I had my story in for the week after the Whitney Young v. Lincoln Park game on Thursday. I was free to take in whatever game interested me on Friday. I hadn’t seen Lane in a while and the Lane/St. Ignatius game is alway fun so I went over to Lane.
The Champions are young and have struggled a little this year against top tier teams—DePaul Prep, New Trier, Whitney Young, Lincoln Park, Brother Rice. I saw them early in the season a couple times and I wanted to see how they are coming along.
And also, Lane’s Matt Szafoni and Ignatius’s Chris Bolte are similar players. They even look alike. How would they match up against each other?
The Wolfpack built a lead throughout the first half. The difference seemed to be that both teams were moving the fall effectively and getting open looks. The Ignatius players shots were falling and the Champions shots were not. Szafoni outscored Bolte 9-4 in the first half.
The Champions ball movement improved from early in the season. They matched up well against the No. 5 ranked Wolfpack. They were moving the ball with more purpose and confidence than they did in the early season. It was the shooting that come up short. Not enough shots were not falling.
The Wolfpack broke the game open in the fourth quarter. Ignatius stand out sophomore Amir Tucker piled up the points finishing with 21. Bolte got his points, 12. Ignatius junior Duke Ross had 12.
As for the Szafon/Bolte match up, Szafoni had more points (15) but Bolte (12) got the win.
“The greatest strength of our team, is our team. When we are at our best, we are playing for each. Playing together. We have a lot of guys that can step up and have really big days,” said St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe.
“We’ve got fourteen guys on this team that put winning first. The biggest agenda, the most important agenda is they all want to do well as a team.”
The Wolfpack will face some tough Chicago Catholic League games but the other ranked teams are behind them. They will need some help if they want to win the Catholic League. The DePaul Prep Rams will need to drop some games. Don’t hold your breath. The Rams are focused on the CCL at the moment.
After that, Ignatius will land in the toughest sectional the state. The 4A “TBD Sectional” of Southside teams including St. Laurence, Curie, Kenwood, Mount Carmel, Simeon and Whitney Young. Another one of teams is capable of an upset.
Stay tuned. Don’t be surprised if St. Ignatius gets back to the finals in Champaign.
