DePaul Prep Defeats St. Ignatius 57-40

Preview of my story this week in the Inside—Booster.

By Jack Lydon

The #8 ranked DePaul Prep Rams went into St. Ignatius and did what they do—play defense. The Rams held the Wolfpack to just four points in the first half and finished with a 57-40 victory over St. Ignatius. Improving their overall record to 24-2, this game also moved the Rams closer to winning the Chicago Catholic League Blue Division champion where the Rams are 5-0 with three conference games still to play.

The atmosphere in St. Ignatius Gentile Gym was electric. The gym was full. The game was on TV. A cohort of toga wearing St. Ignatius students heckled the Rams as the warmed up. The beach attired DePaul Prep students heckled the Wolfpack as they warmed up. Parents, teachers and even a former Chicago mayor filled the stands.  

Such is the stuff of a rivalry game. The Rams have three wins and two losses to St. Ignatius in the last four years. Both teams have been in the state finals the last two years. This is a proper rivalry game. Either team could win.

“It’s a rivalry game. They are well coached. They’ve got great players. This is one of the hardest places to play in the League. And we know them. They know us,” said DePaul Prep’s Tom Kleinschmidt.

“We were ready to guard. We talk about guarding. It’s hard to prepare [for our switching defense] in practice. And I have got five guys that can guard five positions so it makes it tougher,” Kleinschmidt continued

Guard they did. The Rams got every rebound in the first quarter at both ends. Every St. Ignatius shot was opposed. Only one shot went in. The score at the end of the first quarter was Rams 12, Wolfpack 2.

It was no better for the Wolfpack in the second quarter. The Rams’ defense was just on another level. Guards Makai Kavamme, AJ Chambers, Rob Walls were in the face of every St. Ignatius shooter. As was Rams’ wing/forward PJ Chambers.

But it was inside where the Rams’ defense dazzled. Senior forward Jaylan McElroy was everywhere. He dominated the paint. He grabbed rebounds. He blocked shots. If he could not get the rebound outright, he tipped the ball so his teammates could scramble to get it, which they did. Right with him in controlling the lane was Rams’ sophomore forward Rashawn Porter pretty much doing the same thing.

The Rams lead 25-4 at halftime.

St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe rallied his team at the half. They were a different team coming out of the locker room. Wolfpack senior guard Phoenix Gill, son of former University of Illinois star and 15-year NBA veteran Kendall Gill, dialed up his game a few notches. Held scoreless in the first half, Gill scored seventeen in the second half. Similarly, St. Ignatius senior Reggie Ray, scoreless in the first half, put in eleven points in the second half.

Don’t let the Rams’ next level defense let you think that’s all they have. The Rams can and do spread the ball around and score inside and out. Jaylan McElroy had sixteen points. Senior wing/forward PJ Chambers likewise had sixteen points. Junior point guard Makai Kvamme had thirteen. One does not want to get behind DePaul Prep. They do not turn the ball over, can break a press and make free throws.

“We knew that in order to win we had to get as many rebounds as we can. Keep them off the glass like we did. In the first half we just kept playing our game,” said Jaylan McElroy.

“We have been on TV lots of time. We were downstate last year. This was a rivalry game but we looked at it as another game. Just play our game and not look ahead,” said Rams’ senior forward Jaylan McElroy.

The schedule gets no easier for DePaul. They face DeLaSalle on Tuesday, Fenwick on Friday and then #5 Mount Carmel next Monday and #6 Benet the following Friday to close the regular season.

Loyola Edges St. Ignatius 40-37 to Win the Jesuit Cup

The Loyola Academy Ramblers (7-1, 1-1) came back from five points down at the half to edge the St. Ignatius Wolfpack 40-37 (5-3, 0-1) at Loyola University Chicago’s Gentile Center Friday evening.

The Gentile Center was jumping. I have never seen student sections as crowded and as vocal at a high school game in the 500 years that I have been going to games. But then again, this is my first Jesuit Cup game.

The Wolfpack jumped out to an early lead. The Ramblers dialed up the defense with combination zone, man-to-man and 1-3-1 trapping defenses.

“We were really calm,” said Loyola head coach Tom Livatino about falling behind 11-0 at the start. “They figured it out.”

