My photos from the 2A state championship game between CPS powerhouse Dyett and Althoff Catholic from Belleville. Chicago Area teams won all for IHSA classifications: Chicago Hope Academy in 1A, Dyett in 2A, DePaul Prep in 3A and Benet Academy in 4A. Dyett was the only public school to win a state championship.
Dyett Wins 2A State Championship with 52-41 win over Althoff Catholic
DePaul Prep Wins Third Straight State Championship
[preview of my Inside—Booster story for this week.]
By Jack Lydon
CHAMPAIGN, IL—The toughness and heart of DePaul Prep cannot be overstated. Down by nine with under six minutes to play, the Rams rallied to defeat Brother Rice 55-52 in double overtime to win their third straight state championship. This was a heavy weight boxing match between fighters that know each other well.
The game was practically a mirror image of their first meeting in January when the Brother Rice Crusaders (31-6) defeated DePaul Prep 53-52 after grabbing an early lead. The Crusaders survived a late comeback by the Rams, but just barely.
That would not happen again. With the weight of two state champions pressing down and behind 33-24 with 5:42 to play, the Rams had to dig deep. Senior leader Makai Kvamme, a veteran of the two preceding state championships, stepped up big time.
Makai was struggling. He had not scored in the game to that point. Despite getting good looks, his shots were just not falling.
At 5:42, Makai get a layup, his first points of the game. He would score 9 more in the fourth. It wasn’t just Kvamme. Porter had a bucket. With the Rams trailing 40-37 and 43 seconds on the clock, Junior guard and transfer into DePaul Rykan Woo, who was not on the prior championship teams, surely had the biggest free throw shots of his life. He made the first. He made the second. He made the third. Scored tied, going to overtime.
It would take two overtimes but the Rams would close out the win with big buckets by AJ Chambers, Rob Walls, Rashaun Porter and five more from Kvamme in the second overtime.
“That was a fist fight of heavy weights. All great whistles. They let us play. Points were at a premium. Things got loose a little in the second half,” said Rams coach Tom Kleinschmit.
“These seniors that are up here have been on the varsity for three years. They are 70 and 5 in two years. The culture was built on the guys before them,” Kleinschmidt added.
“We knew that we had experience. We wanted to use that experience to the best of our ability. We stayed poised, stayed relaxed and started pressuring them to make them turn it over. We got that result,” said junior center Rashaun Porter.
“When we took the program over [in 2013], we had two goals: win the [Chicago Catholic] League and win the state championship. We hadn’t won a league game in five years and people looked at us like ‘ya, whatever.’ We attained one of the goals and won the League. Now we’ve won a championship,” said Kleinschmidt.
It’s three championships now actually. The Rams defeated Bloomington Central Catholic 65-41 in 2023 to win 2A. Last year they defeated Chicago Catholic League rival Mount Carmel 49-41 to win their second state championship in a row, that time in 3A. It will have to be said that the DePaul Prep Rams have entered the rarified air of multiple consecutive championships in IHSA history.
“We are a defensive culture team that can score now. We talked about leaning on our experience. We certainly did that tonight,” concluded Coach Kleinschmidt.
Seventh ranked Brother Rice Crusaders were as tough a team as the Rams faced all year. And the Rams played a tremendously difficult schedule. Brother Rice has put together an impressive string of their own with three consecutive 30-win seasons. It was their first appearance in the State Tournament since 2005.
Chicago Catholic League Lawless Player of the Year, Crusaders senior guard Marcos Gonzales lead all scorers in the game with 24 points. Senior forward K. J. Morris had 11 points for Brother Rice. Senior guard Jack Weigus added 10 points.
It was a total team effort for the Rams, offensively as well as defensively. Kvamme lead the team with 16 points, all coming in the fourth quarter and the overtime periods. Rashaun Porter added 14 despite suffering injured fingers. Rob Walls and Rykan Woo had 7 each. AJ Chambers had 5. Jonas Johnson and Gus Donohue each added a three-pointer. The Rams had 10 steals and only 9 turnovers.
DePaul Prep Advances to Third Straight Title Game
By Jack Lydon
The DePaul Prep Rams (32-4), Chicago Catholic League Champs, defending state champs defeated the Glenwood High School Titans, from Chatham, Illinois, 39-25. The Rams advance to their third straight IHSA title game against Brother Rice at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.
Please forgive me for not doing a complete story about the game. I shot three games yesterday. I have spend the last 24 hours working on getting the photos right. Photography at this state tournament level shooting demands a lot of attention. There is good light and a lot at stake so I need to concentrate on that.
