St. Viator Wins Comeback 78-71 OT Victory over Libertyville

The St. Viator Lions (3-1, 0-0) came back from ten points down with 3:30 to go to defeat the Libertyville 78-71 in the final game of the St. Viator Thanksgiving Classic.

Through the first three quarters of this game, the story of the game was how St. Viator just could not handle the size and inside game of Libertyville’s sophomore forward Bryce Wegrzyn (23 points) and senior forward Ben Van Lyssel (15 points).

Somehow, some way, It all came together for the Lions tonight on the last night of the St. Viator Holiday Classic. The Lions rallied in the fourth to force overtime. Four three-pointers and five free throws is part of the recipe for a fourth quarter comeback. The other key ingredient is tough players who don’t give up and coach calling the right plays. Oh, and of course, a supportive alumni photographer.

The ball movement and inside game of Libertyville in the first half was skillful. The Lions had no answer. Wegrzyn had 17. Even so, the Lions were only down six at the half.

It grew to nine at the end of the third and then 10 down 53-63 with 3:30 to go.

The Lions were a whole new team in the fourth. The quick guard centric line-up turned up the urgency. Two quick threes. Still down five at 1:48, the Lions added a field goal and five free throws.

Did I mention defensive rebounds. I don’t know what happened to the Libertyville big men they didn’t get any rebounds when it counted. The Lions got them.

Onto OT.

Overtime seemed no problem for the Lions. A couple more free throws, a timely three that felt like a game-winner when it came with a minute left making the score St. Viator 72, Libertyville 68.

And then it was about the four free throws and a late Henry Marshall lay-up for the win.

Nicely done.

Notre Dame Survives at St. Patrick, 52-45

I was at St. Patrick Tuesday evening for the ESCC showdown between #5 Notre Dame and #10 St. Patrick. St. Patrick is tough place for a road team. The last Gordon Tech basketball game ever was March 7, 2014. It ended in a 59-39 loss for the Rams at St. Patrick. That home crowd is tough.

Not the same this year. Not the same home crowd but still very tough. St. Pat’s has an excellent team this year they and gave the Don’s all they could handle.

The Dons jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the first quarter but never could break it open.

The Shamrocks pulled off a 15 to 9 run and grabbed a brief 32-31 lead at the 6:01 mark of the fourth quarter.

The #5 ranked Dons are a tough, well coached veteran group with three division one recruits. When they got the lead up to about five, Kevin Clancy went into a stall trusting his players to make the free throws.

They did. Anthony Sayles went eight for eight at the line.

Behind the leadership of the three division one recruits, Anthony Sayles (17 points), Louis Lesmond (14 points) and Troy D’Amico (11) points, the Dons regained the lead and held on to win 52-45. Notre Dame’s Sonny Williams added 8 points and Frank Lynch, (nephew of Chicago’s Sulzer Library librarian and 47th Ward resident, Julie Lynch), had 2 points.

Basketball is Back, So Is the Blog

My last basketball game was 332 days, March 11, 2020. The DePaul Prep Rams loss to St. Ignatius in the 3A Sectional semi-final. After that, nothing. Until yesterday.

Shay Boyle and the wonderful people at Notre Dame College Prep allowed me to come out and photograph their game against Prospect. I have photographed quite a few Notre Dame games in recent year. They have had great teams. It truly was a shame that they could not complete their playoff run last year. They just had a great team, really fun to watch, really skilled, tons of talent and heart. I have no doubt they would have won 3A. Okay, they might have beaten St. Viator in the sectional final, maybe. But if they did, I have no doubt they would have beaten Fenwick in the Super-sectional, some downstate team in the semi-final and then Morgan Park in the state championship game. No doubt.

These COVID games are weird. No fans. Worse yet I can’t photograph from the floor. Shooting basketball from above doesn’t make for good photos. Photographing anything from above does not make for good photos. But we can only do what we can do. And we can’t shoot from the gym floor.

