Boys Basketball: Thornwood gets a win over Thornton

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Updated: March 1, 2012 8:11AM

Darrell Combs had waited a long time to beat Thornton. Thanks to social media, he also had extra motivation.

Combs and his Thornwood teammates got off to a solid start and put SouthWest Suburban Red rival Thornton in too big of a hole in coming away with a 59-48 victory in Harvey on Friday night.

“We were so fired up to play them,’’ Combs said. “They were talking trash on Twitter all week. This is the first time that I’ve ever beaten them in my four years here.’’

The Thunderbirds (13-5, 6-0) raced out to a 10-0 lead as Combs scored six of his 18 points to start the game.

The situation got worse for Thornton (7-10, 5-2), which dug itself a 38-18 halftime hole. Thornwood’s Johnte Shannon joined Combs with the hot hand, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the first half. The T-birds forced Thornton into 10 turnovers and 30 percent shooting and controlled the boards while scoring easy baskets off fast breaks.

“This game is like the Cubs vs. the Sox,’’ Thornwood coach Paul Slavich said. “It’s a big rivalry. Erase the records when we play them. I was surprised but happy when we got that lead. This is a tough place to play.’’

The Wildcats made a comeback attempt in the second half but the margin was too big to overcome. Joshua Russell scored 12 of his 14 points and Justin Taylor had 12 of his 18 in the second half. Marvin Jones curtailed the easy Thornwood baskets with six blocks in the half.

Thornton managed to cut the lead to 51-44 with 5:10 left in the game on a Russell putback, but that’s as close as the Wildcats would get.

Thornwood’s Khapri Alston stopped the run by scoring the next six points. Alston finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Thornwood will host Andrew in a battle of conference unbeatens Sunday in a game that was postponed because of a snowstorm.