Going into the Finals I planned to concentrate on blog posting. It didn’t work out that way. I largely neglected the writing and blog posting even though I planned to do more of that. It just didn’t work out. I found that I basically can’t do both. It’s time consuming enough to write a proper news story about a game that I shot.
These are my photos from the game.
Some shots I worked up for Mike Clark from the St. Pat's v. Brother Rice Game
Brother Rice defeated the Shamrocks 48-33 and advances to play DePaul Prep in the 3A title game tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., in Champaign.
Dyett Defeat Manuel 56-50 to Advance to 2A Championship Game
I shot the second 2A semi-final between CPS’s Dyett Eagles and the Peoria Manuel Rams. Dyett played well and defeated Peoria Manuel 56-50 to advance to play the impressive Belleville Althoff Catholic team in the 2A state final.
Chicago's Christ the King Takes on Althoff Catholic in 2A Semi
By Jack Lydon
The Christ the King (26-9)) getting ready take on Althoff Catholic (Belleville) (30-5) in the IHSA 2A Semi-final.
Christ the King College Preparatory School is a co-ed Jesuit “Cristo Rey Network” affiliated Catholic school in Chicago’s Westside Austin neighborhood. Christ the King opened in 2008. This is CTK’s first trip to any state The current IHSA enrollment figure is 371. First regional win was 19-20. CTK lost to Latin School in last year’s Sectional Final 43-42.
The Gladiators play a 2A schedule but defeated 4A Waukegan 62-58 in December.
Althoff Catholic from Belleville has an enrollment of 312 (IHSA enrollment is listed as 288) and won the 3A state championship over Lincoln-Way West in 2016. Altholff has a player, senior guard Dierre Hill, who is reputed to be the top high school football player in Illinois. Keep an eye on him, no. 22.
Update:
At half, Althoff Catholic leads Christ the King 30-17. Late second quarter charge by Althoff grabbed a thirteen point lead. Crusaders hit threes and scored in transition. Gladiators turning the ball over.
Blog Posts and DePaul Prep's 3A Semi-final Opponent Glenwood
By Jack Lydon
I think I am finding my voice when it comes to blog posts. The blog on my website usually just contains galleries of photos from games and events I cover with some explanation. I also post my news articles that appear in the Inside—Booster.
Starting tomorrow, I am going to post news related items from the IHSA boys basketball playoffs that the U. of I. State Farm Center in Champaign in more of a first person blog format. I hope to do it in as close to real time as I can for games that I am not photographing. Tomorrow are the 1A, 2A and 3A semi-finals.
We have six Chicago area teams in playing tomorrow: Chicago Hope, Christ the King, Dyett, Brother Rice, DePaul Prep and St. Patrick. So I will post what I can as I watch the games. But I will probably be photographing the 3A games with just the usually Twitter/X score updates.
Here is some stuff DePaul Prep’s opponent, Glenwood. The Rams take on Glenwood in tomorrow’s 3A sem-final starting at 8:15 p.m.
The Glenwood Titan (24-9), with an enrollment listed by the IHSA as 1,466, are from the Central State Eight conference where they finished fourth behind MacArthur (3A in Decatur), Springfield (3A) and Lanphier (3A from Springfield). All of those schools were in the same sectional that the #3 seed Glenwood won.
The Glenwood starters are senior guard Cameron Appenzeller, senior guard Gavin Simmons, junior forward Jack Kurman, senior forward Mason Neumann and senior forward Jonathon Helm.
Glenwood’s leader scorer is Appenzeller followed closely by Helm. Based upon the games played, it looks like their starters get almost all of the playing time with the only bench player getting significant playing time being junior guard Brody Green.
Knowledgeable high school basketball commentator Big Tim Shabazz suggests in his blog that Glenwood’s size could give DePaul Prep some trouble. Check that out at Big Tim’s blog. Click here to read it.
Michael O’Brien reported this afternoon in the “No Shot Clock” podcast that the Glenwood’s Cameron Appenzeller is a 6’5” lefty pitcher who might be a first-round draft pick in the Major League Baseball draft. So that’s something. Must be quite an athlete.
Appenzeller does not show up in the PrepHoops.com rankings of Class 2025 basketball players. I am guessing that is because he probably plays baseball and not club basketball in the off-season, so he is not on that radar.
Chatham (Glenwood) team photo as appears on the IHSA website.
DePaul Prep Going to State Again with 68-28 Win Over Kaneland
By Jack Lydon
“I feel like we came out and we just punched them in the mouth. We weren't trying to let them get going. We knew that they could get hot pretty fast. We wanted to limit their shots . . . We never gave them a chance to get going,” said DePaul Prep senior guard Rob Walls after the game.
