Kenwood 80, Evangel Christian, KY 38
Broncos coach Mike Irvin promised showtime and his team delivered. Junior Darrin Ames was spectacular, draining 7 of 9 three-pointers to finish with 30 points. Davius Loury added 20 and senior Trey Pettigrew scored 13.
Kenwood was 15 for 35 from three-point range.
Thornton 60, St. Rita 51
The stage was set for a memorable clash between Illinois recruits when Thornton and St. Rita faced off at the Chicago Elite Classic. Thornton features Ty Rodgers, a top 100 national player that recently transferred from Michigan and committed to IIlinois.
St. Rita has a bevy of talented young players, including 6-9 sophomore Morez Johnson, who committed to Illinois last month.
Unknown junior Vincent Rainey snuck in and stole the show. Rainey scored 19 points off the bench to lead the Wildcats to a 60-51 victory at Credit Union 1 Arena.
“He can shoot the ball and he loves the lights,” Thornton coach Tai Streets said. “That was awesome.”
St. Louis Vashon 62, North Lawndale 59
That’s a pretty solid loss for the Phoenix, which basically didn’t have a season last year. Ronald Chambers and Damarion Wyatt each scored 16.
North Lawndale had a chance to take the lead with 15 seconds left but turned the ball over and Vashon shot well enough from the line in the final seconds to seal the win.
Kennard Davis Jr. led Vashon with 20 points and Jayden Nicholson added 18. Vashon is 4-0 this season and all the wins are against Illinois schools (Lanphier, St. Rita, Tinley Park).
Brad Underwood and Tim Anderson just arrived at the Chicago Elite Classic. This Thornton-St. Rita game up next is my favorite of the shootout as well. There’s a Kentucky assistant across the way. Porter Moser of Oklahoma is also here. Not too shabby of a college coach turnout for a Saturday.
St. Louis Chaminade 46, St. Ignatius 33
St. Ignatius began the season with a top five ranking and aspirations to finish the season in Champaign.
Things haven’t gone according to plan so far. The Wolfpack are just 3-4 after losing a high-profile game to St. Louis Chaminade on Saturday in the Chicago Elite Classic at Credit Union 1 Arena.
“We’re still the same team we were before the season started,” St. Ignatius junior Richard Barron said. “Everyone is going to lose a couple games. It’s only the beginning, it doesn’t matter. We’re just going to keep working. We have an end goal in March, not right now. We may drop a couple but we are never going to change our character.”
The Wolfpack didn’t score a field goal for the final 6:30 of the game.
“We got a lot better just during the course of that game,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe said. “We’re certainly not satisfied with moral victories but we saw a lot of improvement in a multitude of ways. Especially on the defensive end.”
Senior guard AJ Redd led the Wolfpack with nine points and seven rebounds. Jackson Kotecki added eight points and five rebounds.
Read more on St. Ignatius:
The rest of today’s schedule:
Kenwood vs. Engel Christian (KY), 6:00
Simeon vs. Mater Dei (CA), 7:30
Young vs. Gonzaga (DC), 9:00
Friday night’s updates:
The first day of the Chicago Elite Classic is in the books.
It was a late one. Things wrapped up a little bit after 11 p.m. as Lane beat Taft 50-40.
Sean Molloy scored 14 and grabbed 5 rebounds for Lane (5-1). Shaheed Solebo added nine points. Nick LoGalbo has a fun team. They are capable of putting a scare into the top teams in the Red North-West this season.
Taft fought hard until the end but it is hard to overcome 25 turnovers. There was a lot of early-season sloppy play in both games here at UIC tonight. Armin Aliloski led Taft with 15 points and 17 rebounds. He’s a warrior.
Jumping jack Gideon Adeowle added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles (3-2). They will definitely be a factor, if not the favorites, in the White-North this season.
The picture up top is of Oak Park grad Iman Shumpert joining the Oak Park student section during the Huskies win against Fenwick. It was a big night for Oak Park basketball, the spotlight debut for new coach Phil Gary.
And then it all went bad...just minutes after the win Oak Park emailed students and staff that the school was shutting down all extra-curricular activities due to an increase in COVID cases.
Will that put the Pontiac Holiday Tournament in jeopardy for Oak Park? Who knows.
