Behind a dominant display of offense, defensive pressure and depth, Saint Ignatius rides one of the best halves in its rich athletic history to a 28-point victory over the McKinley Bulldogs on Saturday night.
The JV 'Cats are also double-digit winners, as both basketball programs improve to 3-0. Freshman guard Deven Stover (18 points) and sophomore forward/post Dre'Mont Jones (10 points) help key a 55-41 victory over McKinley's jayvees.
In hockey, the Ice Cats battle to a 2-2 tie with Olentangy Liberty and shut down Toledo St. Francis, 4-0, en route to advancing to Sunday's championship game of the Padua Christmas Tournament at Ice Land USA.
Here is the complete varsity basketball story, with the hockey and swimming recaps posted right below the basketball story.
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright December 2012
Canton, Ohio - After his team came up with one of the most impressive victories in his five seasons as the head basketball coach at his alma mater, Saint Ignatius’ Sean O’Toole ’87 knelt and prayed with the Wildcats.
He then told his players to not even pick up a basketball for the next three days, to enjoy the time with their family and friends and have a blessed Christmas.
Oh my, did Coach O’Toole, his staff and a group of talented, but extremely unselfish young men start the Christmas break in style on Saturday night.
Executing its offense to near perfection and playing relentless pressure defense, Saint Ignatius ran one of the storied programs in the history of Ohio high school basketball off the Memorial Field House court in the first 17 minutes and 50 seconds and went on to a 68-40 triumph over the McKinley Bulldogs.
And it wasn’t that close.
“It was complete, it was both sides of the ball,” said Coach O’Toole, whose team led, 43-11, at halftime and 50-11 with 6 minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter. “Sometimes you see something like that and one guy is just feeling it (scoring). It wasn’t just one guy. It was everyone in the rotation.”
Twelve players scored for the Wildcats and 10 of them were in the book by the end of the first half. And one of those who didn’t find his way into the scoring column – junior point guard and tri-captain Danny Bova –
played as big a role as anyone with his passionate defense and floor game.
Saint Ignatius (3-0), ranked third this week in The Plain Dealer’s seven-county Top 25 poll, wasted little time in displaying its superiority.
Fueled by a 3-pointer by gifted junior guard Kyle Berger, a lay in by 6-foot-7 senior post Alec Papesch off an assist from multi-skilled senior guard and tri-captain Francisco Santiago, a 3-pointer by Santiago and another nothing-but-net trey from Berger, the Wildcats stormed to an 11-0 lead with 4:35 left in the opening quarter.
McKinley (2-4), the No. 1 basketball program in Ohio in terms of all-time victories with 1,796, closed to 11-6 before Coach O’Toole’s team reminded the Bulldogs who was in charge on Saturday night.
Promising sophomore forward Jaylin McDonald buried a 3-pointer, Santiago followed suite, Papesch continued his mastery of drawing charges and senior post and tri-captain Derek Sloan scored off an assist from Bova, sending Saint Ignatius into the second quarter with a 21-6 lead.
The Wildcats hit all five of their 3-point shots in the first eight minutes and for the game they were 7-of-7 from beyond the arc.
“Obviously Kyle Berger got us going by knocking down threes against the zone, but Danny Bova and (senior point guard) Bryan Fisher, the opportunities they create for traps because of pressure, that’s what gives us energy," Coach O'Toole said. "The name of the game is easy buckets and Danny and Bryan created that for us tonight.”
The pressure Coach O’Toole referred to seemed to stun and stagger McKinley in the second quarter and take the home crowd right out of the game.
First it was Berger, an All-Ohio linebacker in football, with a steal and a gliding one-hander down the lane. Then Berger struck again with a soft baseline jumper off a steal by Papesch. The Black twins, 6-6 Eric and 6-5 David then got into the act, as Eric slammed home two points off an on-the-money assist from Fisher and David hit two free throws.
Senior wing Austin Sterpka, one of the underrated players on Saint Ignatius’ deep roster, hit a 3-pointer off another pressure-caused turnover. The ‘Cats went to their locker room with a 32 point halftime lead after Fisher converted a steal by Eric Black into a driving one-hander high off the glass, junior forward Isiah Barbra split a pair of free throws, Eric Black scored off his own second-effort offensive rebound, Papesch ran the floor for a text-book layup by the big man, Sloan dished off to Santiago for a basket and Santiago, in a display of spring and body control, laid in a driving one-hander.
