[Preview of this week’s article in Inside—Booster.]
By Jack Lydon
It was a weekend of blowouts for Northside neighbors DePaul Prep and Lane Tech. The No. 1 ranked Rams (7-1) handled St. Francis (Wheaton) 67-22 Friday evening. The Champions (4-5) handled St. Rita 71-32 at the Team Rose Chicagoland Shootout early Saturday morning.
Despite the loss to national powerhouse La Lumiere at the preceding weekend’s Chicago Elite Classic, the DePaul Prep Rams are rolling. The Rams smothered the Spartans forcing outside shots and getting all the rebounds. Scoring inside and outside DePaul Prep’s size advantage was evident. They jumped out to a 19-0 lead on St. Francis (3-4) holding the Spartans scoreless until seconds left in the first quarter. And it wasn’t that close.
Despite the lopsided score, it was interesting to see the starting lineup for the Rams emerge after shifting starting lineups early in the season. The Rams have three returning starters from last year’s 3A state champions, Lashaun Porter, Rykan Woo and AJ Chambers. Rams’ sophomore forward Blake Choice and senior Sacred Heart—Griffin transfer, Zion Lee have grabbed the starting roles for the Rams. Even so, junior forward/center Magnus “Gus” Johnson and senior guard Pat Lovell are quickly off the bench.
Choice’ performance against St. Francis helped his effort to cement that place in the lineup with a big game that included four three-points field goals in the first half and five total in his three quarters of play. Rams’ head coach Tom Kleinschmidt confirmed he has settled on the starting lineup complimenting Choice on his improved shooting in recent games.
“I have been working on my shooting, it paid off today,” Humboldt Park resident Choice said.
“It’s a learning process,” Choice said of his starting role. “I am willing to do what my coaches tell me to do starting on defense and eventually my offense will come.
The Rams have some big games coming up this week with a late Sunday matchup against No. 3 ranked Kankakee and the Kays top rated players No. 1 ranked Lincoln Williams and No. 8 ranked EJ Hazelett at the Team Rose Chicagoland Shootout.
The blowouts continued Saturday morning at Team Rose. The Lane Tech Champions rallied from string of tough losses against good teams, New Trier, Whitney Young and Lincoln Park, with a convincing 71-32 win over Chicago Catholic League White’s, St. Rita Mustangs.
“We have a lot of guys that can get to the rim and be effective. We have had a really tough stretch. Eight games and five top 25 teams. We told our guys, it’s gonna pay off. Today we showed that playing that tough schedule is helping us,” said Lane head coach Nick LoGalbo.
The Champions were led by 6’8” senior forward Matt Szafoni with 26 points in three quarters of basketball. Szafoni leads his Champions squad this year which contains seven sophomores. One of those sophomores is starter forward Cole Christian who finished with 18 points against St. Rita.
“Opening the game with a make definitely helps the confidence. That is something that I have struggled with the last couple games. But hitting a three with one of the new sets that we have just implemented is good for the team but also good for my confidence,” Szafoni said.
“[Matt] is evolving as a leader, him evolving as a playmaker and evolving as a rebounder are all things we are excited about,” LoGalbo said of Szafoni.
“We start four sophomores. But what’s really fun is that the sophomores are buying in and being stars in their roles. The seniors are leading and we are playing together.”
