Ranked third in The Plain Dealer’s Top 25 seven-county poll, the Wildcats are gearing up for what could be the most demanding weekend of the regular season as Northland and St. Vincent-St. Mary bring a wealth of talent to Cleveland.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright January 2013
Brooklyn, Ohio – Just three nights after they held off a big-time rally by Detroit Jesuit in the Motor City (see the corner’s story below), Coach Sean O’Toole ’87 and his 6-0 Wildcats varsity basketball team will welcome the Columbus Northland Vikings into Sullivan Gymnasium on Saturday night. The junior varsity game is scheduled for 6 and the varsity tip off will take place at 7:30.
Northland, featuring a balanced attack that is fueled by a nice blend of experience and undaunted youth, stands 7-0.
Less than 24 hours after matching skills with one of the State Capital’s best, Saint Ignatius will take the storied court at Baldwin-Wallace’s Ursprung Gymnasium to face a team that needs no introduction to Ohio’s gym rats – the six-time state champion Fighting Irish of St. Vincent-St. Mary (3-5).
The Wildcats-Fighting Irish encounter is part of Sunday’s Scholastic Play-By-Play Classic and is slated to begin at 2:15 out on Bagley Road in Berea. With guard Francisco Santiago and post Alec Papesch helping show the way, Saint Ignatius overcame a 14-5 deficit with 1 minute and 22 seconds remaining in the first quarter and went on to defeat the Fighting Irish, 55-45, in last year’s Play-By-Play Classic at Ursprung Gymnasium.
Don’t be fooled by St. Vincent-St. Mary’s record. Coach Dru Joyce’s team has faced a juggernaut schedule and owns a victory over the area’s second-ranked team – the St. Edward Eagles. The Fighting Irish will tune up for Sunday’s game with a trip to Firestone on Friday night.
*Both of this weekend’s games will be broadcast live by the Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network with video. The veteran tandem of John Fanta ’13 and Greg Ziton ’13 will be bringing you the varsity matchups and juniors Paddy White and Cole Larson are providing the action and color on the Northland junior varsity game. There is no junior varsity game on Sunday.
*Saturday night’s game against Northland will be televised by Time Warner Cable. The best play-by-play and color commentator duo in Ohio Cable Television, David Wilson and Patrick Pierson, will be on hand to call it as they see it.
THE CORNER TAKES A LOOK AT THE VIKINGS FROM NORTHLAND AND THE FIGHTING IRISH FROM SVSM.
Northland: After defeating Toledo Rogers in a 71-69 thriller at the Clark Kellogg Classic, the Vikings have feasted on competition from the Columbus area.
Along with a 16-point victory over defending big-school state champion Pickerington High School Central, Northland has out-produced its other five opponents by a combined score of 435-232.
Keying the impressive victory over Pickerington Central were 5-foot-10 junior guard Shemar Waugh and 6-3 senior forward Armani Towns with 16 points each, and 6-3 junior Derick McKeithen and 6-7 junior Jalen Tucker, who each tossed in 10 points. Waugh is a transfer from Canal Winchester, where he averaged better than 13 points a game.
The other half of the Towns tandem, 6-7 freshman Seth Towns, made his varsity debut with a 21-point effort against Toledo Rogers and Armani Towns came up with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds, and hit on 9 of 11 shots from the field as the Vikings sailed past Columbus Mifflin, 89-57, on Dec. 21.
McKeithen’s big games thus far have been 18 points versus Rogers and a nice supporting 20-point effort against Mifflin.
Northland coach Sean Taylor has four players averaging in double figures - Armani Towns (14.7), McKeithen (12.9), Seth Towns (12.9) and Tucker (12.7) - and Waugh is scoring 9.3 points per game. Now that’s balance, baby!
Junior guards Jhustus Cornley and Donte Smith have given Coach Taylor solid minutes off the bench. Smith has buried 10 of the 14 3-pointers he has attempted this season.
Led by former Ohio State All-American Jared Sullinger, a 2012 first-round pick by the Boston Celtics, the Vikings went 27-1 and captured the Division I state championship in March of 2009. They were the big-school state runners-up in March 2011.
Northland was established in 1965 and the Vikings are a member of the Columbus City League’s North Division.
St. Vincent-St. Mary: Much like Northland, the Fighting Irish are a blend of unlimited young talent
and some big-game tested veterans.
Highly successful head coach Dru Joyce has had to wait patiently for members of the Fighting Irish’s Division III state championship football team to get their basketball legs back.
One of those football players, guard Fransohn Bickley, showed he is now in a hoops state of mind, as he led a victory over Benedictine last week by pouring in 24 points. Bickley was 7-of-7 on 2-point shots and
3-of-4 on 3-pointers.
Nick Wells, a 6-6 senior who hauled in 14 rebounds against Benedictine, and 6-5 junior Jalen Hudson give Coach Joyce a nice presence inside. But of course, when discussing the 2012-13 Fighting Irish, you have to
talk about arguably the premier freshman in Northeast Ohio – 6-7 VJ King.
The most talked about underclassman at SVSM since a young man named LeBron James was leading the green and gold to three state championships, King, for the most part, has been as advertised. No, not LeBron
James, but just fine for a freshman as his efforts in the victories over St. Edward and Benedictine will attest to.
As we said earlier, ignore the 3-5 mark the Fighting Irish currently carry. Four of those five setbacks against a who’s who schedule have come by 7 or less points. The Irish enter this weekend’s action ranked seventh by The Plain Dealer.
*Along with our basketball game coverage on Saturday and Sunday, the corner will provide recaps on the Wildcats’ other winter sports teams this weekend as the information becomes available.