By Bill Alden
When Parker Dortch joined the Lob City team in the Princeton Recreation Department Men’s Summer Basketball League this year, he wasn’t focused on being a top scorer for the squad.
“I am a defensive guy so I don’t have to score to get myself pumped up,” said Dortch, who starred for Northern Burlington High before going on to play college ball at Kaskaskia College and Loyola Marymount from 2017-21.
But as Lob City faced Novi Wealth Partners last Friday night at the Community Parks courts, 6’7 forward Dortch proved to be an offensive force in the paint.
“I just came out here and just did whatever the team needed,” said Dortch, who ended up with a team-high 16 points in the contest. “I felt like I was a mismatch in the post so whenever I got the ball in the post, I felt like the team was coming to double team and then that caused rotations. It was exploiting the double team and mismatches and just going off of that.”
Sparked by Dortch’s production, Lob City pulled out a 49-44 win over Novi Wealth, who got 16 points from Jalen Parham with former Princeton University men’s hoops standout Myles Stephens chipping in 14.
Trailing 41-40 with five minutes left in regulation, Lob City went on a 9-3 run to hold off Novi Wealth.
“We put an emphasis on rebounding and on running the floor,” said Dortch. “Once we started running the floor and started getting easy ones, people were cutting and some people were open. I felt like those were the easy baskets rather than just letting them set up in the halfcourt and then we have to play out of that. It is a good win for the team.”
Having come off a 76-58 loss to YSU, its only setback of the season, Lob City was fired up to get back on the winning track against Novi Wealth.
“I felt the energy from the team when I was here at the court,” said Dortch of the team which defeated Play Smart 62-57 in overtime last Monday to improve to 6-1. “We got here early, we warmed up, got stretched and were ready to go today and it fell in line.
Returning to the summer league after taking a hiatus in the wake of ending his college career, Dortch is bringing a lot of energy to the Community Park courts.
“I played in the Princeton league when I was a lot younger, this is the first time I have been back in four or five years,” added Dortch. “It is fun, basketball is basketball. You love basketball, you love to compete. Basketball is about competing.”
With Lob City having reached the league championship series last year, the team is primed for another fun postseason run as it is seeded second in this year’s playoffs and will face seventh-seeded Novi Wealth in a quarterfinal contest on July 21.
“I think we are going to be excited and have some energy going into the playoffs,” said Dortch. “We are just playing together, clicking on all cylinders. If we do what we have got to do, we will be fine. It is playing defense and keeping teams to one shot with no offensive rebounds.”