DePaul Prep Defeats Mater Dei 57-50 at Chicago Elite Classic

Kind of like my feeling regarding DePaul Prep’s recent 4A state championship in football, I looked up at the scoreboard and noticed that there were two minutes left in the game and saw that our Rams were up seven point against the California powerhouse Mater Dei on the big stage at the Chicago Elite Classic.

None of the people that I talked to in recent days knew anything about Mater Dei except that it was a California powerhouse team and that the out-of-state teams at the Chicago Elite Classic usually beat up on our local teams.

Frankly, I did not know what to expect in this game. I looked up Mater Dei and discovered that the boys basketball program has won one national championship (exactly what that means I do not know), eleven Californian state titles including back to back to back tiles from 2011 to 2014, sixteen Southern California regional titles, 24 CIF-SS titles and 40 league titles in 42 years. I am guessing this means that they are pretty.

I was just hoping the Rams could make a good showing and not look totally out classed, especially, with key player AJ Chambers not in uniform for the game. That’s kind of the way it looked in the first half. The Rams struggled to score against the length of the Mater Dei Monarchs but they were playing well on defense and not getting blown out. It was 25-18 Monarchs at the half.

I don’t know what TK said at halftime or what magical scheme Kenny Gryzwa and Michael Snead cooked up (maybe it was Magic Yellow), but the third quarter was a whole different animal. A couple threes early in the quarter by Jonas Johnson jumpstarted the Rams who outscored the mighty Monarchs 19-10 in the quarter. The Rams tied the game at 37-37 at the end of the third.

I was sitting courtside photographing the game. The Monarchs standing around, a little shell shocked, just looking at each other. They didn’t know what happened. I commented on Twitter that “I went to a shootout and a Catholic League game broke out.” It seems the Monarchs have never played in a Catholic League game, at least not a Chicago Catholic League one.

Rob Walls drained a three to open the 4th. Makai Kvamme and Rykan Woo followed with some key buckets. The Rams opened a seven-point lead midway through the fourth. Even a casual observer knows that it’s best not to get behind a Tom Kleinschmidt coached team in the fourth quarter—successful comebacks are rare against his teams.

Sure enough, the Rams hit their free throws and celebrated a 57-50 victory over the California powerhouse.

As is usually the case in big wins, the contributions of one player stand out. Saturday, that player was Jonas Johnson. He played excellent defense. He hit some big threes that opened the lane for Makai and Rykan. He scored fifteen points earning himself player of the game and a fancy Cain’s Chicken gift basket—nice! It’s great to see him excel on this big stage after suffering through injuries all last year. Well done!

I am not one given to such reckless talk a week into a season but maybe the Rams are, in fact, a top team in the area.

I have evidence that tends to prove such a proposition more likely true than not, at least to this point.

Go Rams!

Lane Falls to St. Ignatius 66-60 at Chicago Elite Classic

[A preview of this week’s article in Inside—Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

The Lane Tech Champions (2-3) have had a rough start. They came up short 66-60 on Friday against #11 St. Ignatius at the Chicago Elite Classic at UIC’s Credit One Arena. In their first five games, the Champions have faced five ranked teams, #4 DePaul Prep, #11 St. a Ignatius, #18 Niles North, who they beat, and #21 Curie.

“I have a lot of faith in this team. This is the best team I think with have had at Lane. It would be great being 5-0 here on December 6th, but we want to be ready in March,” Lane Tech Champions head coach Nick LoGalbo said of his tough schedule.

“This team has a chance to do some special things. We lost three heartbreakers. Curie was a last second shot. We have got to put some games together now,” LoGalbo continued.

Much is said about win/loss records. Should a team pile up wins or is it better to put tough teams on one’s schedule? Fans like a gaudy win loss record but coaches know it’s better to have faced tough competition when hiding into the IHSA playoffs in March.

LoGalbo is confident about his team in large part because of the team’s “length”—a reference to the size of his players and their ability of his defenders to force outside shots.

“They have a ton of length. That’s one of their many strengths,” said St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe regarding Lane.

“We wanted to hunt good shots. We couldn’t just one pass and shoot a three because they were going to have a guy right there. We needed to get our shooters open and get their lengthy guys away from our shooters by driving and kicking,” Monroe continued.

“We talked a little bit about trying to navigate their length, to finish off two feeds, shot fake around the rim, if you don’t get them to bite then kick it out to the shooters. That played a big role in our open shots in the second half.”

And that’s largely what happened. Just a few points separated the teams throughout the first half as the teams traded buckets. But in the second half, the drive-kick-pass-shoot offense of St. Ignatius installed resulted in seven three-point field goals.

