DePaul Prep Beats Marian Catholic 54-39 to Win Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic

[A preview of my next story in Inside Publications]

If there is one thing a DePaul Prep Rams basketball team knows how to do, it’s finish. The #7 ranked DePaul Prep Rams (15-0, 2-0) defeated the Marian Catholic Spartans (10-5, 3-1) 57-35 Saturday night to finish off its first Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic championship.

The Rams’ emotional victory over Oswego East in the semi-final game less than twenty-four hours before the championship game was the issue. The Oswego East game was certainly the Rams’ toughest game of the year. DePaul’s usual scoring formula—outside shooting and inside putbacks—was not working. They were 0-6 from three-point range. The big men inside, center senior Jaylan McElroy and sophomore Rashawn “Shawn” Porter, carried the load with some inside scoring but the Rams trailed at the half. They overcame their struggles in the second half and won going away, 54-39, but had it taken an emotional toll on the 14-0 Rams?

Having survived Oswego East, would the Rams suffer a letdown? Would the Rams’ struggles shooting the ball in the first half continue?

If there was going to be a letdown, it did now show as the championship game started. The Rams opened an early lead on the strength of two early three-pointers. One from senior guard PJ Chambers and the other from Shawn Porter. There was no letdown in the Rams. Chambers struggled against Oswego East but he was back to his reliable self against Marian. The Rams opened a ten-point lead by halftime.

Marian Catholic wasn’t going away. They are too well coached and too skilled for that. The Spartans cut the lead to seven at the start of the fourth.

Itt was time for the Rams to finish. 

“We just guarded. We try to start and finish quarters. The kids are buying into that. They did a nice job of finishing the quarter. We practice [finishing games]. We have some calls we make. The kids are aware of it. They are very attuned to it. We have been doing it for a while. We used to do it because we had to do it to win. We shorten possessions. Now we feel if we get a lead, we can make teams foul us and we make some free throws. If we get the lead, we can spread them and make the lead bigger,” said DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt.

That’s what happened. The Rams shortened their passes, drew out the defense and the minutes ticked off. They either got some layups or drew fouls. But it was the other end of the court that made the difference. The Rams held Marian to three points in the fourth quarter. They did not give up a single field goal in the fourth quarter.  The man-to-man defense forced bad outside shots. The Spartans had just three points all on the foul shots.

PJ Chambers lead all scorers with 22 points. McElroy had 14. Junior guard Makai Kvamme had 12. Porter had 14. Sophomore AJ Chambers (PJ’s brother) had 2. Junior forward George Richardson also had 2.

This is the Rams’ first Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic championship in seven tries. They have been in a final four four times, including a second-place finish in 2019.

The Rams take their #7 ranking and their 15-0 record into January but those might not be around long. In the first three weeks of January, the Rams host #2 ranked Homewood-Flossmoor in the annual Steve Pappas Shootout at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym. And then it will be #3 ranked Mount Carmel at home. And then 15 win, and conference rival, Brother Rice. Oh, and then powerhouse Normal Community High School after that. 

The Lane Tech Champions (10-7, 3-1) also competed in the Hinsdale Classic. The Champions lost a close opener to Maine South 65-52, then wins over Morgan Park 71-37 and Morton 63-30 but fell to Lincoln-Way Central 51-47 in the final game.

The #15 ranked Lincoln Park Lions (12-4, 3-0) have made a splash this year. They advanced to the championship game in the Proviso West Holiday Tournament losing to #4 ranked Warren Township High School, 78-52.

The Walter Payton College Prep Grizzlies travelled to Centralia for its holiday tournament. Despite picking up an early season upset victory at home against Lane Tech, the Grizzlies dropped all three games in Centralia to Mt. Vernon 56-34, Belleville West 63-48 and Cahokia 63-57.

Riverside Brookfield Summer Shootout Preview

By Jack Lydon

Riverside Brookfield Summer Shootout is the start of basketball season, for me at least. And so it begins.  R-B and its driving force Mike Reingruber, will host 72 “top area teams” on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Play opens Friday at noon with games across six courts. The complete Friday and Saturday schedule is available here. Sunday here.

72 area high schools will participate along with several from the St. Louis area—Belleville Althoff, Belleville East, Belleville West, East St. Louis and O’Fallon. As for the top teams, who know who those teams are at the moment?