I am not the most naturally gifted photographer. I really have to work at it through trial and error. These Notre Dame photos are not very good, either in terms of exposure and color or composition. I will figure it out. I will find the best spot from above in the gym to get usable shots. I mostly try to watch what other photographers were doing. Allen Cunningham found a great spot got some excellent shots. He always does such fine work.

So here they are.

DePaul Prep Football Pre-Preview

“This season is going to be different for the DePaul Prep Rams.” That was how I was going to start this piece before the IHSA’s announcement Wednesday. Now, that opening sentence seems an unfunny understatement.

I originally planned this article as a preview of the historic upcoming season football. New stadium. New uniforms. New school building. Friday night games. But all our plans are constantly overtaken by events, so here we are.

On Wednesday, the IHSA announced that football is classified a “higher risk” sport and its season has been postponed until Spring. Practices can begin on February 15, 2021. The season will have seven games running from March 5, 2021, to April 16, 2021. There will only be time for two weeks of playoffs after that. So no big state tournament. The format has yet to be announced.

The IHSA issued a new plan for all interscholastic competition for this coming school year. All the details of the plan is a little beyond our purpose here but can be found at the IHSA website.

DePaul Prep head football coach Mike Passarella has been making preparations over the summer for the upcoming season as the guidelines evolved. Summer camp practices have been underway at Horner Park which are now basically over. No further practices are anticipated until September when the IHSA will allow a further 20 days no-contact practices.

“I am really happy the IHSA thought outside the box and didn’t just shut everything done,” said Passarella. “I have been preaching to the boys to do their part. Be smart and we will have football this year.” At the moment, it looks like that may still happen, just in the Spring.

Perhaps the biggest changes, other all this COVID business, are the new school campus and the new home football stadium. This writer feared that football might be on its way out as a high school sport at DePaul. Well, with the prominence of the football field and stadium in the center of the new campus, we don’t have to worry about that. Having such a beautiful new stadium clearly signals a commitment to football and surely will attract prospective students who want to play football.

The Rams will also have new helmets and uniforms. The helmets will be white. The familiar ram horns will be replaced by the new “D” logo in keeping with the rebranding by the school. The rebranding retired the Gordon Tech (Tennessee) orange in favor of a “Chicago flag” blue and red color scheme.

Last year’s team posted a record of three wins and six losses including a brutal six game Catholic League losing streak. Last season was the first for the newly combined East Suburban Catholic Conference and the Chicago Catholic League. The realignment into six divisions didn’t help the Rams improve their record.

This year’s schedule will only be conference games: Carmel, @Leo, St. Laurence, Marian Catholic, @Providence, @Joliet Catholic and St. Joseph. The schedule is tough. Even so, the future is bright. Thirty-four freshman have come out for football. The school’s overall enrollment is on track to basically double in coming years. A new stadium, a commitment to football and increased enrollment will bring improvement. Basketball came ramming back to prominence; football is not far behind.

In addition to the new school, new stadium, new practice rules and new uniforms, DePaul Prep Athletics’ website is getting a makeover. Moving away from 8to18.com, assistant athletic Director Sammy Colon has been spearheading development of the revamped athletics portion of the school website, https://www.depaulprep.org/athletics/home.

The new website will exist directly on the school’s website and boast an updated interface with photos and easy reference to schedules.  il.8to18.com/DePaulPrep is still up but presumably will not be kept current. It is still valuable resource for finding results from previous season for those looking for blogging about high school sports, which is always important.

With football moved to the spring, I guess that makes this basketball season . . . . . . . Nice!

DePaul Prep Football Field.jpg

Loyola Edges St. Viator 40-39 in OT

If you like defense, you will like this year’s #19 ranked Loyola Academy Ramblers. The Ramblers (17-1, 6-0) edged the St. Viator Lions (11-6, 2-1) 40-39 in the second annual Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul College Prep Saturday afternoon.

