Helmich, Grant maneuver past Johnsburg
At Grant, the act of rebounding the ball on the offensive end deserves a name.
Like … the Helmich Maneuver.
Jared Helmich put on a rebounding clinic on Saturday night in the opening round of the Grant Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament.
Helmich pulled down 11 rebounds, 7 on the offensive end, and scored a game- and career-high 27 points to lead Grant to a monster 81-55 victory over Johnsburg.
Twelve of Helmich’s points came off of putbacks.
“They (Johnsburg) weren’t really boxing out, so I just tried to work my way in and get on the offensive glass, get rebounds and put them back up,” Helmich said. “I try to get around my guy on every shot.
“Over the off-season I worked a lot on rebounding and getting good position.”
This isn’t the first time Helmich has burned Johnsburg on the boards.
At Johnsburg’s Thanksgiving tournament earlier this season, he scored 24 points and rolled up a career-high 14 rebounds.
“He’s got a thing for Johnsburg, I guess. He’s just ready to play against them,” chuckled Grant coach Wayne Bosworth, whose team was up by 14 points at halftime and boasted leads as big as 28 points in the fourth quarter. Grant moves to 5-3 on the season with its second straight win.
“That first game against Johnsburg was just the third varsity game of his career,” Bosworth said of Helmich. “When Jared was on the sophomore team last year, he was the same way. He just has a knack for the ball. He’s normally always getting 8, 9, 10 rebounds a game. And with 7 offensive rebounds tonight, that’s impressive.”
Even more impressive was that Helmich wasn’t alone in his hunger for rebounds.
Jerry Gaylor, who finished second in scoring for Grant with 14 points, rolled up 9 rebounds.
Overall, he Bulldogs out-rebounded Johnsburg 40-23 and allowed only 8 offensive rebounds. The Skyhawks, who drop to 1-8 on the season, scored a mere 4 points on putbacks.
Their lack of second-chance opportunities made their 38 percent field goal percentage seem only drearier.
“One of the big things the kids wanted to do was hold (Johnsburg) to one shot and out tonight,” Bosworth said. “I think for the most part, they did that. That just feeds into our transition game more.”
As soon as the Bulldogs regained possession by pulling down a rebound, they were off to the races.
Their new up-tempo style was in full effect, highlighted by a couple of thunderous Gaylor dunks in transition.
“I love this style of basketball, running up and down,” Helmich said. “Hopefully we can keep moving just like this and rattle off some more wins.”
Grant also got 12 points from junior guard Sean Wells and all 11 players who entered the game scored.
Meanwhile, Johnsburg got a team-high 14 points from Mike Ward as well as 11 points from TJ Sigmund and 10 points from Mike Dombrowski.
“We knew that Grant is an athletic team that can rebound and we saw that at our tournament,” Johnsburg coach Sean McGruder said. “We knew they’d have a swagger coming in.
“We knew we had to physically box out instead of just going for the rebound because that would turn into a jumping contest, and we knew we would lose that battle. But that’s exactly what happened.”