There are a number powerhouses from last year, such as 4A State Champion Glenbard West, 1A State Champion Yorkville Christian, 4A runner-up Whitney Young, 3A third-place St. Ignatius, 3A fourth place Simeon, 2A third place DePaul Prep.

But that was last year, star seniors have moved on to college programs, the new senior class comes front and center.

I have learned over several years going to R-B that these games are not regular high school games. It like the summer leagues where one gets a glimpse of the new starters playing offense and not a ton of defense. I got to see the highly-touted young players about to make there impact.

To the untrained eye, R-B can look like just another basketball tournament. So I am doing some research to find out who to watch. This year’s top seniors at R-B include Darrin Ames (Kenwood), Asa Thomas (Lake Forest), Cameron Christie (Rolling Meadows), Dalen Davis (Whitney Young) and Miles and Wesley Rubin (Simeon). There are a good number of juniors to see at R-B that will impact there teams and conference play including James Brown (St. Rita), Morez Johnson (St. Rita), Jaden Smith (Kenwood), Payton Kamin (DePaul Prep), Jaylen McElroy (DePaul Prep) and Shaheed Solebo (Lane Tech).

As for what teams to keep and I eye, I am of course interested in the teams in my coverage area, Lane Tech, Lincoln Park and DePaul Prep. The freshly re-named Lane Tech “Campions” will feature junior standout Shabeed Solebo. Lincoln Park looks to overtake Lane as the top northside school in CPS’s tough Red-West/North division under third-year coach Antwon Jennings. Tom Kleinschmidt reloads after another historic state playoff run with emerging stars Payton Kamin, Jaylen McElroy. DePaul Prep’s sophomore Jonas Johnson will be fun to watch too.

Then there are top teams to look at and see what they have coming back. I don’t do rankings. Understand, I typically cover Chicago Catholic League and Chicago Public League games. I get out to some ESCC and Evanston games when I can. These are a mix of top teams from last year and teams that I have seen over the past few years that are on the rise. So in no particular order:

Glenbard West. It should be interesting to see what Glenbard West can do after its historic season. Can Jason Opoka recreate the defensive length of Pierce, Huff, Durkin, Renfro and Warden?

Leo. After winning the Chicago Catholic League last year but losing the 2A Super-Sectional to CCL rival DePaul Prep, the Lions look to take another step. With returning stars Jared Gee, Tyler Smith and Jakeem Cole, Jarrod Gee and Tyler Smith, the Lions should be ready to make another deep run.

St. Rita. Is this the year for the Mustangs to bolt to top of the Catholic League Blue and makes it past Kenwood and Whitney Young in 4A? With two top ranked players, James Brown and Morez Johnson, the Mustangs their best chance in years. But will it be enough?

St. Ignatius. Coming out of the gate last season with a #4 Sun-Times ranking, he Wolfpack were in the spotlight. Some early season struggles with character building last second losses got them ready for a deep run in 3A and a third in State finish. Matt Monroe brings back key players Richard Barron and Jackson Kotecki. Even with the graduation of A. J. Redd, the Wolfpack should be very good and highly ranted.

DePaul Prep. And then there is DePaul Prep. After the 2020 COVID season, he Rams lost all five starters including standout and recent transfer to U. C. Davis, TY Johnson. Nevertheless, Tom Kleinschmidt plugged in recent Cleveland State re-commit Dylan Arnett, Trevon Thomas, sophomore standouts Payton Kamin and Jaylen McElroy, Julian Green and Anthony Gutierrez. That group battled in the CCL Blue and ran through 2A dropping Orr, Michelle Clark and Leo to make it to Champaign finishing third.

That was last year. This year is up to the still very young Rams, including Kamin and McElroy, Will O’Shields, Maurice Thomas and perhaps highly regarded sophomore Jonas Johnson. No easy road for the Rams in the CCL Blue with St. Rita, Mt. Carmel, Brother Rice, Leo and the always tough Loyola Ramblers.   

Kenwood. Then there is the Chicago Public League. Kenwood made believers out of me. I saw them handle Curie at Curie. Highly rated Darrin Ames and Davius Loury return. Expect Kenwood to be at or near the top of the Red-South/Central in February and highly ranked to start the season.  

Whitney Young. Whitney Young is Whitney Young. Dalen Davis and Marcus Pigram return. Tyrone Slaughter will reload and be back.

