It was another major step on the “Road to the Final Four” for the Saint Ignatius Wildcats, and it was almost a near duplicate of last year’s District Semifinal at Strongsville High School.
Taking on a hard-nosed Brecksville-Broadview Heights ballclub, the Wildcats’ mindset was to come more prepared than last game, where they let the Parma Redmen hang around for the majority of a 65-50 win in the Sectional Final. Safe to say, the Wildcats were more than prepared and punched their ticket to Saturday’s District Final.
In Wednesday’s 66-41 win over the Bees, the Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders, thanks to some big baskets from Michael Spear and Matt Davet. Spear had the first points of the game with a big three ball to make it 3-0 Wildcats. He connected on his second attempt from long range to make it 8-5 Saint Ignatius with just under five minutes to go in the first quarter.
Davet then wanted to take a hand at the three-pointer and nailed a triple to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 15-4 in the first quarter. Then after a Kenny Ganley three ball for Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Davet nailed a second three-pointer to up the lead to 18-7. The Wildcats weren’t done in the first quarter though as Michael Spear hit his third three on three attempts to finish the scoring for Saint Ignatius in the first period and make it 21-9 Wildcats.
In the second quarter, however, the Bees started to rattle off signs of a comeback. With last year’s disappointing loss to the Wildcats where they didn’t score in the third quarter, they didn’t want to have a collapse this time. They rattled off six straight points to start the second quarter, and would cut the lead to five thanks to a Mike Rose trey, making it 24-19 Wildcats with just under five minutes to play in the half. But that would be as close as they would get the rest of the night.
Luke Wiskes, who had an impressive night with 5 points, drew a huge and-1 opportunity and increased the lead to 29-19. Then the phenomenal point guard play of freshman Tevin Jackson was evident in the second quarter, and parts of the second half, as Tevin hit a huge three to close the scoring on a great first half for the Wildcats and went into the locker room with a 36-21 lead over the Bees.
In that first half, the Wildcats shot 53% from behind the arc and 41% from the field. They knocked down 7 three-pointers, and had 18 total rebounds. But for the Bees, they couldn't get things rolling, going 1 for 11 from long range, just 10 for 27 from the field, and turned the ball over 7 times to put themselves in a hole. A hole they could not climb out of.
In an uneventful third quarter, the Wildcats held the Bees to just four points this time and outscored Brecksville-Broadview Heights 12-4 in the third to expand their lead to 48-25, where Matt Davet and Jon Barnes were the recipients of some friendly room to bury some three’s to add to their shooting percentage.
It wouldn’t be until just over five minutes remaining in regulation that who else but Matt Davet would provide the dagger on a much needed dominant night for the Wildcats. Davet hit a huge three-ball to make the lead 30 at 57-27.
Every Wildcat would get into the ballgame in the Wildcats District Semifinal win. Their leading scorer was Matt Davet with 21 points, shooting 50%. Michael Spear finished with 11 points on 3 for 7 shooting, and Barnes and Devin Jackson both contributed 7 points. Overall, the Wildcats shot 39% and knocked down 11 three balls.
The Bees were led in scoring by Kenny Ganley and Mike Rose who both had 10 points.
But the story of the night was the Wildcats ability to control the game from tipoff to the final buzzer, dominated the arc shooting, and control the Bees on defense and punch their ticket to their fifth straight District Final appearance. They defeated St. Edward in the District Final last year, 58-51, and will play the winner of #8 Normandy vs. #2 St. Edward this Saturday at Strongsville.
Head Coach Brian Becker ‘77: “Brecksville got our attention a little bit. I thought Spear played great defense on Dimitrijevs. Dimitrijevs had “99” three balls during the season, so he shoots it really well. I thought we did a really good job of shutting their best guy down. I thought defensively it was similar to last year. They had a four point third quarter. We came out and turned it up defensively, and that’s how you win tournament games. You play good defense and shoot the ball a little bit, then good things will happen.
“Bringing in the freshmen, it’s changing the tempo of the game. Tevin and Chase are probably two of our quickest, most athletic guys and it changes the tempo of the game. So you go from a more methodic Michael Spear and Colin Goodfellow to a more hectic Tevin Jackson and Chase Toppin, which it changes the dynamics of the game a little bit. And for two, three minutes here and there it’s good.”
Saint Ignatius, now 19-5, has two days rest before their District Championship Game Saturday night back at “Mustang Country” at 7:00 versus either Normandy or St. Edward. The Wildcats seek their second straight District Title and 26th overall in school history.