DePaul Prep Defeats Bradley-Bourbonnais 57-28

These are some photos from the Bradley-Bourbonnais game from last Monday. It was kind of overtaken by events, Christmas and all. The DePaul Prep Rams defeated Bradley-Bourbonnais 57-28 in the Tom Winiecki Gym.

It was an afternoon game on a Monday. I like afternoon games.

The Rams handled Bradley. They just had no answer for Gus Johnson and Zion Lee on the glass.

I post this on Sunday, six days after the game. Pontiac starts tomorrow. It’s serious now. 11-1 through the first part of the season. 3-0 in the Catholic League with two of the big ones, Loyola and St. Ignatius navigated successfully.

But now it’s Pontiac. Just another thing. Just another couple games on the schedule. Even so, it’s a challenge. Serious business. Benet and Curie. The granddaddy of all Christmas tournaments. It’s a chance to make a statement, to make some friends, to show people how good this group is. And hopefully add another sentence in the story of DePaul Prep basketball.

If you haven’t been to Pontiac, you should make the trip. It’s a little over two hours done there. Very nice facility. The light in the gym is okay. It could be better but there are worse places.

DePaul Prep Defeats St. Ignatius 59-40

[Preview of this week’s piece in the Inside—Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

The No. 1 ranked DePaul Prep Rams are rolling and just getting better. Friday night’s 59-40 victory over No. 6 St. Ignatius (9-1) at the Tom Winiecki Gym on the former Gordon Tech campus moved the Rams to 10-1. Earlier in the week, the Rams defeated the No. 3 team, Kankakee Kays, 56-49 at the Team Rose Shootout.

The Rams are 11 games into their 29-game regular season and they look every bit the part of the No. 1 team. This success comes as DePaul Prep seeks its fourth straight state championship. One of those championships was in class 2A and two in class 3A but this year the Rams have graduated into the top class, 4A and will face the top competition in Illinois high school basketball.

First things first. The Rams needed to get past the St. Ignatius Wolfpack which is on a bit of a historic run of its won in recent years having advanced to the state finals multiple times. Coach Matt Monroe has his Wolfpack stalking again this year coming into this key Chicago Catholic League match up with a gaudy 9-0 record which includes a win over Benet Academy. 

“We want to establish the inside with Shaun [DePaul Prep’s senior forward Rashaun Porter],” said Rams head coach Tom Kleinschmidt of his plan for St. Ignatius

“We do want to establish the paint first, then we work inside out. We were trying to put Rykan’s guy in ball screens or down screens with Shaun [Porter] because Shaun’s a big body; it’s hard to get around him,” he said of his plan for the Wolfpack.

That’s largely what happened. Rashaun Porter put up eights inside in the first quarter. After committing his second foul late in the first quarter, junior forward Gus Johnson, younger brother of former Ram and now DePaul University Blue Demon basketball player Jonas Johnson, came in. Then it was Rykan Woo’s turn. The Rams’ senior shooting guard dropped in nine points of his own in the second quarter and the Rams lead 38-17 at the half.

“Gus Johnson came in and give up big minutes. He had four quick points. He had two big rebounds and a block. I am trying to find him more minutes. Sometimes when we play a spread team, it’s hard to have three bigs out there but he played great, great minutes for us,” Kleinschmidt of his junior forward.

It’s tough to erase even a small deficit against DePaul Prep but 21 points would be tough for the Wolfpack to overcome in the second half.

Rashaun Porter was fired up after the victory.

“We all just wanted to come in with a passion. We know its’s a big game. It’s a big rivalry game. We just wanted to go for the kill. The best thing to do is win at home with your guys,” Rashaun said.

DePaul Prep’s first goal every year is the win the Chicago Catholic League. It’s no different this year and the Rams have already taken two big steps in that direction with wins over No. 8 ranked Loyola Academy and No. 6 ranked St. Ignatius. But there is still a long way to go with Mount Carmel, St. Laurence and Brother Rice still to come.

“It’s another big one. We needed Loyola and Ignatius early. To have those two in our rearview mirror helps that we can kind of catch our breath, work on our weaknesses now before we get into the dogdays of January,” Klienschmidt said.

State championships or not, the Rams are still focused on two-thirds of the season yet to play. They will need to be, Pontiac, the mother of all holiday tournaments, is next.

Lane Falls to DePaul Prep 53-24

[A preview of this week’s piece in the Inside-Booster.]

By Jack Lydon

Lane Tech had no answer for Rashaun Porter. DePaul Prep senior forward Rashaun Porter, a early candidate for player of the year, put up 26 points against Lane Tech in the finale of this year’s Batte of the Bridge Tournament at Lane Tech. The #1 ranked DePaul Prep Rams (3-0) defeated the Lane Tech Champions (1-2) 53-24 Wednesday night.

The Champions did a great job stopping DePaul Prep’s other Division 1 recruit Rykan Woo (Brown University) holding him scoreless in the first half.

“That was the game plan. But we did not do our game plan with Porter,” said Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo.

“It was the exact opposite last year where we really cut out Porter, but we had Dalton [Scantlebury, playing for Penn this year] and [DePaul Prep senior guard Rykan Woo] really went off on us,” LoGalbo added.

“So I thought we did a pretty good job on [Woo]. That was our game plan to cut those two out as best we could and make others beat us. But Porter really killed us.”

With Lane bringing out the defense to stop Woo, the Lane opened up for Porter.

“It just opened up there really. I didn’t even notice that Woo was cold. I thought he was pretty good. He just did some things that just can’t be put on the stat sheet,” said Lashaun Porter.

Porter, a commit to Division 1 Toledo University, has become one of the top players in the City this season. He is ranked #5 in PrepHoops.com’s class of the 2026 players behind only Whitney Young’s Marquis Clark for top players in the City.

Somewhat unbelieveably, Rashaun Porter has been on state championship winning teams every year of high school. The DePaul Prep Rams won the 2A state championship in 2022 and 3A in 2023 and 2024. One might think he would be resting on his laurels, maybe looking ahead to college a little.

Not Rashaun.

“I lost weight over the course of four years. I've lost a lot of weight, trying to get slimmer and prepare for college and bulk up and using more strength instead of fat,” Porter said.

“It’s boosted my game tremendously. Made me quicker and faster. Then I got in the weight room, so I did get stronger.”

It’s early in the year and the Rams are still growing into their new starting line-up. Porter, Woo and senior point guard AJ Chambers return to the starting line-up from last year’s 3A championship team. Added to the starting lineup are juniors Gus Johnson who takes his brother Jonas’ spot. Jonas Johnson now plays at DePaul University. New to the line-up and the school is Zion Lee, a transfer from Springfield’s Sacred Heart—Griffin high school.

While obviously pleased with the win and the performance of his start player Porter, DePaul Prep head coach and Gordon Tech legend, Tom Kleinschimdt was circumspect about the early 3-0 for his Rams.

“We are we are not where we need to be three games in. We are usually a little bit better shape. I think you can see it in our woeful shooting percentage from three,” Kleinschmidt said.

“I think we left a lot out there today. I'm not sitting here knocking my team. I'm just saying I think we got a lot to work on, a lot to improve on. It's got to happen quick. We've got Hyde Park Sunday who's really good. We’ve got Loyola then we’ve got La Lumiere. So it better happened quickly.”