“They shot 50% from three. We had two tough teams that know each other exceptionally well. They know what we are going to run. We know what they are going to run. They did a good job of taking us out of some of the things we wanted to do. We made some adjustments and we were getting some clean looks. But at the end of the day, we made some bonehead mistakes,” LoGalbo lamented.

The Champions move on into Chicago Public League play with upcoming games against Westinghouse, Kenwood, Clarke and a rematch against Phillips. Lane also travels next weekend to Washington D.C., to play in the Gonzaga high school tournament. This is more of the boot camp to get ready for the March state title run.

The Chicago Elite Classic is a high school basketball “shootout” organized and hosted by legendary CPS high school coaches Tyrone Slaughter and retired Simeon coach Robert Smith. Top teams from the Chicago area are invited play other top teams. Also invited are top teams from around the country. This year, those teams are Mater Dei from Los Angeles, Chaminade from Missouri and Duncanville from Texas.

St. Ignatius Falls to Riverside-Brookfield 50-49 in Chicago Elite Classic.

The St. Ignatius Wolfpack (4-2, 0-0) lost to the Riverside-Brookfield Bulldogs (5-1, 1-0) 50-49 at the Chicago Elite Classic Saturday afternoon.

The Wolfpack just could not buy a bucket at the end after going back and forth with the Bulldogs all game. The Wolfpack pushed their lead to seven points with less than three minutes to play. And that would be it. The Bulldogs rallied to score the last eight points and win the game.

“We had a couple of good shots that did not go in. A couple of missed layups but also we were very inconsistent with how we share the basketball. We don’t screen off the ball consistently. When you have lapses in those two areas, you make it a lot harder on yourself to win,” said the St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe.

“Mike Reingruber is a great coach. Certainly they made adjustments but I felt that it was us being inconsistent.”

“Like coach said, if we didn’t have lapses and screen off the ball, sharing the ball consistently, we would have had a bigger run,” added Reggie Ray, St. Ignatius senior guard who finished with nine points.

They were too hard on themselves. R-B 6’11” senior center had late blocks under the basket that stopped the Wolfpack. The defense of R-B and rebounds at the end won the game. That and scoring the final eight points of the game.

St. Ignatius moves on to Catholic League play with St. Francis De Sales, Loyola Academy and Aurora Central Catholic before Christmas, plus a side trip to play Homewood-Flossmoor at the Team Rose Shootout.

“Winning the Catholic League Blue is probably the toughest thing any one team can do in the State of Illinois,” added Monroe.

“We are looking forward to the challenge. We are happy to be amongst the best. We are also one of the best. Certainly every game is a learning experience. We are looking forward to that competition. Playing against the best brings out the best in you. It’s a tough slate of games. I know these guys have everything it takes.”

DePaul Prep Defeats Lane Tech 60-49 at Chicago Elite Classic

A preview of this week’s article in the Inside Booster:

The DePaul Prep Rams (6-0, 1-0) defeated the Lane Tech Champions 60-49 in the Chicago Elite Classic on Friday night at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena.

The Rams fell behind big time to a Champions squad that was firing on all cylinders. Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo had his Champions were ready to play. Playing aggressive defense and taking to ball inside to Lane’s standout junior center Dalton Scantlebury, who had nine points in the first quarter alone and finishing with a team high sixteen points, the Champions could do nothing wrong. They held a 22-5 lead until DePaul Prep’s Gus Donahue drained a three-pointer from the baseline to make the score 22-8 at the end of the first quarter.

“Our energy coming into the game was obviously very high. DePaul being about 500 feet from our campus, there is a bit of bad blood there,” said Scantlebury. 

“We did some things with our scouting that was different from what they have seen on film and that was by design. We were locked into what we needed to do to attack them,” said Lane head coach Nick LoGalbo.

The Champions went right at the Rams. They got the ball into Scantlebury who scored three straight buckets. That freed up the Champions’ star player Shaheed Solebo who poured in eight points of his own. The Rams were on the ropes.

Lane and DePaul Prep, the successor to long time Gordon Tech high school which was just across the Chicago River from Lane, have been neighbors for decades but not exactly rivals. Now with Gordon becoming DePaul Prep and moving from the Fr. Gordon Campus into the old Devry College building immediately south for Lane, it may be that the rivalry is growing.

DePaul Prep is in the Chicago Catholic League and Lane is in the Chicago Public League. Their paths don’t cross often in competition. They have met in basketball only twice in recent years with DePaul coming out on top in 2015 and 2018 in the championship games of the Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving tournament, a tournament jointly hosted by the two schools.

