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.

Lane Tech Handled Ag Science 63-45 Thursday and Will Face Kenwood on Saturday

I didn’t know what to expect on my first trip out to the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences or CHSAS or, as I call it, Ag Science. It’s located on the far southwestern border of Chicago at 111th and Pulaski. I had never seen Ag Science play nor had I ever been out to their gym. I had heard of Ag Science though because of its curious focus in the nation’s third largest city.

I have seen the Lane Tech Champions (17-10, 7-4) quite a few times this season so I know how good they are even if their record doesn’t show it. They put together a brutally tough schedule directly for the purpose of preparing for the City tournament and the IHSA playoffs.

Interestingly, the Cyclones drew the #8 seed in the Red Division tournament because of their fourth place finish in the Red-Star division. While Lane drew the #9 seed because of their #5 seed in the higher Red-Shield division.

The Champion’s length pretty much overwhelmed the Cyclones from the start ultimately winning 63-45. Lane jumped out to an early lead and shut down Ag Science from scoring inside. Their outside shot were all opposed and were not falling either. The Champions scored at will in the paint. I don’t know know that I have seen so many dunks in a high school game. Of Dalton Scantlebury’s fifteen points a majority had to be scored on dunks.

The Champions move on to face #1 ranked Kenwood on Saturday at 4:00 p.m., at Curie High School. The CPL has gone to a neutral site format for the quarter and semi-finals. The Champions look to rebound from an early season 82-75 loss to Kenwood at Lane in December. Lane looks to put together a revenge tour through the tournament with wins against previous victors or some combination thereof, Kenwood, Whitney Young, Simeon and Lincoln Park.

Amundsen Battles Harlem Coming Up Short 35-21

Preview of my piece in Inside Publications coming out Wednesday:

The Harlem high school Huskies (7-3, 6-3) defeated the Amundsen Vikings (7-3, 7-0) 35-21 at Winnemac Stadium on Saturday. Huskies’ third-year head coach, Bob Moynihan, brought his team from Machesney, Illinois, (just north of Rockford) down to Chicago, expecting to take care of business against a CPS team and get out of town.

Bob is actually a high school classmate of mine. He was a legendary defensive lineman for the St. Viator Lions a few years back—okay, a few decades back—who later played college football at Southeast Missouri State.

Speaking to Moynihan before the game, he asked me what to expect.

“Watch out for #11 [Adam Muench],” I told him. “Teams have been trying to stop him all year. And Amundsen will score. You will need to run the ball,” I added.

“That we can do,” Moynihan said. And so they did. The Huskies ran the ball effectively all day. Keeping the productive Viking offense off the field.

The Huskies opened the scoring midway through the first quarter on a rushing touchdown by sophomore running back Jahmani Muhammad.

The Vikings answered on the next drive. Amundsen’s Jamarion Hemphill ran in a 15-yard touchdown at the 4:42 mark of the first quarter. The 7-7 score at the end of the first quarter was something of an anomaly for playoff games by CPS teams this year. Amundsen put up more of a fight than other similarly situated teams. Lane, Senn, Lincoln Park, Schurz, Perspectives and Bulls Prep all suffered blowouts at the hands of suburban powerhouses.

The Vikings blocked a punt early in the second quarter but could not capitalize. The also traded interceptions. Even so the Huskies rushing attack proved effective and they put up two more rushing touchdowns making the halftime score 21-7. 

Despite giving up two more touchdowns in the third quarter, the Vikings never quit. Early in the fourth, Jamarion Hemphill burst up the middle and down the west sideline for a 50-yard touchdown.

The Vikings were not done. A second interception and lengthy return by Amundsen’s sophomore safety Edwin Soto set up a 10-yard touchdown by Adam Muench on a brilliantly executed sweep. Jamariam Hemphill followed with a two-point conversion. The Vikings were within striking distance at 35-21 with plenty of time left in the fourth.

It wasn’t to be. Moynihan and his Huskies did what they intended to do—run the ball and take time off the clock. The Huskies finally took a knee down at Amundsen’s goal line as the game ended.

Amundsen’s head coach Nick Olson was emotional after the game. Taking a long time to talk to his players and take some photos with his group of seniors, he thanked his players and coaches.   

“I always tell the boys wins and losses are a dime a dozen. I can live with losing. I am going to win some more in life; I am going to lose some more in life. It’s how you handle it. It’s just so heart breaking because these seniors are never going to suit up for this level of football again. That’s the toughest part of it. It’s over. This team will never be the same. But they are leaving a legacy. Every year after we get in the playoffs, we have gotten better. We are not getting blown out anymore. Teams have to respect us,” said Amundsen head coach Nick Olson.

“I attribute a lot of our success to the support of our administration, the full support they have in me to run the program the way I see fit,” continued Olson.

“The assistant coaches have made all the difference this year. Those are the guys behind the success this year. This is not on me; this is on the team.”

This is if for the Vikings. They will be participating in the CPS city championship playoffs.

Harlem moves on to play Grayslake North at home in the second round of the 6A playoffs.