Punched them in the mouth is a good way to describe how the DePaul Prep Rams dismantled the Kaneland Knights 68-28 in the 3A Super-sectional game at Hoffman Estates NOW Arena Monday evening.
It was by no means clear before the game started, how Kaneland would contend with competition such as DePaul Prep. Kaneland came into the game was a gaudy 32-1 record running through their competition with impressive wins over DeKalb and Crystal Lake South. But the Knights haven’t played anything like the level of competition that DePaul Prep would bring.
It showed in the first quarter. The Rams opened the game with 12-0 run. Senior forward Gus Donohue added two big three pointers in a row midway throw the first quarter opening an 18-2 advantage. It was 21-3 at the end of the quarter.
“I thought it was good to get the offense going. . . The guards got me the ball, [Kaneland] to help on our good guards and then I had wide open shots. I was happy that I could knock them down,” Donohue said.
The rest of the game was not much different. 43-12 at the half 60-22 after the third. Running clock and subs for both teams in the fourth with a 68-28 final.
DePaul Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt was complementary of Kaneland.
“Three and five are excellent players. Five [Kaneland senior forward Freddy Hassan] is a thousand-point scorer,” said Kleinschmidt.
“Three [Kaneland’s junior point guard Marshawn Cocroft] is an unbelievable guard, all state last year in 2A. We wanted to make sure they saw a man and a half. I know we're a good defensive of team, but if you play those two guys, one on one, they give people problems. They're thirty-two and one.”
Kaneland is good. They have good players and are well coached. A team can’t go 32-1 without that. It just seemed the Rams were just that much better. Dialed in. Ready and anxious to get back downstate.
Kleinschmidt was a little more forthcoming about the season than he usually is.
“There's a reason we play the schedule we play. We played eight rank teams in like twelve days. We got beat by [Brother] Rice at home by one. The next day within thirteen hours, H-F beat us by one. The kids were really down after that H-F game. I told them when we get down state this weekend, it's gonna be that weekend that got us down state.
“We had Benet at home. I thought it was important to start seniors like Gus and Jonus who helped us build the program. [Benet] took it to us. We gave them another day off and then they have been laser focused at practice and I think that's why. We are rested, we're tested and we’re prepped.
The DePaul Prep Rams have put together such a string of successful seasons that it hardly seems real. They have advanced to the state finals five of the last six years which had state finals, including this year. They won 3A last year and 2A the year before that. In 2022, they finished in third place in 2A. And in 2019, the finished in third place in 3A. Oh, and in the COVID year 2021, they won the non-IHSA Chipotle Tournament ending the season ranked No. 1.
The Rams will face Glenwood High School (24-9, 6-4) from Chatham, Illinois (population 14,525), in Thursday evening’s IHSA 3A semi-final at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center. The Glenwood Titans finished fourth in the Central State Eight conference behind MacArthur, Springfield and Lanphier.
DePaul Prep Moves Up to #4 and Readies for Super Against Kaneland
The DePaul Prep Rams moved up in the Sun-Times Super 25 today from #6 last week to #4 this week behind #1 Kenwood, #2 Benet and #3 Rich Township. The Rams look to reprise their Super-sectional victory of last year over Crystal Lake South on Monday evening when they face #22 Kaneland High School Knights (32-1, 10-0) at 6:00 p.m., at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates.
On Friday at 3:30 p.m., immediately before the sectional final games were to start, the IHSA issued a statement announcing that Kaneland had been ruled ineligible to participate in the playoffs going forward because it allowed an ineligible player to play in seven games. The player was not identified. However, after an appeal to the IHSA Board, the penalty was commuted to just making the player ineligible and allowing Kaneland to continue participating in the playoffs.
With their gaudy 32-1 record, the Knights then defeated Crystal Lake South 49-37 earning a spot in Monday’s super-sectional against DePaul Prep.
I confess, I never heard of Kaneland High School until this year. Located in Maple Park, Illinois, population 1,478, Maple Park is along the western board of Kane County about halfway between Elburn and DeKalb. I am told that kids from Elburn, where the Metra West line commuter train ends, attend Kaneland.
Kaneland is easternmost school in the Interstate 8 Conference with such schools as Sycamore, LaSalle-Peru, Rochelle, Morris and Ottawa.
The Kaneland sectional championship win over Crystal Lake South is probably its biggest win of the season. Kaneland’s only loss this season came to McHenry in the second game of the season resulting in a 31-game win streak. Kaneland has not played any ranked teams.