“We didn’t want to become their 1,797th win,” said Santiago, who scored 12 of his team high 14 points in the first 16 minutes. “Everybody was contributing. We weren’t forcing shots. We were taking shots within the offense.”
Papesch, who will be furthering his education and basketball career at New York University (see the corner’s story from Thursday), said the tireless defense the Wildcats called on Saturday night stems from what Coach O’Toole stresses in practice.
“It starts with the competitiveness in practice,” said “Pappy,” as Alec is known to his teammates. "We go over this defensive stuff every day, going our hardest. And it shows up on the court. We have each other’s backs.”
The Wildcats' pressure pace continued in the third quarter as Saint Ignatius started the second half with a 7-0 run and Coach O’Toole began to go deeper into his bench.
After Papesch laid in a soft one-hander off a Santiago assist and Sloan hit a free throw, “Cisco,” as Santiago is nicknamed by his teammates, scored his final points of the night off another Bova assist. The scoreboard read 50-11 after Papesch tipped in his seventh and eighth points at the 6:10 mark of the third quarter.
Sterpka’s steal and layup, Barbra’s strong move along the baseline and a 3-pointer by junior guard Ryan Napoli were among the closing highlights. Berger and Sterpka each finished with 10 points.
“Win or lose, it is one game,” said Coach O’Toole. “But it is something real positive to build on. We’ve been shooting so much in practice that it was great to see that come to fruition tonight. I never look twice when
someone is going in (off the bench), because I know we’re not going to have a drop off.”
ICE CATS CAN’T HELP BUT REMEMBER TOLEDO’S TITANS.
They had so much fun during Friday night’s opening game of the Padua Christmas Tournament that Toledo St. John’s Jesuit and Saint Ignatius decided to do it all over again in the tournament’s championship game on Sunday. The puck will drop at 3 p.m. on the ice inside OBM Arena at Ice Land
USA in Strongsville.
The Wildcats stand 2-0 against the Titans this season with 3-2 victories in both the championship game of the Miami of Ohio University DiPaolo Memorial Tournament over Thanksgiving Weekend and Friday’s opening-round match up. The Jesuit brothers entered this weekend’s action as the co-No. 1 teams in the coaches’ state poll.
St. John’s Jesuit advanced to Sunday’s title game by defeating Padua, 10-0, and, after tying Olentangy Liberty, 2-2, bright and early Saturday morning, the Ice Cats (9-2-3) secured another championship game versus the Titans by shutting down Toledo St. Francis, 4-0.
Here are the scoring recaps from the Wildcats’ games on Saturday and for a complete story on the Friday encounter between Saint Ignatius and St. John’s, check out the corner’s post from Friday night.
Saint Ignatius 4, St. Francis 0
Saint Ignatius: Second period power play goal by freshman forward Cam Gerard, with the
assists going to sophomore forward Ethan Whitney and junior forward Beck Schultz.
Saint Ignatius: Three third-period goals, including two unassisted by senior Captain and forward Miles McQuinn. Miles’ first goal was shorthanded. Matty Geither closed the scoring with a power play goal, with McQuinn assisting.
Wildcats senior goalie Mike Mulach had 11 saves and St. Francis freshman keeper Kade Phipps turned away 37 shots.
Saint Ignatius 2, Olentangy Liberty 2
St. Ignatius junior forward Danny Brogan scored in the second period, with an assist going to junior defender Kevin Spellacy.Liberty answered with two goals in the third period, only to watch McQuinn score the equalizer late in the third period with senior goalie Bernie Cook on the bench for the extra attacker. Cook finished with 22 saves.
WILDCATS SWIMMING RECAP FROM SATURDAY
Saint Ignatius 113, Fremont Ross 71; Findlay 97, Saint Ignatius 88; Findlay 121, Fremont Ross 64: In a double dual meet at Cleveland State University, the Wildcats got top times from Derek Hren in the individual medley, Peter Simcox in the butterfly, Charlie Prophal in the 100 freestyle and Keve Pigniczky in the breaststroke. St. Ignatius also won the individual medley and 200 free relays. All three teams will compete in the reorganized Northwest District state meet in February.