It wasn’t always that way. The schools faced off in the 1980 state playoff semi-final game at Lane which the Rams won 15 to 8 going on to win the Gordon Tech’s only state championship in football. The schools played in basketball a few times in the early 2000’s in tournaments with Lane winning three in a row. Before that it was Gordon Tech had the edge winning eight of ten matchups dating back to 1961.

Given Scantlebury’s comment and the fact that the players know each other pretty well from playing with and against each other during the summer, have a rivalry growing. Plus the fact that the Rams won a state basketball championship that last year doesn’t appear to sit too well with the Lane players. The rivalry looks to be heating up.

The Chicago Elite Classic has spice things up in an early season marquis matchup pitting the two programs which are gaining some attention.

This huge early deficit is not part of the typical game plan for Tom Kleinschmidt formula wins. His teams are supposed to grab an early first quarter lead, survive a second quarter comeback by the opponent, build a lead in the third quarter and finish the fourth quarter with rebounds and free throws.

The plan had to be different on Friday night but not the result.  

“We weren’t ready to play. Defensively, which is our strong point, we were not is sync. When they started making shots, we got shook. We got punched in the face. We had to regroup a little bit in the second quarter,” said DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmit, himself a Gordon Tech grad well acquainted with the neighboring city size school across the Chicago River then and now across a parking lot.

At the start of the second quarter, Kleinschmidt dialed up a three-quarter court press that took the Champions out of what they were doing. 

“They went without a bucket for about six minutes. [We] cut it in have and we had a enough will in the second half to hang on,” Kleinschmidt say.

The Rams did more than cut the lead in half, they all but erased Lane’s huge lead in the second quarter outscoring the Champions 20 to 9 trailing 31-28 at the half.

“Early they were loading up on Dalton [Scantlebury] and we had really good weakside action. Once we started seeing the pressure, we weren’t as aware and probably a little tired. The weakside action stopped happening. We had some turnovers and just not great shots,” LoGalbo said.

It was more than just dialing up a press. Kleinschmidt new his advantage and played it.

“We thought we were a little deeper at the guard spots and we wanted to wear them down. They came out excellent; fantastic job by Lane coming out. But with our experience at guard and out depth at guard, if we could pressure them for 32 minutes, I thought we could get our hands on some live ball turnovers and that’s what happened,” Kleinschmidt added.

That experience and skill at the guard position showed in the end. Rams senior guard PJ Chambers, a product of Bell School, just a few blocks from both Lane and DePaul Prep, came alive in the second half. He led all scorers with twenty-two points including nine free throws in ten attempts that put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. Part of that guard advantage was AJ Chambers, PJ’s sophomore brother, who had three points.

The Rams’ senior center Jaylan McElroy, who survived a little foul trouble in the first half but was ably spelled by sophomore forward Rashaun Porter, finished with twelve points.

I would tell you what is next for these two programs but I haven’t thought much past this game. It’s been fast and furious start to season. Time to take a breath.

But stay tuned. The season just started.

DePaul Prep 59, St. Rita 14

The DePaul Prep Rams entered Catholic League play Thursday evening at St. Rita High School with a 59-14 victory over the Mustangs. The Rams improved to 5-0 and 1-0 in the Catholic League.

Tomorrow is the Chicago Elite Classic where the Rams will face neighbor Lane Tech in the final game of the night.

DePaul Prep Wins Battle of the Bridge Tournament with 67-50 Victory over Niles North

Defending 2A State Champions, the DePaul Prep Rams (4-0, 0-0) defeated the Niles North Vikings 67-50 in the championship game of the Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving tournament at DePaul Prep Friday night.

The frustration on the face of Niles North coach Glenn Olson was palpable. His Vikings were close, but the DePaul Prep Rams were just too solid in every phase. Niles North has suffered four loses to DePaul Prep in the Battle of Bridge championship game dating back to 2016 and one in a semi-final.

A quick 6-0 lead for the Rams to open the first quarter was part of the formula for a Tom Kleinschmidt victory. Get lead in the first quarter, survive the inevitable bounce back, build the lead in the third quarter, handle the ball and make free throws to win. It was a textbook Tom Kleinschmidt win—even if it didn’t feel very safe and any point until the end.

The Rams can execute in every phase and did on Friday. They can run and score in transition. They can the drive the lane, taking it to the rim or hitting the floater. Rams’ junior guard Makai Kvamme has stepped up his game on the point taking over where graduated senior Maurice Thomas left off.