Kaneland also boasts some ranked players. Junior 6’0” point guard Marshall Cocroft has garnered some attention. Prep Hoops has him ranked at the 67th best play in the class of 2026. The Knights’ 6’8” sophomore center Jeffrey Hassan is the seventh ranked player in Prep Hoops’ class of 2027. Jeffrey’s brother senior Freddy Hassan lead the Knights on Friday evening against Crystal Lake South with 21 points and 20 rebounds.
DePaul Prep Rams after their 2024 Super-sectional win over Crystal Lake South at the NOW Arena.
DePaul Prep Wins Antioch Sectional 45-25 Over Deerfield
[Preview of this week’s Inside—Booster article.]
By Jack Lydon
DePaul Prep is rolling. Another dominant playoff win for the Rams. This time a 45-25 win over Deerfield in the 3A Antioch Sectional Final Friday. The DePaul Prep Rams’ success (30-4) is going way past impressive and moving into historic. This is DePaul Prep’s fifth Sectional championship in the last six seasons with playoffs. The four previous sectional wins ended with two third place finishes and two championships.
The Deerfield Warriors came into the game 24-7 fresh off an upset victory over Lake Forest, the number 2 seed in the sectional. They finished second behind 4A Sectional champ Evanston in the Central Suburban South Conference. They have height and shooters.
But the Rams are rolling. In the first couple possessions, it was evident that the ultra-quick ball movement of the Rams to their shooters in the corners was not going to be as open usual. Deerfield was too quick in getting into the faces of the Rams’ shooters.
Okay. Plan B—go inside to Rashaun Porter.
The Warriors had no answer for that. Rams’ junior center Rashaun Porter opened the game with three dunks and eight of the Rams’ fourteen first quarter points. The Rams completely controlled the first quarter only giving up four points. Deerfield’s outside shots were not falling and the Rams quickly shutdown attempts to drive the lane.
The second quarter was not quite so dominant. Deerfield reeled off a 10-0 run late in the second quarter to make it a five-point game at the half.
“We got beat on the glass. They had some desperation going. We relaxed. They beat us to the balls. They were more physical than us and they made some shots,” said DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt.
There was no panic. It was like, “okay, let’s just get back to work.”
Work they did. The Rams gave up only seven points in the second half, only two in the third quarter. This was against a Deerfield team that won twenty-four games this year. The Rams were just that dominant.
Kleinschmidt does not take the remarkable success of his teams for granted. “We’re not the Yankees or anything like that. We’re a good program. But people are just coming and expecting regionals and sectionals. We as a coaching staff just sometimes lose our minds because we know how hard it is to win. We don't take this for granted because we were on the other end of this ten years ago.”
Neither do the players. Rams center Porter, who in his first two high school basketball campaigns has won two state championships, was remarkably circumspect, “I'll just take it one step at a time. I just take all the information that soaked in, like being on the bench, to getting in a little bit of minutes, to having a big roll . . . now in big situations we can come together as a team.”
The Rams advance to play in Monday evening’s super-sectional (final eight teams) against Kaneland High School of Maple Park at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. Kaneland defeated Crystal Lake South 49-37 in the 3A Rochelle Sectional.
Kaneland dodges a bullet with the IHSA immediately prior to Friday evening’s game. The IHSA released a statement late Friday afternoon that Kaneland had “allowed an ineligible student-athlete to participate in its last seven boys basketball contests of the season, including a Class 3A Sectional Semifinal win on March 5.”
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson initially ruled that the school would forfeit those seven contests and would not be allowed to participate in its IHSA Class 3A Sectional Championship game. However, Kaneland appealed, and the IHSA Board of Directors reduced the penalty, allowing Kaneland to continue on in the state playoffs, but without the ineligible player.
DePaul Prep junior guard Rykan Woo was named to the Chicago Sun-Times “All Area” team Friday which recognizes the top players in the Chicago metropolitan area.
DePaul Prep Defeats St. Viator in Antioch 3A Sectional Semi-final
The DePaul Prep Rams (29-4) defeated the St. Viator Lions (24-10) 63-23 in the 3A Antioch Sectional semi-final Tuesday evening.
DePaul’s defense ruled the day. St. Viator was basically limited to perimeter shots in the first half scoring just ten points in the first half. The Rams held St. Viator’s best player, Henry Marshall, an MIT commit, to ten points of the Lions 23 total points.
