St. Francis 48, Leo 39 on January 9
Leo 69, St. Rita 53 on January 7
Leo 59, Perspectives IIT 41, Malcolm X Shootout
By Dan McGrath
With a tall, rangy, active front line, Perspectives IIT seemed to have an advantage over the height-challenged Leo Lions in their Malcolm X Shootout matchup at Malcolm X College on Saturday.
But never underestimate the value of determined guards … or a popular staff member making his head-coaching debut.
After nursing a 38-36 lead into the final period, Leo used a 14-0 run to break open the game and race off to a 59-41 victory. Guard play was decisive — the Lions generated offense from defense with the pressure they applied to Perspectives’ overmatched guards and kept the ball away from Javion Thompson and Ledarell Gros-El, who combined for 15 points and nine rebounds in the first half.
The effort brought a shy smile to the face of Mario Pittman, the Leo assistant filling in for head coach Jimalle Ridley, who served a mandatory one-game suspension for being ejected in the final seconds of Leo’s title-game loss to IC Catholic in the Westmont/IC Catholic Christmas tournament five days earlier.
“We won this game with effort and defense,” Pittman said as the players mobbed him in the victorious Leo locker room. “It’s something to build on.”
Leo (7-6) dressed only nine players, and was down to eight after Brian Kizer left with an ankle injury late in the second quarter.
But the guards refused to let the Lions lose. Sophomore Asa Harris scored a season-high 16 points, 10 in the fourth quarter. Fellow sophomore Karon Shavers had 13 and Ethan Jackson contributed 11. Senior Deontae Bell was simply all over the floor, finishing with 14 points, five steals and five assists as the middle man in everything Leo did during the game-turning fourth quarter.
Pittman was a standout player at Leo who led the Lions to 19 victories and won the three-point-shooting state championship as a senior in 2017. He is in his third year as an assistant.
“This is definitely one to build on,” he said.
The Lions resume Catholic League action this week, playing host to St. Rita (3-11, 0-2) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before traveling to Wheaton to face St. Francis (6-8, 1-1) on Thursday at 7:30.
IC Catholic 56, Leo 49 December 30
IC Catholic 56, Leo 49; championship game,
Westmont/IC Catholic Holiday Tournament
Westmont/IC Catholic Holiday Tournament
By Dan McGrath
It’s not Pontiac, or the Jack Tosh, or the Dipper – high school basketball holiday tournaments that draw the best fields and the most Chicago-area attention over the Christmas season.
But the 12-team Westmont/ICC Catholic event would have been a nice prize to claim for a Leo team that’s showing signs of progress three years into a scorched-earth rebuild.
It was there for the taking, but some poor decisions, some faulty execution and – let’s be honest – some suspect officiating undid the Lions in a 56-49 loss to host IC Catholic after a chaotic finish to Monday night’s title game in Elmhurst.
Neither team led by more than three points in the second half of a hotly contested game which IC led 51-49 with 14 seconds remaining. Leo Coach Jimalle Ridley was assessed a triple technical foul (and ejected) for vehemently protesting a non-call on a goaltending infraction that seemed pretty obvious to everyone in the gym but the officials.
Andrew Hill made three of six technical foul shots, and IC retained possession. Dan Fromolt added two more free throws after being fouled on the inbounds play for a seven-point final margin that was deceiving.
To set the stage: The Knights led 46-45 on a Fromholt free throw when Leo converted back-to-back steals into layups for a 49-46 advantage with 3:17 remaining. The Lions then went to a delay game in an effort to draw IC out of its clingy 2-1-2 zone and get to the foul line.
They ran more than two minutes off the clock before turning the ball over on a failed attempt to get it inside, and Hill tied the game on a three-pointer with under a minute remaining.
A Leo miss led to a long rebound and a runout opportunity for the Knights, and though Malachi Mandley’s layup rolled out, Jordan Hall followed the play and tipped in the miss for a 51-49 lead.
What followed was pure chaos.
After Leo atoned for a turnover with a steal off a double-team trap, Brian Kizer went to work along the baseline and muscled up a layup. We’ll never know whether the shot would have dropped and tied the game because IC Catholic’s Hill went up and snatched the ball out of the air between backboard and basket.
It sure looked like goaltending, but it wasn’t called, and all Ridley’s protests netted him was six free throws for the opposition and an ejection, which, per IHSA rules, will keep him out of Saturday’s game with Perspectives Leadership Academy in the Whitney Young Shootout.
‘I apologize for my actions, but you hate to see a really good game come down to that – it was goaltending, and it wasn’t called,” Ridley said.
“I’m proud of our guys. We played hard. There were some mistakes here and there, but for the most part we played well in this tournament. We’re walking out of here with our heads high.”
Hill led ICC with a game-high 17 points and Hall added 11. Designated shooter Matthew Sloan buried three of four three-pointers for nine points.
Ethan Jackson had 14 points for Leo and Jamarion Upshaw complemented his 12 with seven rebounds and two blocks. Dontae Bell scored 10 points.
“We’ll bounce back,” Ridley said. “We’ll learn from this, put it behind us and bounce back.”
Leo 60, Unity Christian Academy 39 on December 28
By Dan McGrath
Leo 60, Unity Christian Academy 39; third round,
Westmont/IC Catholic Holiday Tournament
Some intriguing statistics accompanied the Leo Lions’ 60-39 victory over Unity Christian Academy in third-round play at the Westmont/IC Catholic Holiday Tournament in Westmont Saturday evening.
First things first: The win sends the Lions (6-5) into the title game against IC Catholic (10-2) at IC Catholic in Elmhurst Monday night at 7:30
As for those stats …
• Leo hit just 12 of 34 first-half shots, but five of the makes were three-pointers, helping the Lions to a 32-20 halftime lead.
