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.
