LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Devontae Blanton scored 19 points and dominated the boards in the 100th boys basketball version of The Rivalry Friday, as host St. Edward topped St. Ignatius, 87-64.
The Eagles, ranked No. 4 in the cleveland.com Top 25, have won six consecutive games to up their record to 9-3. St. Ignatius, ranked No. 16, falls to 5-5. The Wildcats still lead the rivalry overall, 54-46, but in the last 10 years St. Edward holds a 19-7 advantage.
“Davontae’s special,” St. Edward coach Eric Flannery said of his junior forward. “Why he’s special is because he’s 6-foot-6, he can handle the ball, he can shoot it now, he spreads the floor, he takes it to the rim, and he rebounds. He’s our leading rebounder, he’s up there in assists and he comes out and scores 19 for us.”
Early on, the Eagles threatened to make the game a runaway. The visitors scored the first four points of the game, but in the blink of an eye the margin was 9-4 for St. Edward, followed by 16-6 and 21-7. With Blanton scoring 10 points and fellow junior Grant Huffman adding seven of his 17, the lead ballooned to 30-13 just one minute into the second quarter.
“Their better players beat our better players,” St. Ignatius coach Brian Becker said of the opening minutes. “Blanton owned us on the glass. Huffman got into the seams. They made open three balls. We’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t played a lot of big-time basketball and we weren’t able to make plays offensively or defensively.”
But rather than lay down and blame their youth, the Wildcats dug in and battled back. With senior Lukas Bielek scoring nine of his game-high 24 points, St. Ignatius gradually cut the margin, first to 33-24, and eventually to 40-30, with 1:28 remaining in the half.
That final 88 seconds of the half turned out to be the key stretch of the game, turning what could have been a battle into a laugher. St. Edward went on an 8-0 run, including a 25-foot circus fadeaway 3-pointer by Demetrius Terry at the buzzer, giving the Eagles a 48-30 halftime lead. The Wildcats never got closer than 15 the rest of the way.
“I know right before the half, Mark Gaertner hitting a three and then Terry hitting kind of a crazy three was big just to kind of extend it for halftime,” Flannery said. “In a rivalry game when you’re playing these guys, you never feel comfortable. They’re never easy.”
What really hurt the Wildcats was that they had an open 3-pointer at the top of the key that could have cut the margin to seven, 40-33. But the ball kicked off the back iron, leading to a fast break layup by St. Edward junior Chris Ringfield, igniting the decisive 8-0 run.
“This game was closer than you think,” Becker said. “We were one play away. If you make a three-ball right there, and that’s a good, red zone, top-of-the-key three ball that you would hope a good high school player would make — you make that, it’s a different game. It’s a completely different game.”
Instead, the Wildcats were left to chalk up the game to a learning experience and hope things will be better when the rivals meet again on Feb. 8 at St. Ignatius and possibly in the postseason.
“I knew coming in here this wasn’t going to be pretty,” Becker said. “Chase (Toppin) is the only guy that’s been in a significant St. Ed’s game. We have a bunch of guys who haven’t been on this stage yet. But there are positive things to take out of this. You never like to lose to your rival. You want to go out and compete and you want to win. But it’s a process. We’ve got young kids that have bought into the process effort-wise, they just need to clean up some things.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles still have a lot of room to grow. They were missing a starter in Montorie Foster, who is battling a pulled muscle in his back and will miss 10-15 days. After experimenting with on-court styles, Flannery said his team is getting back to how they should be playing.
“I was letting them play the way they want to play,” Flannery said. “We weren’t running a lot, we weren’t playing the type of man defense that we normally play. I was experimenting as a coach. For the first five games that’s how we played. I’m not making an excuse as to why we lost, but it wasn’t working for us. So, we made some adjustments.
"We moved Grant to the point and defensively we went back to how we’re supposed to play, and I think the guys are kind of buying into that. I don’t think we’re peaking. I don’t think we’re playing our best yet. Hopefully there’s a lot more to go.”
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