The Rams move on to play #3 seed Deerfield (24-7) on Friday evening at 6:00 in Antioch. In a mild upset, Deerfield defeated #1 seed Lake Forest 33-31 in the sectional semi last night. Interestingly, St. Viator took Deerfield to overtime but lost to Deerfield 36-32 the day after Christmas. That was a long time ago so I am not sure it means much. Deerfield has no wins over ranked teams.
Kenwood Comes Back to Edge Simeon 58-56
After the DePaul Prep Rams took care of our St. Viator Lions 63-23 in the Antioch (my photos to follow), I jetted down to Hinsdale Central to catch the end of Kenwood v. Simeon.
I got there with about four minutes to go. Simeon lead by a point after having lost a seventeen point lead in the third quarter.
I was there mostly to see what happened rather than actually cover the game. I found a spot on the floor next to Sun-Times photographer Kirsten Stickney. She was working so I took a spot out of her way. She is a master at the reaction shot. I am not good at it despite working on it. I was kind of watching her work so I could learn from her. She never puts the camera down. She is always hunting for a shot. She was only using one camera with a 70-200mm lens.
I managed to get the obvious reaction shot of Kenwood’s Devin Cleveland after he dropped the game winning floater with 37.1 seconds left. Kirsten also got the shot but she also the shot of Devin taking the shot—the shot that is in the paper. The shot I got of that was obscured by a Simeon defender.
As for the game, I guess I just knew Kenwood would win. Jack Gleason said the same thing after the game. Kenwood just always wins close games at the end. Devin Cleveland, Amari Edwards and tj Seals are just money players. They know how to win.
These are shots from the final couple minutes and the overtime.
DePaul Prep and Lane Are Both Regional Champs
[Preview of my Inside—Booster article for this week.]
By Jack Lydon
It was a good night for basketball teams from Addison and Western. The seventh ranked DePaul Prep Rams (28-4) defeated the Carmel Corsairs (12-19) to win their tenth consecutive regional championship. Their immediate neighbor to the north, the Lane Tech Champions (20-11) defeated the New Trier Trevians 67-57 to win Lane’s first ever regional championship in school history.
With the number one seed in the 3A Antioch Sectional, DePaul Prep faced the number nine seed, Carmel Catholic from Mundelein. The Rams controlled the game from the outset. Their patented switching defense stymied Carmel at every turn. The Corsairs struggled to even get shots up. They only scored one point in the second quarter, and that was a free through in the closing seconds of the half.
Rams’s junior guard Rykan Woo, recently selected as second-team All-City by the Sun-Times, had nineteen points included all thirteen of the Rams’ first quarter points. Senior forward and DePaul University commit Jonas Johnson started the game and added eleven points. Point guard and Western Illinois commit Makai Kvamme had ten points.
“It’s great. I certainly don’t take it for granted,” Rams head coach Tom Kleinschmidt said of his teams’ having won ten straight IHSA Regional Championships.
“It the cultivation of a program, the support that we get from the school, the coaches and players that we have had, names that [our current players] may not know or may have only heard of that really build the program, guys like Chris Herrell and Raequan [Williams], David Holiday, Scotty Calderon, [Dan Lydon], all those guys that build the program,” Kleinschmidt added.
“[Those guys] took the program and gave it to Perry [Cowen], Perry gave it to these guys. It’s been awesome. I don’t take it for granted. Ten straight regionals. I remember the first three that we played in we didn’t win one. I was hoping to win one or two regionals.”
DePaul Prep senior Makai Kvamme, widely regarding as a top point guard in the area, reflected on his last home game in DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. “I have played here for so long, developed such a great relationship with my teammates. It means the world to me being here with my teammates and coaches.”
As good of a night as it was for the Rams, it was that and more for the Lane Tech Champions. The number four seed Champions defeated the previously ranked and five seed New Trier Trevians in the Maine South regional final 67-57. This was Lane’s first regional championship in school history. The Champions join the ranks of venerable southside 2025 CPS regional champions such as Kenwood, Simeon, Whitney Young and Curie.
The Champions reprised their January 18th 60-47 victory over New Trier but it wasn’t without having to deal with adjustments by the Trevians.
“They really tried to negate [first team All-City senior center] Dalton [Scantlebury],” said Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo.
“They were in a box and one [defense] the entire game. We did a good job in setting our other guys up, using Dalton’s strengths in other ways. Guys stepped up.”
New Trier junior forward Christopher Kirkpatrick led the Trevians attack with his deadly long range jumpers. Kirkpatrick managed 29 points but it would not be enough to overcome a 17-4 first quarter deficit.
