Knights down Fenton; Cheng scores 18 against Glenbard South.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
IC Catholic Prep boys basketball coach TJ Tyrrell put himself in some elite program company recently.
The Knights’ 43-27 Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division win over Fenton was the 100th career coaching win for Tyrrell at IC Catholic Prep. Through late last week, Tyrrell sported a 100-53 career mark in his six seasons at the helm. He’s the third coach in program history to earn 100 wins. Tyrrell is 10 wins away from moving into second place all-time in program history and 43 wins away from breaking long-time former coach Darren Howard’s 143-win record. Tyrrell sports the highest winning percentage of any IC Catholic Prep boys basketball coach with 100 wins.
“I was excited to reach the milestone,” said Tyrrell. “I’ve had a lot of good staff members along the way. It’s not all me that deserves the recognition for the 100th win. I’m proud and thankful to have reached it in a relatively quick amount of time.”
Tyrrell, an IC Catholic Prep graduate, is in his 16th season as a coach in the program. He was an assistant on Howard’s staff for 10 years before being named head coach.
“I stayed loyal and enjoyed being part of the community at IC and I’m proud of being an alum,” he said. “Since getting the head job we’ve had a good amount of success with the three conference championships in five years and the regional titles. We’ve had good players athletically and who are good people who have come through the program. I’m proud to have coached these guys.”
Tyrrell lauded Howard for his tutelage. “Darren was a great mentor and gave me my first opportunity to coach high-school basketball,” he said. “When I graduated from college and finished my playing career at Dominican I went into the business world at that point. I wasn’t sure I would get into coaching. It was not my intention. A friend of mine was a coach and was telling me stories about connecting with kids and giving back. I reached out to the school and still have a few connections there. I told them I wanted to help out and volunteer and give back to a sport I love. Now 16 years later I’m still here. I went from sophomore assistant and then got an opportunity to be a varsity assistant and then Darren put me as the head freshman coach. I told him I didn’t know if I was ready to have my own team. He told me I was ready. We did very well at the freshman level and then I got promoted to sophomore coach and varsity assistant. I never thought about leaving for another coaching opportunity or to be a head coach somewhere else. I always wanted to be the head coach at IC and I’m happy to be here.”
Against Fenton, Kevin Cheng had 16 points, while Khali Saunders and Nico Gaudio each had nine points.
“Fenton battled,” said Tyrrell. “It was a little bittersweet going against (Fenton’s) Amari Reed who had been with us the last three years. We were losing at halftime and we made some adjustments and switched from a zone press, which dropped into a half-court zone to a man-to-man and that made a difference. We struggled with their pressure and made some adjustments to the lineup and personnel and that created opportunities. We also cut down on our own turnovers.”
Tyrrell was Impressed with his team’s defense down the stretch. “We held them to two points in the fourth quarter, which was a layup in the last few seconds of the game,” he said. “We held them to five points in the second half. That’s pretty impressive even though we did not have the best first half. The guys came back out focused and made adjustments and hit big shots. Kevin Cheng hit some big free throws and outside jumpers. Khali Saunders found opportunities under the rim. Nico Gaudio had a big layup down the stretch. We started letting our defense dictate our offense. We were getting deflections and getting in transition, which we like to play. I was very happy to see us get that win and the icing on the cake was it being the 100th.”
IC Catholic Prep then dropped a 56-51 contest to Glenbard South in MSC Blue play. After playing to a 13-13 tie after one and a 27-27 stalemate at halftime, Glenbard South outscored the Knights 17-16 in the third quarter and 12-8 in the fourth quarter.
Cheng had 18 points for the Knights. Gaudio had 13 points, while Kris Askew had 10 points and Saunders added eight points. Askew made two 3-pointers, while Cheng made one. The loss put IC Catholic Prep at 6-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play.
The Knights played Illiana Christian earlier this week and face Wheaton Academy at home Friday. IC Catholic Prep and Westmont co-host a Christmas tournament where it will play Elmwood Park in the first round.
