Boys basketball: Defending state champion DePaul Prep ends St. Viator’s 24-win season
There was no way St. Viator senior Henry Marshall was going to miss a shot to play one of the state’s premier teams in DePaul Prep.
That would be more painful than the badly sprained right ankle that sidelined the all-East Suburban Catholic Conference guard for Friday’s Class 3A regional championship. So Marshall was braced up and back in the lineup for Tuesday night’s sectional semifinal at Antioch.
“I don’t think there was ever a chance he would miss this game,” said Viator coach Mike O’Keeffe.
“Absolutely not,” Marshall said. “I said I was playing as soon as we won the game Friday.”
Marshall’s first shot from behind the 3-point arc was pure on a feed from classmate Dayvion Ellis. That started a team-high 12-point night.
But top-seeded DePaul (29-4), looking to repeat as 3A state champs and win a third consecutive state title, had too much firepower in a 63-23 win over the fourth-seeded Lions (24-10).
“They’re amazing and very well-coached,” Marshall said after shooting 5-for-12 from the field and hitting two 3s. “They’re one of the best teams in the state. All the credit goes to them.”
After Marshall got Viator within 4-3, the Rams went on a 15-0 run toward Friday’s 6 p.m. sectional championship. They face the winner of today’s 6 p.m. semifinal between No. 2 Lake Forest (22-9) and No. 3 Deerfield (23-7).
Western Illinois-bound guard Makai Kvamme had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists as the Rams shot 62.2 percent from the field (28-for-45), had a 28-12 rebound edge and turned 15 turnovers into 28 points.
They got 10 points apiece from 6-6 junior Rashaun Porter (6 rebounds, 4 assists) and 6-6 senior Jonas Johnson (5 rebounds), 9 from Rykan Woo and 8 apiece from AJ Chambers (3 assists) and Gus Donohue.
“Defensively I liked what we did getting in gaps and that’s a really good team with 24 wins that plays in a really great league,” said DePaul coach Tom Kleinschmidt. “Everything looks good when the ball goes in the hole and we shared the ball well.”
Viator shot 25.7 percent from the field (9-for-35) and 2-for-17 behind the arc.
“It was near-impossible,” Marshall said of Viator running its offense. “They’re so solid on the ball, off the ball, getting in gaps and coming off screens.”
A bright spot was the fearless play of freshman Jacob Only (6 points, 3 rebounds). And O’Keeffe lauded the senior class of Marshall, Ellis, Brandyn Michaels, Jaylan Szlachetka and Ryan Kalaway for leading a 14-win improvement from their freshman year.
“To go from 10 wins to 24 is really, really special,” O’Keeffe said. “More important is they’re special kids who represented the program and our school so well.”