The Ramblers win by playing defense. They just wear you down in their zone defense until you turn the ball over. St. Viator lacked the three point shooter to loosen that zone but the Lions fought and got some inside points. The Lions also played equally good defense.

With a chance to win with a few seconds left, St. Viator’s standout Connor Kochera could not get a shot off before the buzzer and there you have it. 40-39. Another eighth grade score in Loyola game.

Marian Catholic Shocks Morgan Park 71-69

The Marian Catholic Spartans (13-4, 3-1) upset the #8 Morgan Park Mustangs (9-6, 3-1) 71-69 last night at DePaul Prep’s televised Steve Pappas Shootout.

The Spartans hung around and hung around all game, slowing erasing a small deficit late in the game. Morgan Park had all kinds of chances to win. They just missed shots in the lane they ordinarily make. Marian didn’t.

Marian’ s senior guard Ahron Ulis played as well as I have seen him play. I did not get any stats on the game he had a lot of points. Marian Catholic as a team impressed me. I saw them lose against Notre Dame. The Dons handled them even without Anthony Sayles. Granted it is tough to go to Notre Dame and win a conference game, especially this year. DePaul Prep dropped them in the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic. Frankly, I expected more out of the Spartans.

I saw it yesterday. When they play like that, they can play with anyone.

It was fun to see Ulis matched up on Morgan Park top prospect senior Adam Miller. For much of the game, Marian was in a box-and-one with Ulis shadowing Miller all over the court. It seemed at points that Ulis got under Miller’s skin. I can’t say how effective the box-and-one actually was, but it was fun to watch.

Very high level basketball. A marked contract to the Loyola/St. Viator game a few hours before. Not that that was not high level, just a different kind of high level. Loyola would prefer to score as few points as necessary to win. Frustrating to watch; exasperating to play against. But an interesting and effective style.

Notre Dame Grabs Early Advantage in ESCC with 48-36 Victory over Marian Catholic

The #11 Notre Dame Dons (7-1, 1-0) grabbed an early lead in the East Suburban Catholic Conference with an impressive 48-36 victory over #7 Marian Catholic (5-2, 1-1) in Niles on Tuesday evening (December 10, 2019). Both Notre Dame and Marian Catholic are considered top contenders to win the ESCC.

Making it even more impressive was doing it without star point guard junior Anthony Sayles. The Dons bounced back from a frustrating defeat at the hands of #4 Evanston on Friday in the Chicago Elite Classic. The maddeningly difficult schedule for the Don continues Friday when they take on Loyola at Loyola.

Evanston Defeats Notre Dame 62-53 in Chicago Elite Classic

The #9 Evanston Wildkits (5-0) came into Friday night’s game at the 2019 Chicago Elite Classic against the #7 Notre Dame Dons (5-1) ready. The Wildkits have been in big games against good teams before. But this time, they were a little pissed off.

It was not a hot anger. The simmered. It seems like a Mike Ellis kind of anger—quiet, determined, deadly. They never jumped out to a big lead; they just held the Dons at bay throughout the game eventually winning 62-53. The Wildkits scored on their first possession and trailed by one for all of 24 seconds early in the first quarter. After that, it was a methodical take down.

Interestingly, the Wildkits slowed the tempo and showed patience moving the ball around the floor. I guess I was expecting the Kits to run against the bigger Dons. Maybe they wanted to but ND is too good to give up a ton of points in transition. The Wildkits only scored eight fast break points.

Evanston coach Mike Ellis had his team ready. “I thought these guys were so steady,” said Ellis after the game. “Notre Dame never went on a run.”   

But it was not as if the Notre Dame Dons were not ready. The Dons are a very talented team with any obvious weakness. The starting line-up of Louis Lesmond, Anthony Sayles, Troy D’Amico, Jason Bergstrom and Jimmy Murphy and Frank Lynch off the bench leaves little to be desired. The Dons are a clear contender for a state championship in 3A. Notre Dame third year head coach Kevin Clancy has taken the Dons to another level. (Interestingly, the Dons face great competition in the East Suburban Catholic League, but that’s a subject for another day.)

