Riverside-Brookfield Summer Shootout

Best days of the summer.

I have been going to the R-B Summer Shootout for quite a few years. Not exactly sure how many but many. It’s usually right when baseball ends as it was this year. Lane had fallen to eventual 4A champs Libertyville in the Super on Monday. A couple days of summer and fall and basketball season started on Friday with the R-B. Just the way I like it.

This is going to be different basketball season. Our DePaul Prep Rams will have a different team. Gone are Rashaun Porter, Rykan Woo and AJ Chambers three multiyear starters that new nothing but reaching the state finals.

We do have starters Blake Choice and Gus Johnson back. Blake Choice looks like he will score most of the points. Gus scores a lot too and will man the boards. It was the other players that I wanted to check out.

Senior Elie Ghattas impressed on the boards and scoring. Sophomore Kalob Hayes looks like he will play point guard a lot. Ball handling was not an issue and he can shoot the three as well. Senior Henry Levin and AJ Williams are impressive three point shooters but it doesn’t help that they look so much alike. I was constantly got them mixed up.

Coach Kleinschmidt rotated everyone in and out in each of the games. It looked the starting line up is a work in progress with positions to be won and lost. Like I wrote above, a different kind of season for the Rams.

Seeing DePaul Prep was only part of the reason for R-B for me. It is a great opportunity to see teams I don’t get a chance to see.

The big news, that everyone expected, was that Jaxson Davis from Warren is going to some prep school in Missouri. I guess that is just what happens now—the best player in the state moves off to a prep school. Whatever. I can hardly blame the kid and his parents.

Benet just restocked blue chippers. They will be right there but in the Chicago Catholic League this year with the merger of the East Suburban Catholic Conference in all sports now, not just football.

I also saw St. Lawrence and Loyola. The Vikings look very good. They should challenge for the top spot.

I find my self writing the following often—“Loyola is Loyola.” The Ramblers are always good with Tom Livatino coachin’ ‘em up. I guess we will see if how the Ramblers will do with a shot clock. They are still going to be Loyola, even with a shot clock.

I actually didn’t get to see Mt. Carmel which could not be helped. An unnamed coach from another CCL team that I spoke to said Mt. Carmel could be special this year. We will have to keep an eye on them.

A team I did see that impressed me was DeLaSalle. Watch out for them. The might sneak up a few folks.

Interestingly, Lane went 4-0 at R-B with wins over Oswego East, Glenbard West, Lincoln Way East and Lake Forest even after losing so many starters. I wasn’t expecting four wins. Keep an eye on Champions and especially on junior center Cole Christian.

Finally, Whitney Young is good and BIG and talented. I did not get to see Curie and Simeon but they will have their hands full with the Dolphins.

DePaul Prep Defeats Lake Forest 38-21; Wins St. Viator 3A Sectional

#4 ranked DePaul Prep Rams (32-2) defeated the Lake Forest Scouts (25-8) 38-21 to win IHSA 3A Sectional at St. Viator Friday evening. It was a matchup of the #1 seed against the #2 seed. The Scouts were ranked a couple times this year last appearing at #20 on February 4, 2023, in the Sun-Times Super 25.

“I think by far [DePaul Prep is] the best coached defensive team that I have ever seen in high school basketball,” said Lake Forest head coach Phil LaScala. It was that defensive pressure in third quarter that turned the tide for the Rams.

Both teams knew what they wanted to do—play defense. That they did. The first half ended 11-11. If anything was proved in the first half, it was that the Scouts know how to pass the ball. Taking shots for the sake of taking shots is not a thing for them. Let’s call their shot selection—selective. One might even say deliberate.

The usual offensive formula for the Rams was not working either. Senior All City and All Area forward/guard PJ Chambers was scoreless in the first half. So was senior forward and third team All City forward Jaylan McElroy. Junior guard Makai Kvamme lead the Rams in the first half with four of the Rams’ 11 points including a clutch layup at the close of the half to draw the Rams even. Junior guard Rob Walls dropped a three in the first quarter. Sophomore AJ Chambers added a field goal late in the second quarter.   

“We knew they would go 1-3-1 [defense]. I didn’t think they would start in it. We thought he would go man and then go 1-3-1. He started in it and that through us off. When he got out of it and we got downhill and their size was waiting on us. It bothered us,” said DePaul Prep head coach Tom Kleinschmidt.

The half court pressure by the Rams coming out of the half was the difference. “We picked up pressure. We did not sit back. We picked them up a half court. We tagged them all over and we trapped some things,” Kleinschmidt added.

“We had to change the pace of the game. If we would have gone on like that they would have beat us or it would have been a one possession game so we had to use our athleticism.

Rams junior guard Rob Walls got a steal and a layup to open the third quarter. Then Jaylan McElroy with steal and a dunk to open a what felt like a gigantic four-point lead. Four steals by the Ram on the first six Scouts’ possessions turned the tide. The Rams opened a 27-15 lead at the end of the third. With so few points being scored it felt like a huge lead.

“The sped us up a little bit. Our turnovers killed us and they got some easy baskets off the turnovers. That’s a big part of their game. They are the best defensive team that I have seen in the state. I watched a lot of film on them. I have watched them play a lot,” LaScala said.

It wasn’t all Rams. Lake Forest’s junior forward Hudson Scroggins was impressive with seven of the Scouts eleven points in the first half. But there simple weren’t very many points to be had for the Scouts.

With his team scoring so few points, LaScala had to do something. At the start of the fourth quarter the Scouts started fouling.

“I think they were trying to get in the bonus and make us shoot free throws,” Kleinschmidt said. “He was going to speed us up with traps and hopefully get turnovers. And he got them. But we came back down and got stops.

It wouldn’t be enough. The Rams can hold the ball. The Rams can make free throws. It ended 38-21 Rams.

After that game, Rams junior guard Rob Walls said, “[g]oin into [the third quarter] I knew we were going to need something, a spark for the team. The steals and layups brought us back into the game.”

Walls was indeed the spark the Rams needed with the size of Lake Forest neutralizing the play of McElroy and sophomore forward Rashawn Porter on the boards and the smothering coverage of high scoring PJ Chambers.

Walls was out with an injury much of the middle part of the season. “I feel dedicated to just keep working. Everyday in practice I keep working my best to get back in shape. Just running with these guys. Running with PJ and AJ; it’s helped me. It’s helped me big time,” said Walls.

The Rams move on to play Kaneland sectional winner Crystal Lake South (31-3) in the 3A Super-sectional game Monday at the NOW Area in Hoffman Estates.

DePaul Prep Defeats Notre Dame 46-16; Advance to Face Lake Forest in Sectional Final

The DePaul Prep Rams (32-2) defeated the Notre Dame Dons (16-18) 46-16 last night in the St. Viator 3A Sectionals semi-final. The Rams advance to play the Lake Forest Scouts on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in the sectional final.

Lake Forest handled a scrappy if undersized Ridgewood Rebels squad 59-32 in last night’s second game.