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.