• Brian Kizer (14) and Ethan Jackson (12) combined for 26 of those 32 Leo polints, Kizer finishing with a game-high 20.
• Jamarion Upshaw continues to find his way inside, contributing six points, seven rebounds and five blocks against a relentlessly active Phoenix front line that came at him in waves.
• And while Unity’s slap-happy brand of defense would be considered aggressive by MMA standards, Leo shot just four free throws in the game, two on a first-quarter technical foul and none in the fourth quarter when the Phoenix was trying to foul to force the Lions out of their delay game.
An unusual game, to say the least. But it got Leo its first three-game winning streak of the season.
Unity (8-5) is a church-school team of playground practitioners from South Holland who never met a shot they didn’t like. They don’t shoot particularly well, but their misfires made for pretty good early offense as all five players crashed the boards and earned enough putback baskets to keep the game relatively close.
But it’s a risky strategy when no one is back to defend against the runout opportunities Leo created by getting serious about defensive rebounds. The Lions opened the third quarter with a 17-4 run that pretty much settled things, then went to a delay after hitting their first three shots of the final period.
IC Catholic is made of sterner stuff. The Knights, competing in the Catholic League’s White Division this season, average 64 points a game and beat Universal Charter, Reavis and Willowbrook by a combined 79 points to reach the title game.
Their only losses were to CCL powers Brother Rice and Mount Carmel, and they figure to be a handful on their home floor.
Lions 75, South Shore Prep 22 on December 26
Lions 77, Westmont 40 on December 23
By Dan McGrath
The postponement of a nonconference meeting with University High meant the Leo Lions were six days between games when they faced Westmont in the first round of the ICC/Westmont Holiday Tournament at Westmont on Monday night.
They seemed to have taken advantage of the down time, parlaying great energy at both ends of the floor into a 77-40 victory over the Sentinels and setting up a date with South Shore in the second round on the same floor at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Leo’s 77 points were a season best, as was its 50.2 shooting percentage. But the Lions won the game with their defense, converting 12 steals into numerous easy baskets and forcing a slew of additional turnovers with constant pressure.
“As small as we are, we have to get offense off defense, and tonight we were able to do that,” Coach Jamille Ridley said after Leo improved to 4-5.
Indeed, the Lions employed a four-guard lineup for much of the game, the only variation involving five guards. But the taller Sentinels (3-5) looked stuck in mud in the face of Leo’s quickness and couldn’t generate much of anything on offense, though senior guard Alexander Konoff did his best to keep them in the game by collecting 21 points on a variety of clever shots. None of his teammates had more than seven.
Senior Dontae Bell had 21 points for the Lions, junior Ethan Jackson scored 20 and sophomore Karon Shavers managed 11 as Leo erupted for 51 points in the second and third quarters, instigating a running clock for much of the fourth.
Junior Jamarion Upshaw continued to offer an inside presence with seven points and five rebounds as he plays his way into game shape, and freshman Brandel Orr made his varsity debut for the Lions.
South Shore had been winless in 10 starts before beating Goode STEM Academy 43-31 in its first-round game on Monday. Leo’s Saturday and Monday opponents in the 12-team event will be determined at the conclusion of pool play, which continues through Friday at Westmont and IC Catholic high schools.
Merry Christmas!
December 20 Game vs. University High Postponed
The Lions were scheduled to return to action Friday night in a nonconference game with University High (1-5) at Leo, but the Maroons requested a postponement, citing the availability of players and coaches. No makeup date has been scheduled.
Leo will open play in the IC Catholic/Westmont Holiday Tournament against Westmont (3-4) at Westmont at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 23.
Marian Catholic 52, Lions 42 on December 17
Leo home games are live streamed at: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeoCatholicHighSchoolsSportsChannel
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By Dan McGrath
Leo broke loose for 26 points in the first quarter of its previous game, a 62-50 nonconference dusting of Christ the King at Leo on Saturday, December 15.
The Lions needed three quarters to reach that total against Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights three nights later. That can happen when a team manages just one bucket in the second period and shoots 8-for-36 through three quarters.
That’s 22 percent if you’re keeping track, and it’s how a team finds itself facing a 48-26 deficit through three.
The fourth quarter was like a different game. Karon Shavers nailed two three-pointers and another bucket for eight straight points. Dontae Bell made four free throws. Jamarion Upshaw scored on a putback. All of a sudden it was a 10-point game with just over two minutes remaining and the Spartans were holding on, going to a delay game.
But hold on they did, improving to 8-2 with a 52-42 victory.
“We waited too long to get started,” Coach Jimalle Ridley said after the Lions fell to 3-5. “If we’d played the first three quarters the way we played the fourth, we”d have given ourselves a shot.”
Speaking of shots, the Lions were without their best outside shooter, junior Ethan Jackson, who missed the game with strep throat. Leo actually led 12-9 after one, but Marian opened the second quarter with a 14-2 run and gradually built its lead to 22 points before the Lions came to life in the final period.
Shavers scored eight of his team-high 13 points in the fourth and Bell, despite foul trouble, had nine of his 11 in the second half. Asa Harris gave Leo three double-figures scorers with 10 points.
The Leo student section had some fun with Zack Sharkey, a pale-faced gym rat, but Marian’s senior guard had the last laugh with 21 points, three steals, a block and a solid floor game. Delan Davis scored 11 for the Spartans.
Leo’s frosh-soph let a 12-point second-half lead slip away and dropped a 64-56 decision to Marian in the preliminary game.
Leo will open play in the IC Catholic/Westmont Holiday Tournament against Westmont (3-4) at Westmont at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 23.