Hinsdale Middle School claimed bragging rights, at least for now, over rival Clarendon Hills Middle School Monday night by winning both the seventh and eighth grade boys basketball games in the schools’ annual showdown.
Hinsdale overcame a 22-21 halftime deficit in the seventh grade opener to post a 45-37 victory and led most of the way in a 34-19 win in the eighth grade contest held at at Hinsdale Central.
“The kids get unbelievably psyched up for this,” said Andrew Dzija, the Hinsdale eighth grade coach. “It’s an opportunity for them to play at the high school in front of a bigger crowd and to showcase their talent for the Hinsdale Central coaches, who are here to watch.”
Longtime Hinsdale principal Ruben Pena agreed.
“It’s the two largest feeder schools for Hinsdale Central getting to play on their court, and that’s got to feel good for our kids,” he said. “The kids play with a different kind of swagger here.”
Clarendon Hills eighth-grader Will Gaffney played a year ago as a seventh-grader and was excited to be back again.
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“It’s a big gym and a fun atmosphere with a lot of people, and we don’t usually have much of a crowd at our games,” he said.
Teammate Will Kusak said the rivalry between the two Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Elementary District 181 middle schools is friendly, but everyone is motivated to claim local bragging rights when the teams square off.
“It’s fun to play against friends, but it’s definitely a big rivalry,” he said.
Hinsdale eighth-grader Daniel Orozco said it’s easy to get psyched up playing against Clarendon Hills in front of a big crowd. Teammate Alex Rasmussen said the games are special.
“I have a lot of friends on their team, and you always want to beat your friends,” he said. “It’s also really fun to play here because I get to see where I’m going to play in high school.”
Max Williams, a Hinsdale Central freshman basketball player who played for Hinsdale Middle School during his previous two years of school, stopped in to watch Monday’s action after finishing practice.
“These games are a lot of fun because you know everyone, and there’s a lot more people watching,” he said. “There’s a lot more energy at these games.”
In the seventh grade game, Eric Kozys led Hinsdale with 18 points. Dillon Orozco, 10 points, Michael Howell, 7, Oliver Miller, 6, and Tyler Thick, 4, also scored for the Spartans.
For Clarendon Hills, Cooper Revord had 8 points, Dillon Dell, 7, Matthew Peterson, 6, Owen Saka, 5, James Claus, 4, Michael DiTomasso, 3, Joey Ackerman and Alex Rivera, 2, each.
Daniel Orozco led the Hinsdale eighth-graders with 8 points, with Kevin Coan and Robert Deftos, 7 each, Kellen Tran, 5, and Damian Hogervorst, 4, and Alexander Rasmussen, 3 also contributing to the point total.
Tyler Pavlik, with 6 points, was the leading scorer for Clarendon Hills, which got 3 points each from Joe Coffey, BK Arslan and Will Gaffney and 2 from Will Kusak.