“We got hot from three early. We made some big ones late. We got to a point where they were just daring us to shoot it. Drew Barolai hit a big one from the corner. That kind of broke the game open in the third quarter. We took a pretty good lead. We maintained that through the fourth. And that was it,” LoGablo said.
“I am super proud of our guys. We have been talking about trying to do this for a long time. I thought we had the team to do it. We set the schedule at the beginning of the year. We decided that we are going to go play everbody. We found a way to get ourselves here. Our guys were ready for the moment.”
DePaul Prep advances to face a somewhat overlooked St. Viator Lions team in the 3A Antioch Sectional semi-final on Tuesday. The Lions have put together an impressive 23-9 record year.
The Lane Tech Champions will face #12 Evanston (26-5) in the 4A New Trier Sectional semi on Tuesday.
Other area teams also played in the regional championships. In 4A, #20 Whitney Young knocked off the other ranked area team #13 Lincoln Park 50-47.
Antioch Sequoits Fall to Notre Dame 55-46
The Antioch Sequoits (17-12, 11-1) lost to Notre Dame (16-15, 2-6) on Wednesday night at Notre Dame in the 3A Regional semi-final.
I thought maybe this might a 12-5 upset situation. The Dons jumped out to an early lead. In the third quarter, Sequoits coach Sean Connor dialed up the pressure with put on a 1-3-1 defense. It worked. Antioch battled back and had it to a four point game.
The 12-5 upset wasn’t going to happen. The Dons made their free throws and forced outside shots in the closing minute that did not fall.
Notre Dame advances to play Deerfield tonight for the Regional championship.
I got to see me first cousin twice removed, Logan Lennon, play for the Sequoits. Logan is the great great grandson of my grandfather and namesake, John J. Lydon, who came to the United States from Ireland in 1912. Logan is a freshman on the Antioch varsity and paid quite a bit in the game. I understand he is a gift football player. We’ll have to coach him up, getting in the gym shooting jumpers so we can be part of Sean Connor’s championship future in Antioch.
Lane Tech Handles Maine East 69-42 in 4A Regional Semi-final
I took a ride out to Maine South yesterday evening to see the Lane Tech Champions take on the Maine East Blue Demons. I fully expected the Champions to handle Maine East. I was just stopping in to check out Lane before I went over to Notre Dame to see them play Sean Connor’s Antioch Sequoits which I thought might be a 12-5 upset.
It was my first time being in the Maine South gym. It’s a nice enough gym but the light was poor. The color of the light was okay, just not enough light.
I arrived and the game had started already. Maine East had a lead at the end of the first quarter on the strength of some three point shooting. The Champions quickly put an end to that in the second quarter and used their overwhelming size to basically score at will in the paint in the second quarter. The Champions had a ten point lead at the half and never looked back winning 69-42.
Lane advances to Friday’s Regional final against New Trier at 6:00 p.m. The Trevians are favored to advance out of their own 4A sectional so the Champions will have their hands full. New Trier has been down state several times in recent years. They have some deadly outside shooters including Christopher Kirkpatrick and Daniel Houlihan.
Lane’s length will help with defending these shooters but I saw New Trier play #1 Kenwood and Kenwood struggled to defend the whole court against multiple shooters.
This regional final might the best one in the area. It would be a nice win for Lane. This is why they struggled through a killer schedule this year—to get ready for this game against a good team.
DePaul Prep Defeats Glenbard South in Sectional Semi-final
The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Glenbard South Raiders 54-49 Tuesday evening at DePaul’s Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym to win the 3A DePaul Prep Sectional semi-final game.
The Rams survived a 10-0 run by the Raiders at the start of the fourth quarter. The Raiders tied the game at 44 with 4:56 left. Free throws and defense in the closing minutes carried the Rams to victory.
It was an impressive win for DePaul Prep and their first year coach Corey Morgan. Glenbard South came into the game with a record of 26-3 overall and 12-1 in their conference earning them the #1 seed in the Sectional. Max Preps had the Raiders ranked #3 in 3A. Glenbard South had beaten the Rams 48-38 in the first game this season. The Rams turned the tables on the Raiders at the end of the season.
The Rams advance to play Montini on Thursday in the Sectional final.
DePaul Prep Falls to Benet 64-51 in Regular Season Finale
The DePaul Prep Rams closed the regular season Friday evening against Benet Academy at home in the Tom Winiecki Gym. The Rams dropped the game 64-51 against the hot shooting Red Wings.
