Romeoville Live Summer Shootout 2023

The Romeoville Live Event is not at Romeoville High School. It’s at the Romeoville Athletics and Events Center, a large sports facility that normally hosts basketball and indoor soccer leagues. It’s big. The soccer field has six basketball courts assembled on top of the field turf.

The games themselves are abbreviated versions of a high school game. Two halves of fifteen minutes. Few foul shots. Not a whole lot of defense. These “Live” events allow college coaches a chance to see high school players in person. They afford the casual fan a chance to see the skills of individual players. To see how teams play together at this early part of the year. To check out the new players on a team. Plus, its basketball when there is not a whole lot else going on.

I couldn’t catch many games, some late games Friday and some early games Saturday. I managed to see some teams I cover: Lane, DePaul, Evanston and Simeon. Also, Sean Connor’s Antioch Sequoits—can’t miss them.

Lane was handled in the first game I saw by a West Aurora team that was a revelation to me. I have study up on them. Very talented.

The Champions rallied for a solid win over Oak Park/River Forest. In between those games was Antioch v. Evanston. Sean Connor’s mythical swamp creatures were depleted by injuries and players out playing baseball. They struggled a little moving the ball but plenty of fight in the Sequoits. Sean will have them ready to compete up there near the border.

Evanston looked athletic but these are not the Wildkits of recent years. Mike Ellis will coach ‘em good and have them ready to make trouble in the Central Suburban South.

I really wanted to see DePaul Prep v. St. Laurence on Friday afternoon but that was not in cards. This morning the Rams would face Hyde Park and Oswego East. We would get a good look at the Rams against stiff competition. They did not disappoint.

In typical Tom Kleinschmidt fashion, the Rams built to a small lead on Hyde Park midway through the first half and stayed away despite a furious full court press with four minutes left in the game. Rams 57, Thunderbirds 39.

The Oswego East Wolves would be the early test for this year’s Rams. Oswego East upset Joliet West in last season’s 4A Sectional final only to lose a close game to eventual 4A State Champ Moline in the super-sectional. This wasn’t last year’s team but some key pieces are still there.

The Rams got behind early and just looked out of sync. Would this be end of the streak?

No. Midway through the first half, the Rams put together a 12-0 run and managed to carry the up and down eight point lead to a 48-40 victory. Sophomore forward LaShaun Porter is filling in nicely for the departed Payton Kamin and the injured Jonas Johnson.  

I also got a chance to catch up with Dominic Scianna from CPS Athletics and St. Laurance assistant coach Billy Judge. So that was good.

With these two Live events behind me, I guess it is football season now.

Lane Tech Comes Back to Defeat Taft 51-46 at Chicago Elite Classic

The Lane Tech Champions (4-2, 0-0) came back from a rough first half to out-score the Taft Eagles (3-3, 0-0) by 12 points in the second half and defeat Taft 51-46 in the opening game of the Chicago Elite Classic.

The first half was not pretty. The Champions struggled. Shots were not falling. Taft was getting second chances.

“We have five sophomores in our rotation. We are a young team. We are trying to find our identity. In the first half, we got punked. They had a chip on their shoulder and we didn’t,” said Lane Tech head coach Nick LoGalbo.

The Champions trailed 23-16 going into the locker room.

“But the halftime was really special. Our guys mostly ran it. They talked to each other. I was about the go all X’s and O’s and I just shut the board.”

“This isn’t about basketball. It’s about us coming together, about us caring about the defensive end of the floor. It’s about us taking care of the ball. We slowed down and we did that and found some chemistry. The rest is history,” LoGalbo continued.

The second half was a whole different game. The Champions outscored the Eagles 35 to 23. Taft just could not get into sync in the second half. Lane’s junior standout forward Shaheed Solebo settled down, stopped forcing his shots and shots started to fall. With fifteen points, mostly in the second half, Solebo showed why he is a highly regarded division one college prospect.  

But it was the Lane’s sophomore center Dalton Scantlebury that made the difference. On the glass and at the rim, Scantlebury took control. He blocked shots, rebounded and made baskets. Like Solebo, the sophomore finished with fifteen points on the big stage at the Chicago Elite Classic.

“We’ve seen streaks. We have empowered [Scantlebury] to assert himself offensively and to talk more defensively and he became that player in the second half,” LoGalbo said.

Lane Tech junior forward Parker Williams also added thirteen point in the comeback win.

The Chicago Elite Classic is the basketball season first and perhaps most noteworthy exhibition shootout. Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter and Simeon Coach Robert Smith put together this tournament ten years ago to showcase national talent in a Chicago event against top Chicago and Chicago area teams. This year’s event features top area teams, Lane Tech, Taft, Oak Park-River Forest, Fenwick, Benet, Riverside-Brookfield, Hyde Park, Chicago Lab, Mt. Carmel, North Lawndale, St. Ignatius, Curie, Whitney Young, Simeon, St. Rita, Kenwood and Joliet West with matchups including out-of-state powerhouses, Gonzaga, Vashon, National Christian.

This year’s event took place at the Credit One Arena, former known as the UIC Pavilion on what is a college court with college three-point line and a shot clock. The shot clock is new this year in Illinois high school basketball but is only allowed in shootouts and not in conference games or the playoffs.

“We were tapped with a shot clock violation twice. We didn’t really feel it offensively but we were prepared when we did. We had a few calls we were going to make once we got under ten. I am all for the shot clock. I am very strongly in favor of it so it was nice to play with it, LoGalbo said of the shot chock.

As for the college three-point line, LoGalbo thought it did make a difference. “I am happy for the game to be normalized being consistent across the board. I think we would have been a little less heavy on the threes in the first half had we figured that out early,” LoGalbo said.

Lane moves on into conference play now in the Chicago Public Leagues Red-West/North conference with the likes of Clark, Perspectives-MSA, Orr, Westinghouse and of course, fifth ranked Whitney Young.