Senior guard PJ Chambers was scoring inside and out, leading all scorers with 20 points, even with being occasionally spelled by his little brother AJ Chambers. And we are not even talking about Jaylan McElroy yet. The big man got in a little foul trouble and spent the second quarter on the bench. No worries. Sophomore forward LaShawn Porter filled right in. Jaylan dominated the boards throughout and was money with the key free throws in the fourth quarter. Junior Jonas Johnson hit a three on the Rams 15-2 run late in the second quarter and some free throws at the end.

This year’s Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving tournament was one of the early season’s marquis events featuring two ranked teams, #13 DePaul Prep and #20 Lane Tech. Niles North is right there too. In fact, the Vikings were singled out by Joe Henricksen of the City Suburban Hoops Report as a team likely to break into the Super 25.

“How many teams have the opportunity to play two ranked teams in two road games at a Thanksgiving tournament?” Olson said after the Lane game.

The other teams were Lane, Notre Dame, Englewood Stem, Francis Parker, Jones and Prosser.

The Lane Tech v. Niles North game played on Wednesday also a marquis matchup of excellent teams. A packed and noisy gym at Lane saw the Champions edged by the Vikings 63-61. Match up featured two top players in the area: Lane’s Shaheed Solebo and Niles North’s Yaris Irby.  

“The close of the second half was one of the best that I have seen. We wanted to spread them to get some fouls,” said Rams coach Tom Kleinschmidt.

The fourth quarter Rams defense particularly on Niles North star player Yaris Irby who had only two points just closed out the game.

“The constant pressure and switching [players to cover Irby] was part of it. We don’t put one guy on one guy where they both get tired. We kind of share the load. And I think that kind of help us in second halves. Everybody can guard whoever. They have to guard whoever. It keeps us fresh at the end of the game.

“That was fun and nerve-racking. I was never comfortable and never am.”

The Rams open Chicago Catholic League play on Thursday at St. Rita. The Rams then make their first appearance in the Chicago Elite Classic with a game on Friday, December 1, 2023, against neighbor Lane Tech at UIC’s Credit 1 Arena.

DePaul Prep Falls to Mount Carmel 42-41

Preview of my Inside Publications article this week.

No. 17 Mount Carmel defeats DePaul Prep 42-41

DePaul Prep Rams lost to Mount Carmel Caravan 42-41 at Mount Carmel Friday night. The Rams are struggling through an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak in the Chicago Catholic League’s Blue division.

 The Rams (4-3, 0-3) opened the game outscoring the 17th ranked Caravan (7-1, 2-0) five to zero. The Caravan then went on a 10-0 run to close the quarter. They would hold the lead that eventually dwindled to a single point at the buzzer to survive a young and injured Rams team.

The early run by the Caravan was aided by some sloppy Rams ball handling. “They picked us up a little bit, trapped us a couple times when we were lazy with the ball. We have bad habits in practice right now in passing. They are leading to the game,” said Rams head coach and former DePaul University star Tom Kleinschmidt.

The young Rams start three sophomores, center Jonas Johnson, guard Makai Kvamme and guard Rob Walls, one junior, PJ Chambers and one senior, guard and leading scorer Maurice Thomas. Out with injuries for the moment are junior standouts and returning starters Payton Kamin and Jaylan McElroy.

Despite the Rams having two of their best players on the court, they opened the season 4-0 winning the Battle of the Bridge Tournament hosted by DePaul Prep along with Lane Tech. Catholic League Blue conference play has been a different story. Coming into this game, the Rams were on a two-game losing streak in the conference play dropping games to St. Lawrence and DeLaSalle.

There are encouraging signs for the Rams. Mount Carmel’s transfer Lee Marks emerged as a force for the Caravan at last weekend’s Chicago Elite Classic. The Rams shut him down. “We scouted him pretty well. Our gap defense shut his driving lanes down a little bit. We did a nice job keeping him off the boards. He is a fantastic rebounder. He had seventeen rebounds against Laurence,” said Kleinschmidt.

The Caravan never blow the game wide open. The largest lead they managed was seven points. Then curiously, early in the third quarter, Caravan head coach Phil Segorves slowed down the pace of game. At one point midway through the fourth quarter, Caravan point guard Deandre Craig put the ball on his hip in classic style and waited for the Rams to come out and defend.

 “I think they wanted to pull us out and get us in the bonus. [Deandre] Craig is one of the two or three best point guards in the league. I think [Mount Carmel head coach Phil Segorves] wanted to put the ball senior point guard’s hands and control the game, get fouls and go to the line,” Kleinschmidt added.