The Rams finish the 24-25 regular season as champions of the Chicago Catholic League with record of 26-4. The Rams had two bigs wins against out-of-town powerhouses, Mater Dei and Vashon and eight wins against ranked teams. Their losses coming only to ranked teams, Kenwood, Brother Rice, Homewood-Flossmoor and Benet.
The Rams open the IHSA 3A playoffs on Wednesday against the winner of Monday’s Lake View vs. North Chicago game.
It’s been an amazing season. I shot thirty games but it didn’t seem like that many. It went fast. On to the playoffs we go. Only twenty-one days until the state championship games.
IHSA Playoff Look Ahead
The IHSA boys basketball playoff brackets come out on Friday at 4:00 p.m. I have been looking at various brackets and prognosticating some scenarios for area schools.
3A
There are eight sectionals in 3A: Brother Rice, Washington, Little Village, Glenbard South, Antioch, Rochelle, Decatur and Marion. The Brother Rice Sectional has all southside or south suburban schools. Washington has Central Illinois teams. Little Village has Chicago and west suburban schools. Glenbard South also has Chicago and suburban schools. Antioch has Chicago and North suburban schools. Rochelle has northern Illinois and west suburban schools. Decatur and Marion have southern Illinois schools. The first four sectionals lead to one finalist (championship game participant) and the other four to the other finalist.
All the northside of Chicago 3A schools are in the Antioch Sectional: DePaul Prep, Lake View, Payton, Amundsen, Roosevelt, Northside and CICS/Northtown.
DePaul Prep
With respect to DePaul Prep, let’s look at the best teams in 3A. The top 3A teams in Illinois, in particular order, are Brother Rice, DePaul Prep, Morton, Kankakee, St. Lawrence, Centralia, Metamora, Kaneland, Mount Carmel, Kaneland, Fenwick and I added in St. Patrick for fun. It’s very possible that three of these four Chicago Catholic League teams, Brother Rice, St. Laurence, Mount Carmel, Fenwick and DePaul Prep could be 3A finalists in Champaign for the State Finals.
It is very possible to have three Chicago Catholic League as 3A finalists. DePaul Prep has beaten all of the top 3A teams it has played in the regular season except Brother Rice. Brother Rice could advance to one State Final spot (final four) while Fenwick, St. Patrick, St. Laurence or Mount Carmel could land a second the State Semi-final spot. DePaul Prep could be the third CCL State finalist.
Lake View
The Lake View Wildcats (13-11, 9-0) are in the DePaul Prep regional and would have to get through the Rams to advance into the Antioch Sectional.
Amundsen
The Amundsen Vikings (13-6, 8-1) open the playoffs on 2/24 at home against Northside. The winner of that game takes on #2 seed and #21 ranked Lake Forest in the Vernon Hills Regional on 2/26.
Payton
The Payton Grizzles (14-12, 7-4) host a regional and open on 2/25 against Noble/Muchin. The Grizzles could face either Elmwood Park or Noble Street Charter in the regional championship before advancing into the Little Village Sectional. The Little Village Sectional may well have Fenwick or St. Patrick standing in the Grizzlies’ way.
4A
4A is a tougher nut to crack. As one might imagine, the best teams are from the bigger schools. There are only seven 3A schools in the Sun-Times Super 25, those being four being the top Chicago Catholic League teams, DePaul Prep, #11 St. Laurence, #12 Mount Carmel and #13 Brother Rice. The others being #17 Kankakee, #21 Lake Forest and #25 Kaneland.
Lane Tech
The sectionals of note in 4A for our purposes are New Trier and Hinsdale Central. Lane Tech landed the #4 seed in the New Trier Sectional. Also in the New Trier sectional are #9 ranked Evanston with the #1 seed, Loyola Academy with the #2 seed and Niles North with the #3 seed.
The Lane Tech Champions (17-11) open against Maine East in the Maine South Regional and could face either #5 seed New Trier or Maine South in the regional final. A sectional championship would require also getting through either Loyola Academy or Niles North. Lance defeated Nile North in the Thanksgiving tournament. This is a doable path for the Champions to a sectional championship. But it is doable for the others as well, particularly the New Trier Trevians who have a history of doing it.
A New Trier Sectional championship would put the Champions into a Super against the St. Charles East Sectional Championship. As 4A sectionals go, St. Charles East is not the toughest. The only ranked team is #19 Glenbard West (22-5). The #2 seed is Geneva (24-4). I have seen Geneva. They are good but the Champions can easily play right with them. So it is entirely possible that the Champions could be sectional champs. I dare not speculate further than this.
