Ohio City - Some late heroics by Matt Roggenburk and Deven Stover help the Wildcats rally past a tall and talented Brunswick JV team, 40-37, in Sullivan Gymnasium on Monday night. Saint Ignatius, which also got a solid performance from forward/post Dre'Mont Jones, trailed by nine points entering the fourth quarter.
The JV 'Cats improve to 13-2 and Brunswick's jayvees lose for just the third time in 15 games.
As we hinted to in a post this afternoon, Coach Sean O'Toole's varsity basketball team (12-3) moved up a spot to seventh place in the Associated Press Division I state poll. Mentor is ranked sixth.
Coach O'Toole's 'Cats remained in the third spot in The Plain Dealer's seven-county Top 25 poll. The PD's top five this week are Mentor, St. Edward, Saint Ignatius, Shaker Heights and Villa Angela-St. Joseph. Glenville, the Wildcats' opponent on Friday night in Sullivan Gym, holds down The PD's 14th-place ranking.
HERE IS THE JV BASKETBALL GAME STORY. *AN UPDATE ON THE WILDCATS' 2013 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE FOLLOWS THE BASKETBALL STORY.
Saint Ignatius’ coaching staff will be the first to tell you that the Wildcats’ gifted junior-varsity basketball team was not on its A-game during Monday night’s match up with the very talented JV program from
Brunswick. Not for most of the first 21 minutes anyway.
And the play of the Blue Devils had a lot to do with that.
Nonetheless, Saint Ignatius did come away with an A for effort and resilience as it rallied from nine points down entering the final seven minutes and defeated Brunswick, 40-37, in Sullivan Gymnasium. Junior
varsity quarters are seven minutes, one minute less than varsity quarters.
Brunswick (12-3), which featured nice size down low, patience in the half court and the ability to tickle the twine from 3-point range, erased an early six-point deficit and held a one-point lead entering the second quarter. Two 3-pointers by Blue Devils forward/post Eric Bulic showed the way to that 10-9 advantage.
After a 3-pointer by guard Jason Okulovich pushed Brunswick’s lead to 14-10, the Wildcats settled down a bit and moved to a 16-15 advantage on a smooth reverse layup along the baseline by standout freshman guard Deven Stover and two free throws by Stover with 2 minutes and 59 seconds remaining in the first half. Deven is the son of former St. Joseph High School (now Villa Angela-St. Joseph) basketball star Reggie Stover.
A breakaway layup by Saint Ignatius’ versatile sophomore forward/post Mikal Outcalt pushed the Wildcats’ lead to 18-15, but the Blue Devils responded with an in-rhythm jump shot by Bulic and two free throws by
point guard Michael Quiring and led, 19-18, at the half.
The Wildcats regained the lead, 20-19, on a layup by sophomore forward/post Dre’Mont Jones off a nice inbounds pass under the basket from sophomore point guard Zach Johnson.
Brunswick came right back with a three-point play by Bulic and another 3-pointer by the hard-nosed Okulovich and led, 25-20, with 4:42 to go in the third quarter. The Blue Devils extended their advantage to 28-20 on a 3-pointer by guard Steve Ficyk.
Outcalt’s steal and layup made it a six-point game and Stover’s leaning one-hander in the lane kept it at that deficit before Brunswick guard Zach Cebula hit a 3-pointer that gave the Blue Devils the nine-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Brunswick hit all six of its 3-pointers in the first three quarters and Saint Ignatius’ only two baskets from beyond the arc came in the final seven minutes. But oh my, the ‘Cats’ treys couldn’t have been more timely.
Saint Ignatius, which was again without head coach Larry Arthur, who is battling the flu, went on a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter. The run was fueled by a basket from sophomore guard Andre Wolford, a 3-pointer by sophomore forward Matt Roggenburk that flirted with the rim before dropping through the hoop and a layup by Jones off his hustle steal.
After Brunswick called a timeout with 3:01 remaining to be played, the Blue Devils responded with a basket by post/forward Nate Armagost off a pin-point pass from Bulic. It was an effort that gave Brunswick a 35-31 lead.
Stover, who has a heart as big as his left-handed jump shot, sent a rainbow 3-pointer home with 1:31 left and the ‘Cats trailed, 35-34.
Armagost answered with a spinning hook shot in the lane that would have made George Mikan proud, but Stover smiled in the face of pressure once again and drove the lane for an authoritative and athletic three-point play that knotted the score at 37 with 17.3 seconds to go.
The final 17 seconds saw Wolford hit 1 of 2 free throws after a technical foul was called on Brunswick, Stover make both ends of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation and the Blue Devils misfire on two 3-point attempts.
Outcalt blocked the final 3-point attempt that came with under a second remaining. Of course that is what one of the state's premier soccer goalies is expected to do.
Stover led all scorers with 16 points.
FOOTBALL 2013
As we reported on the corner earlier this month, Saint Ignatius Athletic Director Rory Fitzpatrick '88 was in the process of wrapping up a Week 5 date with New Jersey power Paramus Catholic High School for the 2013 football season.
Rory told the corner yesterday that the administrations of both schools have now agreed on the Saturday, Sept. 28 date. The game will be played in the afternoon at Parma’s Byers Field.
The added good news is that the contract with Paramus Catholic is a two-year deal. Saint Ignatius will travel to Paramus in 2014 for a Saturday afternoon match up in Week 5. Paramus Catholic is located about 20 miles from Manhattan, N.Y.
Just to refresh your memory, Paramus Catholic finished 10-2 this past season and won New Jersey's Non-Public School Group IV state championship. The Paladins compiled a record of 42-41 from 2004 through 2011.
Entering the 2013 season, Paramus Catholic, as we reported in early January, is expected to feature one of the strongest running attacks in the New Jersey-New-York area, if not the entire country. That ground game will be fueled by nationally recognized tailback Jabrill Peppers (6-foot-1, 210 pounds), who will be a senior in the fall.
You might recall that Peppers was a standout sophomore two-way player for perennial New Jersey power Don
Bosco Prep before transferring to Paramus last year. Peppers played against St. Edward in 2011 while wearing a Don Bosco uniform.
In some other good news, it appears Rory is in the process of wrapping up a Week 1 road game for 2013. Out of respect for Rory and Saint Ignatius High School I am going to leave it at that right now and not print anything that could jinx the deal, as they say. Once it is official, we will publish it on the corner.
If the Week 1 game does become a reality, that will give the Wildcats seven games for 2013, leaving Weeks 6, 7 and 8 still open. In order to qualify for the OHSAA playoffs, you must have at least eight games on your schedule.
This is how the Wildcats' 2013 schedule looks as of Monday: Week 1 (pending); Week 2 at Mentor; Weeks 3 & 4 versus Erie (Pa.) schools Strong Vincent and McDowell at Byers Field; Week 5 versus Paramus Catholic at Byers Field; Week 6 (open); Week 7 (open); Week 8 (open); Week 9 versus Cincinnati St. Xavier at John Carroll University and Week 10 versus St. Edward at Lakewood Stadium.
As always, we'll keep you posted.