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Sports

Analysis: Meteors Dominate Tinley Park on Boards, Force 16 Turnovers

Disparity on the glass, missed opportunities keep Titans from winning home finale.

Tinley Park senior point guard Andrew Sebastian connected on a three-pointer with 5:17 left in the second quarter to pull the Titans to within 17-16.

He found the bottom of the net again from long distance 32 seconds later. And then he did it one final time a minute later.

Sebastian's quick outburst was perhaps the lone time Friday night when the Titans appeared comfortable on offense during the South Suburban Blue contest against T.F. North, and it didn't last.

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Once the Meteors realized they couldn't allow Sebastian to shoot, they tightened up defensively, not allowing him another field goal the rest of the game, while forcing the Titans to hurry their passes and rush shots all evening. T.F. North forced 16 turnovers.

Making that number stand out even more is that the Meteors only committed five turnovers of their own.

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"That's only the second game all season where we've played T.F. North defense," T.F. North coach Tim Bankston said. "The kids are more visual and we showed them yesterday. We watched film for two or three hours and had a team meeting and they realized how horrible they looked. Tonight they responded and it's all up to the kids."

Tinley Park was limited to 14 field goals overall and they were split right down the middle from three-point range and traditional two-point territory.

"Their defensive pressure took us out of our perimeter play and they did a good job of denying the entry pass and really disrupting our offense," said Tinley Park coach D.J. Brown. "It got to us at times and caused some problems."

 Rebounding also was a major problem for the Titans. Not only were they denied at least 16 scoring opportunities because of their turnovers, but they had few second-chance opportunities of their own as the Meteors ruled the rebounding game, 32-20.

"We got outworked," Brown said. "I think they were bigger, and stronger, and more aggressive than we were."

Sylvester Tolliver led the way for the Meteors with a game-high 10 rebounds.

"We've been doing a great job on the boards all year," Bankston said. "When they are focused like they were today, and if they keep this up during the postseason, we're going to be a tough out."

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