IC Catholic gets better of St. Edward
Knights evidently have elephant memories.
“First, it was nice getting that trophy back in our hands after two years being with St. Ed's,” said IC Catholic Prep coach T.J. Tyrrell, whose squad beat St. Edward 58-46 to win the ICCP/Westmont Boys Christmas Tournament in Elmhurst.
“Losing by 1 in a regional championship is drive enough to get the kids motivated and come out tonight and battle for the championship.”
Gaining a measure of revenge for that 41-40 regional loss last season as well as last year's tourney championship against the Green Wave, IC Catholic (9-4) won its own tournament for the first time since 2012.
“It means a lot, especially since it's our tournament,” said Knights guard Troy Burrows. “Last year we fell short against Ed's, two years ago we lost in the semifinal game, so it means a lot to get it, especially in front of our fans at home.”
IC Catholic ran an offensive clinic in the first half and held on in the second as St. Edward (8-7) extended its defense and roared back.
The Knights shot 15 of 22 in the first half as 6-foot-4 Will Lyles repeatedly scored inside working the high-low with 6-3 guard Austin Reed. Lyles went 10 for 11 of the game and scored 22 points along with 8 rebounds.
“We emphasized reversing the ball a lot, so that opened up a lot of opportunities for us as well — down low in the post and on the outside wings,” said Lyles, holding the championship plaque.
Three-pointers by Reed, Matt Sutton, Garrett Cheng and Luke Ricobene helped the Knights build a 35-18 lead after one half.
“They were beating us inside anytime they wanted,” said St. Edward coach P.J. White. “We've got to squeeze the middle to protect that and then they kick it out and if you're making 3s now you're in a real bind. And they were making them.”
St. Edward also made a valiant comeback starting with a 9-0 run to begin the third quarter.
Extending the defense into a 1-2-2 zone press and trapping in the half-court, steals by Kelvin Cortez-Henry, Sean Phelan and Andrew O'Neill helped rally the Green Wave within 51-44 with 1:48 left in the game.
Burrows, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half, made three free throws in the last minute and Ricobene tossed an inbounds baseball pass to Lyles to seal the win.
“It was way better than the first half,” said Cortez-Harvey, who scored 11 points to Phelan's 14. “We dug ourself in a hole so we were just trying to get out of it. It was better defense, way better than the first half.”