The Wildcats ended the year of 2016 with a bang in a 72-68 victory over the Fighting Irish of St. Vincent-St. Mary Saturday evening inside Sullivan Gymnasium.
For the third straight game, the Wildcats were able to control and stop a major Division 1 college recruit. Senior Jayvon Graves is a University at Buffalo recruit for St. Vincent-St. Mary and has led the Fighting Irish this year on a team trying to get back to the Division II State Title Game. The Fighting Irish battled through the Canton District and Canton Region last season before losing to John Glenn from New Concord in a thriller, 76-72.
Graves, entering the game, was averaging around 25 points per game. He would not match his average Saturday inside Sullivan Gymnasium.
Saint Ignatius got out to a lead early and maintained that lead the rest of regulation. In the first quarter, the Wildcats scoring was highlighted with an Austen Yarian dunk with 2:29 to go to make it 14-10. Yarian, for the second game in a row, used his size to contribute as a big man, all night long. After the first quarter, he was leading the way with 9 points.
Yet, what was catching people’s eyes was the fact that Jayvon Graves had a big goose egg in the points column after the first period. Yarian and Matt Davet were keeping him in check when he was trying to drive the lane, and weren’t allowing him to have any success.
The Wildcats' offense started rolling in the second quarter, featuring a huge Michael Spear three ball with 7:05 to play. His trey opened the score up to 23-14 Wildcats. But the Fighting Irish were battling and not going away in the first half, as they went on a 11-2 run that got the game within two and was capped off by a Jonathan Williams trey with 1:10 to play. Williams ended up being the Fighting Irish’ points’ leader at halftime with 15 points.
At halftime, Saint Ignatius would have a slim 34-31 lead.
Yet at that point the Buffalo commit had only two points. The Wildcats held West Virginia recruit Derek Culver to only four points the entire first half in their 64-61 win over Warren G. Harding last Tuesday.
As the season has progressed, the Wildcats' defense has shown great improvement, becoming the team's calling card.
In the second half, the Wildcats started pulling away. Junior guard Luke Wiskes had a huge putback with 3:22 left, making it 46-36, and Michael Spear hit his second long ball, upping the lead to 50-38 with 2:10 left to go in the third quarter. That would be the Wildcats' largest lead of the game.
At the end of the third quarter, after some foul calls, the Wildcats were in good position, leading 53-41. St. Vincent-St. Mary was shooting just 27%, compared to when they shot 69% in their 72-55 win over Ursuline.
In the fourth and final quarter, St. Vincent-St. Mary, the alma mater of the three-time NBA Champion and current Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James ‘03, St. Vincent-St. Mary was still able to hang around and cut the lead to ten points when Jonathan Williams hit a three to make it 64-54 Wildcats with 3:00 left. That three gave him 25 points.
However, Williams, a Robert Morris commit, fouled out of the game with 1:39 left after having the ball stolen by Devin Jackson, with the Wildcats leading 66-56. That foul was icing on the cake the for Saint Ignatius, as it left Graves to do more work than he thought he would have to. At that point, he still had just four points.
Graves responded with nine more points in the closing 1:33, including two thunderous dunks that wouldn’t end up being enough.
“That’s probably the best backcourt in the state of Ohio," head coach Brian Becker '77 said. "Graves is obviously going to Division 1, and Williams is also. That was our game plan coming in, if we could get Austen to defend Graves and just kind of corral him a little bit, keep him under 30, I thought our chances were pretty good."
Coach Becker on Austen Yarian’s versatility: “Yeah, he’s long, has enough quickness, and poses a problem for smaller guys because he is quick enough and lengthy enough to get his arms up and get people to change their shot. You don’t have to block a shot to be an effective defender. You just need to change shots, and I thought he did a very good job with that.”
“We want to be a team that runs opportunistically," Becker said. "When the opportunity is there we want to take it. I thought for the most part we ran pretty well, our transition into offense to defense was pretty good. Michael Spear on the open floor was great. Matt Davet inside was great. Austen Yarian was a variety of things. He’s handling the ball, rebounding, made some shots for us. Things are coming together, and it is a process."
In the end, it was another solid win for the Wildcats to add to their resume, and the big men were the focus once again. Matt Davet finished a team high 23 points, and shot 10-for-15 from the field, and 3-for-4 from the free throw line. Austen Yarian finished with 19 points, 17 of them being in the first half, and was 7-of-11 from the field.
The Wildcats defense was able to stop Jayvon Graves and hold him 14 points. Jonathan Williams would be the game’s leading scorer with 25 points, shooting 63% from the field.
At halftime, the Saint Ignatius Athletic Department honored Jimmy Berger ‘16 with the 2015-16 John J. Wirtz Athlete of the Year Award for his outstanding play on the football and basketball field.
“There’s so much tradition at this school, it’s unbelievable to even be nominated and win this award is something very special," Berger said on the SIBN after receiving the award. "Growing up and coming to Ignatius, I never would have thought I could have won this award. Putting all of the hard work and dedication in really paid off. I’m just happy to be in this position that I am, and just grateful for this award."
Coach Becker on Berger winning the award: “He’s a true Ignatius Man. If there’s any athlete that was more deserving, I don’t know who would it be. He has it faith, family, athletics. I’m really proud of him.”
The now 5-3 Wildcats will now gear up for a weekend series at home and on the road. First, they welcome the Golden Eagles from GlenOak next Friday night at Sullivan Gymnasium, and then go on the road to Hunting Valley to face the Preppers from University School on Saturday.