Saint Ignatius (9-1) and St. Edward (8-1) will be meeting for the 87th time in basketball when they tip off Saturday night on the Eagles’ Coach Jim Connors Court. The 7:30 varsity game will be preceded by a 6 PM junior varsity encounter between the undefeated JV programs from Saint Ignatius and St. Edward.
If you don’t have a ticket, you can catch a live broadcast of the games over the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network. Seniors Pat McGuire and Paddy White will have the lead call on the varsity tilt.
Coach Sean O’Toole’s Wildcats enter Saturday night’s game ranked third in both the cleveland.com seven-county area poll and the Associated Press Division I state poll, and Coach Eric Flannery’s Eagles are the top-ranked team in the seven-county area, are ranked No. 1 in the AP Division I state poll and carry an 18th-place ranking in USA Today’s Super 25 national poll.
After winning both games of the home-and-home matchups last season, Saint Ignatius leads the all-time series, 50-36. Last year’s efforts marked the first time since 2004-05 that the Wildcats swept the Eagles.
HERE IS A LOOK AT WHAT WILL BE ANOTHER CHAPTER FROM ONE OF THE MOST STORIED HIGH SCHOOL RIVALRIES IN THE NATION.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - Saint Ignatius’ senior point guard and captain Danny Bova is no stranger to the legendary Saint Ignatius-St. Edward athletic rivalry.
In fact, Danny freely admits that as a young kid he was “actually bleeding green and gold,” the Eagles’ colors.
“My brother went to St. Eds, my dad went to St. Eds, my uncles went to St. Eds, both sides of the family,” Danny said. “So I was actually rooting for the wrong team. But, you come around.”
Danny Bova still has one strong tie to the Eagles in that his best friend is St. Edward football standout and basketball mainstay, senior guard Pat Riley. Pat was an All-Ohio defensive back in football this past fall. This corner had the privilege of reporting on Pat’s uncle, Cleveland Police Officer Mr. Tim Riley, when Tim and the rest of St. Edward’s defensive linemen were creating havoc on the football field in the mid-1980s.
“To a minimum,” Danny said when asked if he and Pat Riley have talked about Saturday’s game. “We don’t talk much basketball. We leave it to our friendship. My father told me I’m done talking to him for the week.”
A savvy and big-hearted floor general, Danny Bova said what makes the Wildcats-Eagles basketball encounters so special is that there is more intensity and more energy exuded than in any other game.
“It’s just a great event,” Danny said. “I respect their (the Eagles) intensity, I mean they play hard. They’re going to come at you, they’re going to be physical and we’re going to match that. We have to play intelligent
and we have to stay composed.
“It’s going to be a very intense game,” Danny continued. “It will be the biggest crowd we’ve seen this season.”
Coach O’Toole ’87, who has experienced the rivalry with St. Edward as both a coach and a talented and tough power forward for former Wildcats Head Coach Larry Arthur, pointed out that the 2013-14 Eagles returned a lot of talented and big-game tested players from last winter.
“Size, athleticism, depth and obviously experience,” said Coach O’Toole of this current St. Edward team. “They traveled to California (over the holidays) and played some of the top teams in the country. As talented a team as we will play, without question.
“They have great size across the board,” Coach O’Toole continued. “It’s a game, obviously, in which we have to limit their easy baskets. They make great runs and get their easy baskets in multiple ways, through transition, offensive rebounding, second shots and turnovers. And that kind of fuels their fire. They are a very physical defensive team, so we’re going to have to match that physicality and at the same time play intelligently.
“It’s everything that we have been saying from the last few games,” said Coach O’Toole. “We have to be consistent with our decision making, we have to take high percentage shots and limit any chance they get for easy baskets. They’re the top team in the state and ranked in the nation, and deservingly so.”
For Saint Ignatius’ loyal followers from around the country, St. Edward’s main producers this season include 6-foot-7 junior forward Kipper Nichols (15.3 points per game), 6-4 senior forward Marsalis Hamilton (16.1), 6-4 senior guard Tony Vuyancih (12.0), 6-2 senior guard Malcom Walters (7.4), 6-9 sophomore post DJ Funderburk (6.0) and 6-6 junior forward Mike Ryan (5.6).
Six-foot-two junior guard Darien Knowles, 6-3 senior forward Willl Meyer, the 5-11 Riley and 5-11 senior guard Phil Parente are among the key contributors off the Eagles’ deep bench.
In last season’s games versus St. Edward, Saint Ignatius won, 58-56, in Sullivan Gymnasium and posted a 71-67 victory on the Eagles’ Coach Jim Connors Court. Wildcats 6-7 post Eric Black, now a senior captain, put together two-game totals of 29 points and 22 rebounds in those games, including 19 points and 11 rebounds in the game at St. Edward.
THE RESPECTIVE FRESHMEN TEAMS TAKE CENTER STAGE ON MONDAY: In what will be a special Martin Luther King Jr. Day doubleheader in Sullivan Gymnasium, the Wildcats’ Gold and Blue freshmen basketball teams will face St. Edward’s freshmen teams. The Gold team is scheduled to play at 11 AM, followed by the Blue team’s match up with the Eagles at 12:15.