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Wildcats Start Out Hot, Get Another Win Versus Ironmen

By Brendan DeVenney, 01/21/17, 11:30PM EST

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The Ignatius Varsity basketball squad added one to the win column on Saturday night in the Bingo Hall at the St. Stanislaus Social Center. 

It was a great confidence building, 75-63 win for the Wildcats as they head into the final third of the schedule.

Taking on a hard nosed Cleveland Central Catholic ballclub, the game had no flow or rhythm to it from start to finish. From the start, Miryne Thomas proved to be a tough opponent for both Matt Davet and Austen Yarian, but slowly the two big men figured him out. The Wildcats jumped out to a 10-6 lead when Devin Jackson got a steal and huge transition layup within the first two minutes of the ballgame.

Then a very rare Dyshawn Jackson three ball cut the Wildcats' lead to 11-10 with 3:40 to play. But Matt Davet drew a free throw after a made basket, and then on the following Wildcats possession, he hit a huge three to open the lead back up to five, 16-11 late in the first quarter.

However, the Ironmen finished the first quarter on a 5-0 run, highlighted by an Alex Heath transition layup to tie the game at 16-16 at the end of the first quarter. Heath is a transfer from Lutheran East High School, the Wildcats' opponent this coming Thursday night.

In the second quarter, the Wildcats started to extend their lead, but not after a big offensive surge from the Ironmen. With 4:10 on the clock, Cleveland Central Catholic made work of a 5-point possession that featured an alley-oop attempt from Alex Heath to Miryne Thomas, in which Thomas was fouled by Devin Jackson, but was still able to catch the ball and get the shot. Thomas would miss the free throw, but the Ironmen got the rebound and Delshawn Jackson, who is twins with teammate Dyshawn Jackson, drew an and-1 and cut the Wildcats' lead to 24-21. The Ironmen completed a 7-0 run on a Thomas put-back, to make it 24-23 in favor of Saint Ignatius.

Jon Barnes got the offensive flow of the Wildcats back with a corner trey to start an 11-0 run in the second quarter, extending their lead to 34-23 with under a minute remaining in the first half. Josh Ozanne hit a big three as well during the big run as Wildcats started to pull away.

At halftime, Saint Ignatius led 38-23 as Matt Davet was leading the way with 16 points and two three-pointers.

Saint Ignatius stayed consistent throughout the third quarter as Davet started winning the battle inside against Thomas, a University of Maryland Eastern Shore recruit. Saint Ignatius acquired its largest lead of the night at 20-points at 47-27 with a Job Barnes three-ball with 4:12 remaining in the quarter.

After that, the game became a bit chippy chippy, featuring a host of fouls called against both squads. The scoreboard stopped keeping track of the fouls by the end of the game. The fourth quarter stretched on, but the Wildcats still came away with a huge, 12-point win over Cleveland Central Catholic.

At one point late in the game, the Ironmen left Matt Davet wide open on an inbound out of a timeout that allowed Saint Ignatius to extend their lead, and then left Austen Yarian wide open on another possession for a wide open dunk that made it 69-49 Wildcats. That’s when you knew the game was over.

Head Coach Brian Becker ‘77: “Honestly, the way I look at it is a 20-point win. When we did things we were supposed to do, we were up 20. When we started to play their tempo, they got the game cut back a little bit. I thought both Austen and Matt played solid games. Barnes off the bench did a really nice job for us. Overall for the game, that’s what you get when you come to Central. It’s going to be a physical, very up tempo game, and you got to take care of the basketball. Certainly my biggest concern is the number of turnovers we had. Way too many for my liking. But give Central Catholic some credit. They force you into playing a little faster than you’re used to.”

Matt Davet finished the night with a game-high 26 points on 10 for 13 shooting at 76%. Austen Yarian also had a big night with 18 points on 8 for 12 shooting.  Jon Barnes also was a huge contributor with 10 points on two three’s.

As far as Coach Becker’s concern of the turnovers, the Wildcats turned the ball over 25 times on Saturday night, a number in that category no coach wants to see. Saint Ignatius had just 8 fouls in the first half, but then was called for 15 fouls in the second half.

For the Ironmen, their leading scorers were Delshawn Jackson and Miryne Thomas both with 17 points.