A brand new season of Saint Ignatius Basketball tipped off Saturday night in Maple Heights in the Great Lakes Classic. And even though things didn’t end the Wildcats' way, there were a lot of bright spots to take note on for Saint Ignatius.
The Wildcats' opponent, the Cleveland Heights Tigers, who entered ranked 10th in cleveland.com’s Boys Basketball Preseason Top 25, played the Wildcats well offensively all night long, particularly in the second half.
The Tigers outscored the Wildcats 20-14 in the third quarter, and then 21-16 in the 4th quarter to come out victorious, 66-65.
With 30 seconds remaining in the game, the Wildcats were down 64-63, Matt Davet would try a fade away jumper in the paint, but it would get blocked by standout football and basketball star at Cleveland Heights, Jaylen Harris, with 11 seconds to play, to put Harris at the line for two shots.
Harris made both from the line to put Cleveland Heights up 66-63 with 11.3 remaining in the game. On the ensuing possession, senior Austen Yarian would drive right down the floor to cut the lead to within one, 66-65, with 2.4 seconds remaining.
Then the obvious foul came from Saint Ignatius, sending Tyreke Smith of the Tigers to the line, but after missing the first attempt and then a line violation on Cleveland Heights, the Wildcats had a chance for a game winner with 1.2 seconds to go.
The first inbound would be blocked out of bounds, and then 0.5 seconds was not enough time.
The Wildcats fall to 0-1 to start the season.
Final Stats of the game:
Matt Davet led the Wildcats in the scoring category with 34 points, going 15 of 19 from the field, 78% shooting and was 2 of 3 from behind the arc, and 2 of 5 at the charity stripe.
Austen Yarian finished with 10 points for the Wildcats, 4 of 7 from the field for 51%, but struggled at the free throw line going 1 of 8.
Michael Spear finished in double digits with 10 points, hitting two threes in his first Varsity start.
All together, the Wildcats shot 58% from the field, 44% from outside the arc, but 23% from the free throw line which ended up being the difference maker in the basketball game. Also, Saint Ignatius turned the ball over 16 times.
For Cleveland Heights, Yahel Hill led the Tigers with 22 points, 7 of 16 from the field, shooting 4 of 7 from behind the arc. There was one player, however, that was perfect from the charity stripe, and that was Jaylen Harris, shooting 10-for-10 from the free throw line, finishing with 20 points on the night.
Next up for the Wildcats is an overnight trip to Erie, Pennsylvania for the 1st annual Marsha Marsh Rivers vs. Lakes Shootout, hosted by Erie (PA) McDowell High School. Along with Wildcats, competing in the shootout will be host McDowell, Pittsburgh Central Catholic, and Archbishop John Carroll from Philadelphia, PA.
The Wildcats will first face off with the Patriots from Archbishop John Carroll Friday night at 7:30 at McDowell’s Paul Goll Gymnasium, and then they will either play in the consolation game on Saturday at 2:00 or the championship game on Saturday at 3:30, pending Friday night’s result.
Both games will be brought in live video over the Saint Ignatius Broadcast Network, with Brendan DeVenney ‘17 and Matt MacKenzie ‘18 on the call.