St. Viator plays tough, but falls to St. Patrick

St. Viator's youth movement nearly stalled St. Patrick Tuesday in Arlington Heights.

With just three seniors on their squad, St. Viator gave the high-regarded Shamrocks everything they had before faltering 60-51 in the boys basketball season opener for both teams.

It was a tough season opener as well as the East Suburban Conference opener for the Lions, who have seven sophomores on their roster.

"When you play St. Pat's right out the gate, you have to be ready to compete for all 32 minutes," said St. Viator head coach Michael O'Keeffe, who was making his head coaching debut for the Lions after being the head coach at Wheeling.

We got off to a slow start. We missed a few bunnies early and weren't communicating well. But I though that second quarter and most of the third quarter, we outplayed them."

St. Patrick appeared to earn its preseason plaudits as the Shamrocks went on a 7-0 run late in the first half to lead 28-19. The Lions were able to chip away and cut the margin to 29-25 on a 3-pointer by sophomore RJ Gamble at the buzzer.

Connor Benson and Eli Aldana sparked St. Viator to begin to second half.

Benson, who is a 6-foot-6 senior, played strong inside, scoring 5 of his 20 points during a 10-run and suddenly the Lions were up 35-29 with 5:07 left in the third quarter.

"We played with a lot of energy," said Benson, who also had 7 rebounds. "We got the young classmates going. We were shooting well."

Aldana, a sophomore, finished with 14 points. Aldana, who came off the bench last season, moved to the point this year and had a basket and forced a pair of turnovers during the run.

"I am taking a newer role this year," Aldana said. "They want me to lead a little more and to facilitate. At the start, I was good, but as the game wore on, I was a little tired."

Part of that tiredness came from the Shamrocks, who, when finding themselves down, reached a little deeper.

Especially Tamaris Brown. The highly touted junior forward, who would finish with 22 points, scored 13 consecutive points for St. Pat's. That included a pair of free throws with 5:10 to play to put the Shamrocks up for good with a 44-42 lead.

"Most of these kids have not played a whole lot of basketball in the last year," O'Keeffe said. "We have a handful of kids who play AAU ball, which is great. But holding St. Pat's to 60 points with all their returning talent is not great, but it is a good start."