Quick transition: Central jumps into basketball season with victory over Brown County

CAMP POINT, Ill. — Camp Point Central’s boys basketball team is far from a finished product, despite what Monday night’s 48-26 season-opening victory over Brown Country might suggest.

In fact, the Panthers are not even close to what James Barnett envisions he will see later this season.

“It’s going to take a while, probably until around the end of January,” said Barnett, beginning his eighth year as Central coach.

But Barnett, whose club was 27-5 a year ago, has absolutely no complaints — only smiles.

“It’s a great problem to have, similar to the one we had last year,” Barnett said.

Barnett said his basketball team was able to have only two brief practices with numerous members of Central’s state-championship football team who also play basketball. 

Central won the Class 1A state football title last Friday. A year ago, Central also reached the state finals before losing. So Barnett was familiar with how such a scenario played out heading into basketball season.

“The football team had such a great year,” Barnett said.

One of those late-arriving football players, Nick Moore, led Central in scoring against Brown County, pocketing 19 points.

“We were able to hit some big shots early in the game, and just kept rolling,” said Moore, a three-year starting quarterback who led the Panthers to a 36-3 record during his football career.

Central took charge from the outset against Brown County, building a 16-4 lead after one quarter en route to a 31-10 advantage by halftime.

“Until we’re at full strength, we’ll be relying a lot on our defense,” Barnett said. “Right now, we just have to try and find ways to win.”

Gavin Blewett and Kaiden Lohmeyer each contributed eight points, with Drew Paben adding six. Barnett rotated players throughout the game.

“Our major problem (in the coming weeks) will be our basketball conditioning,” Barnett said. “The (football players) have to get their legs ready, and that’s going to take a while.”

Brown County coach Eric Jones, whose program is coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons, realizes patience will be needed this winter.

“As a team, we’re lacking offensive skills, but I see signs of hope,” he said.

Jones said he was pleased with the way his club responded after Monday night’s 21-point halftime deficit.

“Our goal at halftime was to come out and win the third quarter, and then win the second half,” Jones said. “And we did win the third quarter.”

Brown County outscored Central 7-2 in the third quarter, and actually climbed within 33-21 with 6 1/2 minutes to play. Central, however, ran off eight straight points to regain control.

Brown Country dropped to 1-4.

“Our defense plays hard,” Jones said. “No opponent has yet scored 50 points on us.”

Angel Duarte led Brown County scorers with seven points. Noah Ingram added six.