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LAKEWOOD, Ohio– A switch of pace was all St. Ignatius needed throughout the second half to start to play their style of basketball.
That and the stellar play from Quinn Woidke and Jack Zapolnik helped lead the Wildcats past the Eagles, 64-61.
FINAL: St. Ignatius 64, St. Ed’s 61. @SIHSBasketball1 @SportsKee1 pic.twitter.com/mwkuwFNin6
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 3, 2024
“A lot of toughness, a lot of mental toughness,” Wildcat’s coach Cam Joyce said when asked what it took to win another rivalry game. “It’s a team victory, everyone played a role. Guys came together and we never lost confidence.”
The first meeting between both schools ended with a Wildcat domination, where they walked away with a 67-41 one month ago. Friday night was a little different to start.
It wasn’t the most efficient start for the Wildcats Friday night as they struggled to find consistency starting with the offense. The Eagles got momentum early on from the home-court advantage and took a 14-12 lead after the first quarter.
Eagle junior forward Ukize Nshungu was all over the floor for the Eagles throughout the first half. From diving for loose balls to getting steals resulting in easy buckets in the paint, Nshungu was a difference-maker for his team early on and it carried over into the second quarter.
Wildcat senior forward and Cleveland State commit Reece Robinson picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of the game, as he never saw the floor again throughout the first half. That didn’t stop the Wildcats from forcing the Eagles away from the paint. In fact, they made Flannery’s team work to get to the rim as the Eagles were constantly faced with trying to go through plays and set past half-court.
The Wildcats scored just nine points in the second quarter as the Eagles held a 27-21 advantage at halftime.
Zapolnik started taking over in the second half as he nearly outscored the Eagles alone. He finished with a game-high 17 points, with seven of them coming in the third quarter alone. He was constantly beating defenders to get to the rim and was superb at drawing fouls near the rim.
The Wildcats put the pressure on the Eagles to try and match their pace-of-play throughout the second half, but there was hardly any answer for that. A 21-14 advantage for the Wildcats in the third quarter made it a one-point game heading into the fourth quarter.
“We knew they were going to come out and give us their best shot,” Joyce said. “We were ready for it…At the end of the day, we just wanted to come in here and play our style of basketball. I thought the pace picked up in the second half to move in our favor.”
The Wildcats would take their first lead of the game within the first minute of the fourth quarter, part of a 6-0 run in the first minute of the quarter. From there, it was Quinn Woidke’s turn to take the game over as he would end up scoring 12 of his 15 points Friday night in the fourth quarter.
He did most of his damage at the foul line where he made eight free throws alone, something the Eagles just didn’t have an answer for in crunch time.
“We knew they were going to come out and give us their best shot,” Joyce said. “We were ready for it…I thought the pace picked up in the second half to more in our favor. The first half was slow, too slow for us in the first half and I told our guys we have to speed this up a little bit to get them into quicker shots.”
In the end, free throws and points off turnovers played in favor for Joyce’s team and that became the difference maker in crunch time.
For the Eagles, Nshungu and Brian Sullivan paced their team with 11 points each along with nine points from Ricky Bussey and 8 from Angelo Kulacz.
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