It just seemed that when the Dons would score, Evanston would answer.

There might have been a little more too it.

“That one was the first game I marked on the schedule,” said Evanston junior forward Blake Peters. “We haven’t gotten the press like other teams.”

The much-reported transfer of the French-born Notre Dame junior forward Louis Lesmond from Evanston to Notre Dame over the summer was definitely on the minds of the all concerned. I have to think that this served as part of the motivation for the Wildkits. After the game, Blake Peters downplayed his familiarity with Lesmond and his game, but it seemed quiet evident to me. Despite Lesmond leading the Dons with 15 points, Louis never took over the game like he did against DePaul Prep in the Battle of the Bridge championship game a week earlier.

 “They played harder than us,” said ND’s Anthony Sayles. “We weren’t as conditioned as them.” I am not buying it. Anthony Sayles was a little too hard on himself and his team after the game. I didn’t see signs of a lack of effort or signs of fatigue.

The Evanston shots fell. The Kits were determined and ready. ND played sound defense with tons of effort. Nevertheless, after a good defensive stand by ND, the Wildkits shots fell.

I am really looking forward to seeing more of these teams.

As for the photos, what can I say? The Wintrust Arena has the best light of any high school venue in the City—period. The best.

Frankly, I was not as focused on maximizing the light as much as I was on composing the pictures and telling a good story with the photos. It was pretty standard settings but I was able to drop the ISO pretty low because of the amount and quality of the white light.

I hope you like the photos.

Marmion Defeats Amundsen 41-12 in 5A Playoff

CCL/ESCC White Division’s Marmion Academy (6-3) traveled to Chicago on Saturday (Nov. 2, 2019) to take on CPS Great Lakes Division’s Amundsen Vikings (7-1) in IHSA 5A playoff opener. Cadets scored on the opening play from scrimmage and never looked back. Marmion 41, Amundsen 12.

Despite the lopsided score in the playoff game, it was a successful 7-1 season for the Vikings and 5th year head coach Nick Olson. The Vikings under Coach Olson has been 19-9 since 2016.

The Marmion Cadets will face #2 seed 9-0 Rockford-Boylan on Saturday at Marmion.

Riverside-Brookfield Shootout Preview

Time to get back into basketball. The June 21-23, 17th Annual Riverside Brookfield Summer Shootout field and schedule have been announced. The field is packed with top teams including a Chicago area appearance by two-time 4A state champ Belleville West.

The 64-team tournament includes: Belleville West; 4A runner-up Evanston; 4A third place Curie; 3A state champ East St. Louis; 3A runner-up Bogan; 3A third place DePaul Prep; 1A state champ Providence-St. Mel; 4A sectional champs Stevenson, Bolingbrook and Simeon, 3A Regional champs St. Viator; 2A regional champ Uplift.

A couple of first round games should prove interesting. The DePaul Prep Rams, (CCL Blue champs and 3A third-place), take on Belleville West, 4A state champ the last two-years, late Friday at 8:45 p.m. The Rams recently murderous schedule adds a doozy. The Rams graduated three starters among the best in school history, Perry Cowen, Raheem Anthony and Pavle Pantovic. This game should prove quite a challenge for the Rams even though the Maroons will not have two time player of the year and Ohio State recruit E. J. Liddell. We should get a good preview of the Rams new look with the talented group of sophomores as well as juniors D.J. Shower and Brian Mathews.

Another interesting first round game is ESCC 2019 champ Marian Catholic against rival St. Viator, Saturday at 12:35 p.m. Pool M is curiously packed with Marian Catholic, St. Viator, defending 1A state champ Providence-St. Mel as well as Northern IL-Big 12 East conference champ DeKalb.

