Coming off of Friday’s thrilling win against St. John Bosco, the Cubs were eager to keep the same energy and go undefeated in the St. John Bosco-Gahr Tournament. The Cubs won the final game of the tournament. They beat the Windward Wildcats 64-61 and received 1st place. They went 4-0 in the tournament and are now 10-4 overall.
Starting Cubs
PG: Neil Owens (PG, #3)
SG: Mason Butler (SG, #10)
SF: CJ Jones (SG-SF, #13)
PF: Anthony Lucenti, (PF, #30)
C; James Keefe (C, #22)
1st Quarter
The Cubs won the opening tip, but senior guard Mason Butler missed a three-pointer. Windward got on the board first with a layup. Senior center James Keefe tied the game at 2 with a layup at the 6:10 mark. Windward regains the lead off of a putback layup, leading 4-2 with 5:53 to go. A three-pointer by senior guard Neil Owens gave the Cubs a 5-4 lead with 5:15 remaining. The Wildcats made a layup to gain a 6-5 advantage over the Cubs with 5:06 remaining. Owens answered back with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession. A layup by the Wildcats tied the game at 8 with 4:41 to play. Another layup by the Wildcats gave them a 10-8 lead with 3:25 to go. Keefe’s layup tied the game at 10 with 2:28 remaining. The Wildcats buried a three to go up 13-10 with 1:40 left. Butler answered with a three of his own, and the game was tied again at 13 with 1:29 to go. The Wildcats made a layup for a 15-13 lead over the Cubs with 1:06 left. Junior forward Colby Brooks was fouled with 24 seconds left, and made both of his free throws.
Score: Loyola 15, Windward 15
2nd Quarter
The quarter began with a block by Brooks. Windward got three straight offensive rebounds and got a layup and a foul. They did not convert the potential three-point play, but still led 17-15 with 7:03 to play. Keefe was fouled at the 6:36 mark, and made one of two free throws. After a Wildcats three, the Cubs trailed 20-16 with 6:04 left. Keefe was fouled again at the 5:57 mark. He made one of his two free throws. A layup from Windward made it a 22-17 Wildcats lead. Keefe was fouled again at the 5:16 mark. One of his two free throws found the bottom of the net. Keefe made a layup to cut the deficit down to two. A James Keefe jam tied the game at 22. Keefe made a free throw to convert the three-point-play and to give Loyola a 23-22 lead. A two-pointer by senior guard-forward CJ Jones increased the Cubs’ lead to 3. A three pointer by Owens put the Cubs up 28-22 with 2:07 left. After a three-point-play by Windward, Loyola’s lead was cut to 3, 28-25, with 1:48 to go. Keefe made one of two free throws to put the Cubs up 29-25 with 1:32 to go in the first half. A three pointer from Windward cut the lead to 1. Keefe’s dynomite dunk gave the Cubs a 31-28 lead with 30 seconds left. Lucenti passed the ball to Keefe for a buzzer-beating layup to put the Cubs up by 5 heading into the locker room.