Lincoln Park
#14 ranked Lincoln Park (22-5) draws the Hinsdale Central Sectional—the toughest sectional in all the IHSA playoffs. in addition to the Lions, Hinsdale Central has #1 Kenwood, #4 Hinsdale Central, #16 Simeon, #20 Whitney Young and previously ranked St. Ignatius.
The Lions open the playoffs against Morton (the Cicero Morton, not the Morton Morton) at Whitney Young on 2/26. After that would probably be Whitney Young at Whitney Young the following Friday. Lincoln Park defeated Whitney Young 74-71 at Whitney Young in December. Then possibly Curie again the sectional semi-final. And then, possibly Kenwood, Simeon or St. Ignatius. Tough indeed.
Lane Tech’s Zach Mazanowski ducks against Phillips in November.
DePaul Prep Dismantles Fenwick 52-22, Wins Chicago Catholic League
[Preview of my story in this week’s Inside—Booster.]
By Jack Lydon
The DePaul Prep Rams (26-3, 7-1) dismantled Fenwick 52-22 to win the Chicago Catholic League at DePaul Friday night. Absolute shutdown defense held the Friars to thirteen points into the fourth quarter. This is an exceptional Friars squad with that only had three losses in the Catholic League coming into the game. A Fenwick victory in this game was entirely impossible.
The Rams came into the game with a 6-1 record in the Chicago Catholic Leagues Blue Division tied with Brother Rice. A win for the Rams assured them of at least a share of the conference title. Shortly after the game ended word spread that Mount Carmel defeated Brother Rice making DePaul Prep outright CCL champs for the second year in a row.
The Rams hit a little rough patch at the end of January suffering back-to-back losses first to Brother Rice and then to Homewood-Flossmoor at the end of January—if you can call it a rough patch to lose consecutive games to the No. 8 team and the No. 3 team respectively when you have a 26-3 record. Let’s call it a little bump.
The Rams opened the game strong. Senior guard Rob Walls dropped a short jumper from the lane on DePaul’s opening possession. It was a good omen given the Rams first quarter struggles in the home loss to Brother Rice two weeks earlier. Then the defensive show started. Fenwick struggled to even shoot the ball. Drives into the lane quickly lead to passes out to the wing. The outlet passes lead to off-balance missed shots and DePaul Prep rebounds. Few if any offensive rebound for the Friars.
The Rams built their typical 15-6 first quarter lead spreading the ball around with buckets from all five starters and two each from junior guard Rykan Woo and senior point guard Makai Kvamme.
In the second quarter, the Rams held Fenwick to three points. They made just one basket, a three-pointer from senior Kamren Hogan. The Friars’ frustration was palpable with a halftime score of 29-9 DePaul.
“They couldn’t get by us. We made them take jump shots. We got every rebound. We can play,” DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt said of his Rams’ defensive effort.
“I think our switching bothers teams. Our guards really kept the ball in front of us. We were disciplined tonight. We made them take jump shots.”
Rams junior center Rashaun Porter put on a masterful defensive performance that stood out among masterful defensive performance. Porter was matched up against Fenwick standout forward Nathaniel Marshall. Marshall is one of the best football players in the state who has gained attention for his basketball skills in recent months.
“Shaun’s a big body. He’s long and he is strong. He didn’t bite on head fakes or pump fakes. He kept [Marshall] in front of him. He did a nice job,” Kleinschmidt said of Porter.
It didn’t get much better for Fenwick in the second half. The Friars managed only another four points in the third quarter falling behind 41-13. Even so, there was no quit in Fenwick, their own defensive effort made the Rams work for their points. Rykan Woo finished with sixteen points in a little more than three quarters. AJ Chambers had twelve. Makai Kvamme had eight. Rashaun Porter had seven.
The regular season is drawing to a close with one regular season game left, a home matchup against East Suburban Catholic Conference champion Benet Academy next Friday at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym.
DePaul Prep landed the #1 seed in the IHSA 3A Antioch Sectional. The Rams will host the winner of Lake View v. North Chicago on February 26th to open the playoffs. The Rams look to “threepeat” as state champions. Two years ago the Rams won the 2A state championship and won the 3A state championship last year with win over Chicago Catholic League rival Mount Carmel in the championship game.
St. Ignatius Defeats Fenwick 55-54 in OT
The St. Ignatius Wolfpack defeated Fenwick 55-54 in overtime on Tuesday (Feb. 11, 2025). As the season draws to a close, the Wolfpack improves their record to 23-5 and 3-3 in the Chicago Catholic League Blue conference. Fenwick falls to 19-10 and 4-3 in the CCL Blue.