The Chicago Catholic League is well represented with 10 of its 16 teams in attendance. Conspicuous in its absence is CCL White Division champs St. Rita. Perhaps this has something to do with the recent dismissal of this coach Gary DeCesare.

The Chicago Public League also has top teams in attendance (in no particular order): Curie, Bogan, Simeon, Whitney Young, Uplift and Lincoln Park.

Frequent viewers of this channel know that I tend to concentrate on Chicago Catholic League and CPS games. I am looking to branch out some this year and take in more suburban games. I definitely have to see Max Christie at Rolling Meadows. The Mustangs take on Curie on Friday at 6:55 in R-B’s main gym.

I am also looking forward to seeing Notre Dame’s talented young team with juniors Anthony Sayles and Troy D’Amico. Marian Catholic better watch out for Notre Dame this season. The Dons are going to be good.

The thing about these preseason games is that they are not really like an in-season matchup. The games are quick, the lineups are fluid and don’t reflect the probable in-season starting line-up. There isn’t a whole lot of defense played. I wish I was a more seasoned analyst to tell one exactly what to look for. But I am neither a sportswriter nor a basketball expert. I am photographer and a fan.

As for the photography of this event, it doesn’t lend itself to great picture taking opportunities. Many of the games are in a field house and small gyms without the best light. I am also not as prepared as usual on which players to watch. I am not there to take photos as much as gain intelligence on the best teams to photograph in the upcoming season.

Nevertheless, I am jazzed about the start of the pre-season, at least for me. Hope to see you there—June 21-23 at Riverside-Brookfield High School. I see what I can do about getting some stories and photos up in IL Preps Insider as well.

DePaul Prep Defeats St. Viator 62-53 and Advances Directly to State Finals

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the St. Viator Lions 62-53 Friday (March 8, 2019) winning Grayslake 3A Sectional and advance directly to State Finals in Peoria next weekend because of the disqualification of both North Lawndale and Farragut after a fight at the end of their game.

DePaul Prep v. St. Viator Preview

So here we are.

Today is the day of the sectional final between the St. Viator Lions and the DePaul Prep Rams. Many have been waiting for this day since before the IHSA announced the sectional assignments months ago. It was not a secret that the Lions and the Rams are the two best teams in the Grayslake Central Sectional and probably the two best 3A teams north of Madison Street.

Both teams started out gangbusters and hit a rough patch near the end of the season. St. Viator’s Treyvon Calvin broke a bone in his hand and missed several weeks. The Rams suffered a couple losses in their killer schedule and fell out of the rankings for a bit. Each team rallied, the Rams won the Chicago Catholic League Blue and took care of business in the playoffs and here we are.

Some may know that I have connections to both schools. I graduated from St. Viator in 1981. My brother Dan is a Viatorian priest and taught there for many years. My sister is on the Finance Committee. I have several cousins that are students there now.

And my children attended to Gordon Tech, which then became DePaul Prep. I probably have a dozen close friends and relatives that attended Gordon Tech. It’s a neighborhood school. Since my children started at Gordon, I have gotten to know the coaches, teachers and administrators at the school. I have been photographing Gordon Tech and DePaul Prep athletics for several years now.

I like to think of myself as a photographer, a photojournalist. On occasion, my photos are published so I try to work by journalistic standards. Frankly, my photos are much better when I am concentrating on taking pictures and not watching the game. But I am not really a photojournalist—at least not for today’s game. So I guess I could be rooting for a team.

Joe Henricksen in the Sun-Times makes predictions about which teams are going to win sectional finals. I am much too superstitious for that. My Irish heritage won’t allow such a thing. But I will however offer some thoughts.

The Rams and the Lions match up well against each other. Jeremiah Hernandez and Perry Cowen are similar players. Trey Calvin and Raheem Anthony are similar as well. Conor Kochera and Pavle Pantovic can both play and contribute mightily inside. The size of the players over all is pretty close. Both teams can play excellent defense, can run the floor and play a half court game.