“It’s something in our program that we take a lot of pride in this game,” Loyola Academy coach Tom Livatino said after the game. “We just been fortunate enough to come out ahead,” Livatino said of the Ramblers streak of winning ten of the last eleven Jesuit Cup matchups with St. Ignatius.

“We are a long way from who we are going to be,” Livatino contined. “Our football guys, the reason we were going offense defense, because they don’t even know our sets. We have a long way to go. It’s a great win.”

“We’ve always been a defensive team. We will never not be a defensive team. It might not be everybody’s taste. We were pretty successful. We didn’t do anything special. We trapped a little bit in the second half. It doesn’t matter; guys just made plays.

“We did a poor job of closing out the game and time and score stuff. We made some bad mistakes and bad decisions. We did not go to the free throw line and make two. We’ve got to be better than that. It’s early. Our guys persevered and we got a great win,” Livatino said.

“We got to 1-1 in the [Chicago Catholic] League.The game is huge for the Jesuit Cup and our community and our seniors. It means a lot. But we have to get to 1-1 in the League. We play in the best league in Illinois, maybe the best league in the Midwest. So we had to get to 1-1 and we did.”

“Our seniors wear this game as a badge of honor. It means a lot. [The team’s] legacy has something to do with this game,” Livatino said.

“They went to their 1-3-1 [defense]. We were expecting it but we did not adjust well to it. It got us a few times. But we also got away from some of the things that had gotten there in the first place. It was a combination of that adjustment they made with the 1-3-1, them kind of solidifying their stuff and us getting away from what got us there,” said St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe.

“We are as prepared as we ever can be when we play them, and they still run their stuff really well,” Monroe said of the Loyola defensive style of play.

“For us, it’s important to keep perspective. The Jesuit Cup is really important. It brings two Jesuit communities together. It’s more of a celebration of what the Jesuit education and the Jesuit mission is all about. So when we have a packed house and we are playing in front of all of our family, friends and alumni, it’s a big deal to us. We want to bring that Jesuit Cup home. The the other side of it is our season’s a journey. If you look at our team the last four or five years, every journey has been different. Whether it is starting slow, hitting a dip in the middle of the season or finishing strong at the end. Big games, like the Jesuit Cup or other ones, are part of the journey. It’s dissappointing not to bring that home but we’ve got Homewood-Flossmoor on Sunday. We’ve got Aurora Catholic on Tuesday, Mount Carmel on Friday. It just keeps going.”

A long way to go in the season. The Catholic League Blue is up for grabs.

St. Ignatius Falls to Riverside-Brookfield 50-49 in Chicago Elite Classic.

The St. Ignatius Wolfpack (4-2, 0-0) lost to the Riverside-Brookfield Bulldogs (5-1, 1-0) 50-49 at the Chicago Elite Classic Saturday afternoon.

The Wolfpack just could not buy a bucket at the end after going back and forth with the Bulldogs all game. The Wolfpack pushed their lead to seven points with less than three minutes to play. And that would be it. The Bulldogs rallied to score the last eight points and win the game.

“We had a couple of good shots that did not go in. A couple of missed layups but also we were very inconsistent with how we share the basketball. We don’t screen off the ball consistently. When you have lapses in those two areas, you make it a lot harder on yourself to win,” said the St. Ignatius head coach Matt Monroe.

“Mike Reingruber is a great coach. Certainly they made adjustments but I felt that it was us being inconsistent.”

“Like coach said, if we didn’t have lapses and screen off the ball, sharing the ball consistently, we would have had a bigger run,” added Reggie Ray, St. Ignatius senior guard who finished with nine points.

They were too hard on themselves. R-B 6’11” senior center had late blocks under the basket that stopped the Wolfpack. The defense of R-B and rebounds at the end won the game. That and scoring the final eight points of the game.

St. Ignatius moves on to Catholic League play with St. Francis De Sales, Loyola Academy and Aurora Central Catholic before Christmas, plus a side trip to play Homewood-Flossmoor at the Team Rose Shootout.

“Winning the Catholic League Blue is probably the toughest thing any one team can do in the State of Illinois,” added Monroe.

“We are looking forward to the challenge. We are happy to be amongst the best. We are also one of the best. Certainly every game is a learning experience. We are looking forward to that competition. Playing against the best brings out the best in you. It’s a tough slate of games. I know these guys have everything it takes.”