The Rams chiseled away at the Caravan lead making it a one possession game for the last couple minutes. Only a questionable turn over call and foul pushed the lead to four. The Rams made it a one-point game with a three before the buzzer.

The fact that the young Rams can play with the seventh ranked CCL powerhouse Caravan has to be encouraging for Rams fans. This adversity early in the season is going to help them when they get their scorers back. “1000%. Everybody is getting minutes. This time that they are getting you normally can’t get it. And they are playing well. We are stretching our bench. When we get everybody back, we will be in good shape,” said Kleinschmidt.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire for the young Rams who host 5th ranked St. Rita Mustangs next Friday the DePaul Prep’s Tom Winiecki Gym on Friday. St. Rita will be riding high after defeating the 6th ranked and previously unbeaten Brother Rice Crusaders 57-51 at Brother Rice.

Lane Drops Taft 50-40 in Chicago Elite Classic

The Lane Tech basketball team defeated the Taft Eagles Friday (Dec. 3) 50-40 at the Chicago Elite Classic. The Lane basketball team gained the edge on the Eagles as the CPS Northside leader.

The game started slowly with both teams missing shots they would ordinarily make in their home gyms. Senior point guard Sean Molloy took early control for the Lane Basketball Team (5-1, 0-0 CPS Red West/North) with seven first quarter points. Lane grabbed a 12-9 first quarter lead that it would never relinquish.

It just seemed like the kind of game Lane wanted to play. Tough aggressive defense, control the tempo, score inside and kick out for open jumpers. It all worked, except for the open jumper part. The Basketball Team could barely find a bucket from beyond the arc, going 2 for 18 for the game.

Even so, Taft (3-2, 0-0, CPS White-North) never went away. Tons of effort on the offensive and defensive boards kept the Eagles in the game, out rebounding Lane 49 to 31.

The difference in the game was turnovers. The Eagles gave up the ball 25 times with Lane scoring 27 of its fifty points off Taft turnovers.

Molloy led all scorers with 14 points. Sean also had an impressing block in the first quarter swatting a ball away above the rim.

Interestingly, Lane’s scoring was spreadout throughout its roster. In addition to Molloy’s 14, Sophomore forward Shaheed Solebo had 9, Senior forward Stephen Goonan had 8, Junior guard Jack Tzur had 5 and three other players had 4 points each.

Taft’s 6’3” Junior forward Armin Aliloski lead the Eagles with 13 points and 18 rebounds.

With the Basketball Team lifting its record to 5-1 and Taft falling to 3-2, Lane looks to be the best CPS team on the Northside.

Lane Coach Nick LoGalbo wanted none of that, downplaying the rivalry with Taft.

“It’s another game,” LoGalbo said. “We improved tonight. We got better. Hats off to Taft. They played a great game. The got a new coach. He’s doing a great job. But it’s just another game for us. We prepared the same way we prepare for everybody. We did what we needed to do tonight one possession at a time.”

Modesty aside, Lane’s appearance in the prestigious Chicago Elite Classic is no accident. The Chicago Elite Classic started ten years ago by Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter and Simeon coach Robert Smith. The legendary CPS coaches wanted to showcase top programs in bring in some out-of-state teams to amp up competition. This year’s out-of-state teams include Vashon High School and Chaminade College Prep from St. Louis, Evangel Christian from Louisville, Gonzaga from Washington, DC, and Mater Dei from California.

“It means a lot [to win in the Chicago Elite Classic,] Lane Senior guard Sean Molloy said. “We’ve been trying to get ourselves on the map. We started a few years back and we are getting more and more noticed from the local tournaments. To win in this, just proves that we should be here.”

“It was very clear tonight that it meant a lot to our boys to be here,” LoGalbo continued. “It meant a lot for our school to be here. We had a big crowd. We had alumni come out. I thought we represented well tonight.”

The Lane Basketball Team will get no rest next week with Steinmetz on Monday, North Lawndale on Wednesday, Schurz on Friday and Oak Forest on Saturday.

Likewise for Taft, from one high profile shootout to another. The Eagles will face host Ridgewood at the Ridgewood Shootout on Sunday (Dec. 6).

Chicago Elite Classic

I photographed the Chicago Elite Classic for Illinois Preps Insider last Saturday (Dec. 1, 2018) at the Wintrust Area. It was my first time there. I loved it. Great light. I could not stay all day. I only saw the first three games. I was most interested in the Uplift v. Evanston game. Both teams impressed me. Got some good photos. Hope you like them.