The Lions have been ranked higher than the Rams most of the season. I generally agree with Michael O’Brien and Mike Clark’s rankings but at this point in sectional finals rankings don’t mean much. I guess they will just have to play the game. I am lucky that one of my teams will probably make it to Peoria. That will be tough for me to shoot the state finals and have one of my teams playing. There I will be a photojournalist and can’t have a rooting interest. I will have to find a way to deal with it.

And in the immortal words of Paul Chabura . . .

Benet Defeats St. Viator 62-57

The St. Viator Lions traveled to Benet Academy Wednesday evening (Feb. 20, 2019) for an East Suburban Catholic Conference game with the conference title on the line. If the Lions won, they would be conference champs.

The game started slow with a lot of missed shots. But late first quarter threes from St. Viator’s Trey Calvin gave the Lions a 12-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

However, despite Benet’s senior forward Kendrick Tchoua sitting out most of the second quarter with two fouls, the Lions had no answer for Benet’s junior center Colin Crothers. Crothers got the ball in the paint and scored to give Benet a 27-21 half time lead.

Benet held its lead throughout the second half increasing it to as much as 12 late in the fourth quarter. With several minutes left, St. Viator starting sending the Redwings to the line. Surprisingly, Benet kept missing free through and the Lions cut the deficit to five inside a minute. Two free throws by Tchoua extended the lead to seven with several seconds to go and Benet held on to the victory.

The Benet victory means that despite losing to St. Viator last Friday night, Marian Catholic is the East Suburban Catholic Conference champions.

The St. Viator Lions finished the season at 23-6 overall and 7-2 in the ESCC. The Lions host a 3A Regional starting Monday, with their first game Tuesday evening against the winner of Noble/ITW Speer and Marine Leadership Academy. The Lions come in as the #1 seed in the Grayslake Central Sectional.

Benet Academy finished the season at 22-7 over all and 7-2 in the ESCC. The Redwings enter the Bartlett 4A Sectional as the #2 seed behind #1 seed Geneva and play the winner of Addison Trail and Glenbard East on Tuesday.

Welcome to playoff time and the beginning of the end of another high school basketball season.

Benet Comes Back to Simeon 77-66 and Win 4A Regional

In very well played and high scoring game, the Benet Redwings came back from a late deficit against to the Simeon Wolverines and captured the 4A Benet Regional title, 71-66, on Thursday, (February 14, 2019).

End of the Regular Season

Early in this basketball season I wrote about the high school basketball season coming in phases: Thankgiving tournament, CCL crossover games, Christmas tournament, assorted shootouts. Now we are upon the second to last phase, the Chicago Catholic League Blue final games and await the IHSA playoffs.

I have told anyone foolhardy enough to listen that winning the Catholic League was what I wanted to see the DePaul Prep Rams do. Getting to Peoria would be nice but winning the 100 plus year old Chicago Catholic League is an accomplishment that means something, at least to me.

Well here we are. 8-1 in the Catholic League Blue with a one game lead on St. Laurence. Win out, and the DePaul Prep Rams and their coach, Tom Kleinschmidt will have won the Chicago Catholic League—the Catholic League Blue. But that is a subject for another day. Winning out means beating De La Salle, Fenwick (at Fenwick), Brother Rice (at Brother Rice), Loyola , St. Ignatius and then a chance to cap it off with a win against CCL White leader St. Rita.

There it is. Six CCL games in twelve days. All against historic rivals and good teams. If you do that, you’ve done something.

Even with this formidable task ahead and despite my frequent refrain against looking ahead, last night’s sixth Superbowl victory by Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck has me thinking. I could not stop myself from looking at the 3A IHSA playoffs and playing out the Sectional matchups.

Unlike most years, DePaul is not hosting either a regional or sectional. The IHSA 3A sectional assignments are out and DePaul has landed in the Grayslake Sectional. There are nineteen teams assigned to that sectional, including the formerly highly ranked and still extremely talented St. Viator Lions.

