One measure of a basketball player’s value is to examine what is different in his absence.
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The Maine East boys basketball team lost 62-43 to Niles North on Friday, Feb. 5. Senior Calvin Jean Louis missed the game due to the death of his grandfather.
Jean Louis’ absence meant the Blue Demons would be without a player who scored 23 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds, according to Blue Demons coach Dave Genis, in Maine East’s 59-58 victory over the Vikings (19-6) earlier in the season.
“They didn’t have an answer for Calvin when we played at our place,” Genis said.
Genis said that the Blue Demons (13-12 entering the week) were an entirely different team without the 6-foot-5 forward’s ability to score in multiple ways, his athleticism and his rebounding prowess.
Maine East’s frontline also was much easier to defend.
“You have to respect Calvin’s ability to shoot the ball and respect his ability to put the ball down on the wood and get to the rim,” Genis said. “And in transition, we’re different, too. He rebounds and can just go.”
Maine East senior guard Ashoor Doushow added: “It was tough [without Jean Louis]. He has a huge impact on our team. He rebounds a lot. He finishes around the basket pretty good.”
Niles North outrebounded Maine East 32-17. The Blue Demons hung in the game during the first half despite both Doushow and senior forward Wilson Noriega picking up their second fouls.
Niles North began to separate itself during the midway point of the second quarter, however. One memorable sequence came with 4:29 remaining, when Niles North junior Jordan LaBelle missed a pair of free throws. The Vikings led 16-14 at the time.
Maine East 6-2 senior forward Steven Ponzetti, who combined with 6-1 senior Sonny Lukovic to fill in for Jean Louis, used his body to wall off Niles North’s Saveion Shadd on LaBelle’s second miss. Shadd, a 6-4 senior, used his height and leaping ability to elevate over Ponzetti and snatch the rebound, however. Shadd then sunk a shot from about 4 feet.
That play was in line with the relentlessness Niles North coach Glenn Olson wanted to see from his team against the Blue Demons, especially with Jean Louis out of the lineup.
“We thought we got handled pretty good last game on the boards — or at least [on] significant rebounds. They got a bunch of significant rebounds,” Olson said of the teams’ first meeting. “Rebounding was a huge emphasis for us.”
Genis tried to alter the personnel within Maine East’s 1-3-1 zone defense to put his team in a better position to battle the more-athletic Vikings on the glass. He moved Noriega to the top of the zone, where junior guard Jordan Irving typically plays, and Irving shifted to the wing.
That put Irving and Doushow, the team’s two most athletic starters, on the wings to try to rebound on the weak side.
Other than that, the approach to rebounding without Jean Louis was to just tough it out, Genis added. Maine East fought hard — especially Lukovic and Ponzetti on the interior — but Niles North’s rebounding advantage was another example of why Jean Louis is so valuable to the Blue Demons.
“He’s tall. He’s aggressive,” Doushow said of Jean Louis. “Calvin’s a big piece.”
Eric Van Dril is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @VanDrilSports