Score: Loyola 33, Windward 28
.3rd Quarter
The quarter commenced with a Jones layup to increase Loyola’s lead to 7. Keefe’s two-pointer gave the Cubs a 37-28 lead. A two-pointer by the Wildcats made it a 37-30 game in favor of Loyola. Another Keefe dunk put the Cubs up by 9, 39-30, with 5:17 to go. Windward went on a 10-0 run and led 40-39 with 3:18 left, prompting a timeout by Loyola. Brooks made two free throws to give Loyola a 41-40 lead with three minutes to go. A three pointer by senior forward Anthony Lucenti gave the Cubs a 44-40 lead with 2:17 to go. After the Wildcats made two out of three free throws, they went on a 6-0 run to end the quarter,
Score: Windward 48, Loyola 44
4th Quarter
The final frame was one to remember. The energy in the gym went up, and both teams were determined to win it all. To start, Windward increased their lead to 6 with a layup. They led 50-44 with 7:50 to play. Jones buried a huge three-pointer to cut Windward’s lead to 3 with seven minutes to play. The Wildcats made a two-pointer to give them a 52-47 lead with 6:45 to go. Back-to-back threes by Jones and Owens put the Cubs up 53-52 with six minutes to play. Windward’s 4-0 run put them back on top 57-53 with 4:45 to go. Jones rolled his ankle and exited the game at the 4:01 mark. A Wildcats layup increased their lead to 6. Lucenti made two free throws to cut Windward’s lead to four. A Lucenti layup brought the Cubs within two. They trailed 59-57 with 2:49 to play. Another Lucenti layup tied the game at 59 with 1:30 to play. A huge Keefe block at the 1:27 mark got the Cubs bench off of their feet. Later on, the Cubs got a rebound and called a timeout with 1:02 to play. Lucenti’s two free throws put the Cubs ahead 61-59 with 49 seconds to play. A layup from the Wildcats tied the game at 61 with 25 seconds left, setting up for a fantastic finish to the game. The Cubs called for a full timeout. They held for the last shot. Neil Owens went one-on-one with his defender and buried a three-pointer from 22-feet to put the Cubs up 64-61 with 3.2 seconds to play. The Wildcats immediately called a timeout to draw up a game-tying play. The Wildcats inbounded the ball at half court and dribbled up the court. The Wildcats missed the three-pointer and the Cubs won the game. They won the Bosco Tournament. Three Cubs, Mason Butler, James Keefe, and Neil Owens, made the All-Tournament team. Neil Owens took home MVP of the tournament.
FINAL: Loyola 64, Windward 61
Postgame
The Cubs went crazy in the locker room, throwing water everywhere. The players started a “Go Neil!” chant that echoed throughout the locker room. Assistant coach Terrence Roberts said, “We were very poised down the stretch. We got a lot of guys coming in to their senior year and [they’re] starting to play very well now, and that’s what we needed.”
Cub of the Game
The Cub of the Game was Neil Owens. He had 15 points, a rebound, and 3 assists. He also had the ice in his veins to take, and make, the game-winning shot He shot 5/7 (71%) from the field. All of his field goal attempts were threes. Coach Terrence Roberts said, “Neil’s been working all year. He’s been working since he’s been on varsity. He puts in the effort, he puts in the time, he puts in the hard work. So, he was due, you know. And I think his true colors really started to show this tournament, and hopefully the sky’s the limit.” Owens said, “I was feeling a rhythm later in the game. I just made a move to get open, and I just shot it. I just had the confidence that it was probably gonna go in. Not really much was going through my head, but I just shot it.” He also says that coach Roberts taught him how to shoot.
Stats
Besides Owens’s big night for Loyola, the two other leading scorers for the Cubs were James Keefe and Anthony Lucenti. Keefe had 21 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. Lucenti had 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Cubs shot 21/45 (47%) from the field, 9/20 (45%) from three, and 13/17 (76%) from the free throw line. They had 18 rebounds, 16 assists, 2 steals, and 8 turnovers.
Analysis
The Cubs did a fantastic job making the extra pass and turning down good shots for great ones. Their transition offense allowed for many points in the paint. Several Cubs were on fire from behind the arc, notably Neil Owens (71%) and CJ Jones (50%). Their small-ball lineup with Brooks at the 5 has worked out well. Rebounding was a bit of an issue for the Cubs, as they gave up several offensive rebounds to the Wildcats. The Cubs showed incredible energy, both in the locker room and on the court. In every game, their bench is very vocal, and their communication is great because of that.
The Next Game
The Cubs begin playing in the Mission League. Their home opener is against Santa Monica High School on Saturday, December 22, at 7:00 PM. Roberts said, “Our expectations from now on is just to win. We wanna win every game we can win. And even the ones we can’t win, we want to be in them late, so we can make a push to try to win the game. So, at the end of the day, we just want to win as much as we can, and hopefully bring home some more hardware this year.” Owens remarked, “If we keep playing like this, I think we can be Mission League Champs, maybe even better than that. For myself, if I just keep doing what I’m doing, I think we can win a lot of games. So, I’ll just try my best to keep doing it.” When asked how far the Cubs are going, he said, “We have the potential to go very far. I think we’ll be CIF Champs, state champs if we play like this. I don’t think anybody could beat us if we play like this.”