Meurer leads the way with 17 points.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The IC Catholic Prep boys basketball team had all its rostered players available for the first time this season in a recent contest and the results were overwhelmingly positive.
The Knights headed to the far south suburbs where they were 68-38 winners against Illiana Christian in a Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division contest.
The win pushed IC Catholic Prep to 7-3 overall and 3-2 in MSC Blue play.
Alex Meurer had 17 points to lead the Knights. Kevin Cheng chipped in 14 points, while Kris Askew had 10 points and Khali Saunders had eight points. Nico Gaudio finished with seven points. Meurer hit two 3-pointers in the game, while Cheng, Griffen Eichhorn and Jared Bon each had one 3-pointer.
The Knights jumped out to a 12-2 lead after the first quarter and led 25-19 at halftime. IC Catholic Prep outscored Illiana 22-14 in the third and 21-5 in the fourth quarter.
“That was the first game we had everybody available on our team this season,” said Tyrrell. “That was a nice feeling to have as a coach.”
Tyrrell cited defensive excellence in the game as a key to victory. “Defensively, we played an outstanding game,” he said. “We started out the game leading 12-2 and then held them to five points in the fourth quarter. We’ve been having slow starts lately in some of these games. It was nice to see that we could come out and put ourselves in a good position right from the start.”
Again, the Knights received varied contributions up and down the roster. “Alex scored 17 points for us and did a great job,” said Tyrrell. “We had a nice performance by Kevin Cheng and from Khali Saunders and Nico Gaudio. In addition to Alex, we had a lot of guys play extremely well. They complemented each other.”
Tyrrell also lauded the play of Askew. “Kris played a solid game for us as well,” he said. “Defensively, he’s been guarding some of the better guards we’ve faced. He’s done a really solid job of containing, in particular Illiana’s best guard. He was held to six points. Kris also scored 10 points and had 10 points the game before against Glenbard South. He’s starting to come around. He played football for the first time this fall and now he’s starting to get back into basketball shape and getting comfortable with the guys. The same is true with Khali Saunders.”
Tyrrell said it was nice to see the team excel against pressure defense. “We’ve struggled against pressure of late,” he said. “In the first half we had 10 turnovers, but did an outstanding job with that in the second half and had only four turnovers. We were more patient and broke down their 1-2-2 half-court trap. We did a nice job getting the ball into the middle and that opened up things for Alex in the middle of the zone press and for Kevin at times.”
Free-throw shooting also aided IC Catholic Prep in the Illiana win. Meurer made 7 of 8 free throws, while Askew was 8 of 10, Cheng was 5 of 6, Gaudio was 3 of 3 and Saunders made four free throws.
“We did an outstanding job from the line especially down the stretch and that opened things up,” said Tyrrell. “It was a much closer game than the score shows. We outscored them 21-5 in the fourth and a lot of that came from free throws.”
Tyrrell liked seeing his team shake off the Glenbard South loss. “Glenbard was a very competitive game,” he said. “They are a bigger and physical team with good length. They aggressively trapped our ball screen and that caused challenges. We struggled against their pressure.”
The game was tied at the end of the first quarter and at halftime and the Knights found themselves trailing by a point heading into the fourth quarter. “We got outscored 12-8 in the fourth quarter. We didn’t have much of a flow in the fourth quarter,” said Tyrrell. “We started forcing things and making bad decisions and they capitalized on some of those opportunities and we weren’t able to come back from it. There still are good things to take away from these games. We’ve been watching film and breaking things down. We have some new guys and it’s been an educational process. They are learning to play in our system and to play with each other. Khali is new to the team and Dominic Gaudio and Ryan Wojtalewicz are two sophomores who are in our top-seven rotation and have started at various points. I’ve been pleased with their performance and what they have been doing. We still have a lot to learn as a group and, again, we’ve only had one game with everybody together. I’m very optimistic what we can be down the stretch of this season.”
Even with two losses in conference, Tyrrell feels his team still is in the thick of things in the MSC Blue. “The conference is very competitive but balanced,” he said. “Each game we play is going to be a battle. That’s what makes it exciting. Even at this point with two losses we still are right in the hunt. Riverside-Brookfield was 3-1 and we beat them. Glenbard South was 3-1 and Wheaton Academy was 3-1.”
The Knights are in the midst of playing in their own co-hosted tournament with Westmont. IC Catholic Prep opened play against Elmwood Park earlier this week and played either Eisenhower or Chicago Latin School in the second round.