Simeon. It will be a fun season with Robert Smith’s victory lap. We will get a look at Simeon as the Wolverines take on DePaul Prep at 3:30 on Friday at R-B. Aviyon Morris, Jalen Griffith, Wesley Rubin and Miles Rubin return. This group will want to win for their legendary coach’s final tour.

So there you go, a look at a few teams that will play at R-B. Get out there early. Parking is . . . difficult.

Correction. I previously identified Timothy Christian’s Ben Vanderwall as Yorkville Christian’s Jaden Schutt. Yorkville Christian was not at the 2021 Riverside Brookfield Shootout. My apologies.

Timothy Christian’s Ben Vanderwall at 2021 Riverside Brookfield Summer Shootout

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.

IHSA Boys Playoff Weekend Recap

We are a week separated from the IHSA 3A and 4A Boys Playoffs now and I am now getting around to the recap. I spent last Friday and Saturday in Peoria photographing as many games as I could.

I found out one cannot photograph and process all the games in real time. Two games per day is about all I can do and get galleries and stories up on a timely fashion.

As for the games themselves, they did not disappoint. Well, except for the first game, where m y DePaul Prep lost to Bogan. The Rams had good shots early but they would not fall. Credit to Bogan. They put on a stellar defense effort basically shutting down everyone on DePaul except Perry Cowen. After that East St. Louis impressed against a tough and scrappy Peoria Manual team in a very entertaining battle.

4A was especially fun. I have seen Evanston five times this year and a couple times last year. Very good and entertaining team. Extremely well coached. Sr. guard Jaheim Holden has to be one of the most exciting players I have seen in the past few years. The Wildkits handles Rochford East who I had not seen. Evanston posses so many matchup problems. Rockford constantly lost track of sophomore Blake Peters and he made them pay. Peters was 7 for 8 from beyond the arc—just deadly.

Then the biggest game of the season so far, Curie v. Beilleville West. E.J. Liddell is better than advertised. Gonna be star at the next level. He has it all. Curie lost composure at the end. The Condors just ran out magic and one by one their best players fouled out.

DePaul Prep refocused and came out wanting to end the season with a win in the 3A Third Place game on Saturday morning. They did just that, soundly defeating a Peoria Manuel team that did not want to be there.

Frankly, I was busy working on photos of the DePaul v. Manuel game and I didn’t see much of the 4A Third Place game. As I recall, Curie won but what I remember is that they didn’t want to be there eight.

Then the premier Evanston v. Belleville West 4A Championship on Saturday night. What a game! It was tough for the Maroons to matchup against Evanston early. The Wildkits came out running and opened a seven point half time lead. As good as the Wildkits looked, Belleville West was playing Evanston’s game and stayed right with the Kits. One just got the feeling at the half that the Maroons would overcome.

That they did. No three pointers for Blake Peters. E.J. Liddell got the ball inside and either scored or dished it off for an easy backdoor bucket. The Maroons overcame and pulled away. It was quite a show.

And then, all the sudden, it was over. Time to go back to Chicago. It just left me wanting more.

Thanks to all for another wonderful high school basketball season. The R-B summer tournament will be here soon. Then the Thanksgiving tournaments. See you then.

As for the photos, these are a few good ones I got over both days. I hope you like them.

Evanston Out Guns Rockford East 94-82

It didn’t seem that close. The Evanston Township High School Wildkits (31-4) came out firing on all cylinders against the Rockford East E-RABs. The Kits opened up a 25-15 first quarter lead and never looked back. Well, except they actually did in the third quarter when the E-RABS out scored them 29-20.

The game never seemed in doubt despite a valiant charge by Rockford East. Evanston’s Sr. forward Blake Peters went seven for eight shooting threes. That’s just spectacular. He lead all scorers with 27 points.

Be careful what you wish for. The Wildkits will face Belleville West who destroyed a 34-1 Curie team, 70-48, The Condors just came off an impressive comeback victory of Simeon and looked to be unstoppable. Belleville West’s two big men, E.J. Liddell and Keith Randolph dominated the paint and got Curie into foul trouble.

It should be a fascinating championship game of teams with contrasting styles. Evanston is quick, athletic and great shooters. Belleville West is big, athletic and good shooters. My money is on Evanston, but I thought Curie would win so what do I know,

Stay tuned.