good at bringing the energy, sometimes a little bit too much, close to getting a tech,” Jones said. “But that’s how you play basketball; if you don’t play like that, then what are you doing?
Bolingbrook lost one senior from last year’s team and added Jones, one of the best players in the country. Once the Raiders started getting stops, you saw each player exude confidence. The expectations are high for the Raiders this season.
“We came into the season knowing we wanted to win State,” Smith said. “Now, the goal is to stay undefeated and win state.”
Kyle Williams is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.