By Nick Niego ‘23

The Brother Rice basketball season started up last week with the Thanksgiving Tournament at Riverside Brookfield. All eyes were on the highly ranked team as they took on Morton for the first game of the tournament.

Brother Rice started off slow with sloppy play but ended up taking control of the game in the 2nd quarter and winning the game 79-48.

Senior Ryan Gierhahn said, “It was fun to finally play a game after all the time we put in during the off-season. We played well and set the tone for the rest of the tournament.”

The team played Zion-Benton in the second game and dominated from the beginning winning 82-34.

The semi-final game was against a higher level team, Thornwood, from South Holland. It was a scrappy game, and the team really stepped up with a commanding victory 61-28.

Senior Ryan Kenney said, “Coach Stamas gave us a great game plan. We knew what we had to do and executed.”

The championship game was set against basketball powerhouse Curie. It was a revenge game for Brother Rice since they lost to them last year in the Thanksgiving championship.

It was a battle from the beginning. Brother Rice took the early lead and never let up. Currie cut the 15-point halftime lead to six in the 3rd quarter until Brother Rice eventually ran away with it.

Sophomore Marcos Gonzales said, “I think it was a great game and an early test for us. We stayed together throughout the game and handled whatever they threw at us as a team.”

Brother Rice ended up winning 77-59 and took the Turkey trophy back to 99th and Pulaski.