There are four regionals hosted by St. Patrick, Ridgewood, St. Viator and Carmel. It’s my understanding that teams are supposed to be assigned to geographically close regionals and not purely by seeded by the best teams. In practice, I am not sure how that all works. So I improvised. Basically, I just guessed. Looking at geography and over all records, this is what I came up with:

St. Patrick Regional: St. Patrick , Steinmetz, DePaul Prep, Noble/ITW Speer, Marine Leadership Academy.

Ridgewood Regional: Ridgewood, Sullivan, Noble/Pritzker, CICS/Northtown, Alcott.

St. Viator Regional: St. Viator, Northside, Elmwood Park, Amundsen and Intrinsic Charter.

Carmel Regional: Carmel, Antioch, North Grand and Grayslake Central

It’s not going to be exactly this but I would think not too far off. So we are probably looking at the regional champions being, DePaul Prep, Ridgewood (maybe Sullivan), St. Viator and Carmel with St. Viator squaring off against DePaul Prep in the Sectional final. Even with a Trey Calvin being out with a broken hand, St. Viator with Jeremiah Hernandez is very, very good. This is probably the best St. Viator basketball team in the school’s fifty-eight year history. I have been around that school since I started there are a freshman in 1977. This year’s team is the best I can remember and I am old, really old.

DePaul Prep and St. Viator in a sectional final shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The Rams and Lions have been the only two ranked teams in the Grayslake Sectional. Each team has scheduled top competition and dominated their conferences.

As for the Super-sectional, the IHSA website hasn’t released which Super-sectionals will play each others. But if last year is a guide, the two northern most Super-sectionals played each other, Sears Center and NIU. If that holds true this year, the DePaul Prep Rams would not face the leading 3A powerhouses, Morgan Park and Bogan until Peoria.

So, there you have it. Win six Catholic Blue games and beat St. Viator. All for the chance to face Morgan Park, Bogan and or Springfield Southeast. This makes that stretch of games in the shootouts look like a walk in the park. Let’s get to work.

DePaul Prep’s Raheem Anthony with an over the head pass to Perry Cowen for the easy layup against Morgan Park.

DePaul Prep’s Raheem Anthony with an over the head pass to Perry Cowen for the easy layup against Morgan Park.

Team Rose Shootout

Team Rose Shootout.

The Team Rose Shootout is a great event with top match ups. The Mount Carmel facility is excellent. The light in the gym leaves a little to be desired in terms of quantity but the color temperature is better than most.

St. Viator 72, Oswego East 69. I am more impressed with Trey Calvin and Jeremiah Hernandez every time I see them play. These two young Lions hit their shots. I don’t remember either missing a free throw or a lay up when it counted. The Lions are one of the top 3A teams. We may be looking at a Sectional or Supersectional match up between the Lions and the DePaul Prep Rams in 3A.

Uplift drops Br. Rice 71-59 in OT. I was really looking forward to the Markese Jacobs v. Marquiese Kennedy matchup. It did not disappoint. Almost like a DePaul v. Loyola matchup. Both players put there respective teams on their backs in crunch time. It will fun watching them in years to come.

I couldn’t stay for the big game between Bloom and Morgan Park. I understand Bloom won. I saw Bloom last weekend at the Chicago Elite Classic. They are for real. Balanced. Talented. State title contenders.

Morgan Park I have yet to see this year but I think we all know what to expect. They will be there at tournament time. I will get out to see them at least a few times before. Put the Morgan Park v. Whitney Young game on your calendar.

Here are some photos from the games.

Evanston Tops St. Viator 72-63

DePaul Prep Defeats Notre Dame 65-46

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Notre Dame Dons 65-45 on Wednesday evening (Nov. 21, 2018) in the DePaul Prep/Lane Tech Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament.