Boys Basketball: Ramblers face opportunity to collect quality wins

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Wilmette-Chris Sullivan Loyola battles Dominique Matthews St. Rita for the rebound. Boys basketball game: Loyola vs. St. Rita. | Joe Cyganowski ~ For Sun Times Media

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:35AM

During the month of January, Loyola has turned in some decent performances that ultimately resulted in tough losses to quality opponents.

The Ramblers (6-11, 2-3) suffered four-point setbacks to St. Joseph and Notre Dame. Then, last week, there was a nine-point defeat to No. 10 St. Rita, in a game Loyola trailed by just four with two minutes remaining.

“It’s been a little bit of everything that has happened (down the stretch),” Loyola head coach Tom Livatino said. “We’ve missed some free throws, missed some layups and haven’t been able to get defensive stops. We’ve missed some open shots. It’s really been a combination of stuff.

“When you’re in a losing streak and struggling a little bit, it’s harder to come out of it. We’re looking to get on track, and I think it will happen this week.”

A busy week against good teams had the Ramblers traveling to Hales Franciscan on Tuesday, in a game postponed from Friday due to the snow storm. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Loyola hosts De La Salle, which boasts a frontline that goes 6-foot-9, 6-7 and 6-6. A day later, the Ramblers visit St. Patrick (7:30 p.m.), which just handed Notre Dame its first loss in the ESCC.

“It’s a great schedule and gives us a great opportunity to break through with a win and get on a roll,” Livatino said.

“We all believe it’s going to happen. We just have to keep working until it does. We have to keep improving. That’s what it’s about.”

In the 59-48 loss to St. Rita on Jan. 17, the Ramblers led 19-14 before Mustangs guard Tony Hicks went off, scoring 14 straight to give his team a 28-23 halftime advantage.

Hicks finished with 25 points and scored a key late bucket after Loyola had gotten to within 49-45 in the fourth quarter.

“We played pretty well. But they have Tony Hicks and he’s a great player. He took over the game,” Livatino said. “There were a few things defensively we were unable to do to make sure he didn’t beat us. It’s something we’ll learn from.

“The best thing about our schedule is that we’ll have another opportunity to play a great team and a great individual player coming in a couple days.”

Junior Peter Pujals led the Ramblers with 19 points and sophomore Jack Morrissey had 15.

They both average around 15 points per game, though Livatino said he would like to see Morrissey get more looks at the hoop and also have a few other Ramblers look to score more.

“We need to get Morrissey more shots,” he said. “We need to get more (scoring) from (sophomore) James Clark and (junior) Richie Wehman. They are solid players and just have to look to get their shots more. Nothing out of the offense. They just need to continue to be more aggressive and that all will come.”

Livatino said Wehman has played well on defense recently.

Inside, Livatino said Jack Richmond has had a productive season. Meanwhile, juniors Matt Sullivan and Matthew Bauer continue to emerge.

“Right now, we’re getting decent production from Richmond, who is getting the bulk of the minutes,” the coach said.

“Sullivan and Bauer are starting to get minutes, as well. Richmond has played well. He’s our only senior, one of our captains, and we believe in him. Some of the other guys have started to play well and are helping him out.”

Friday’s game against De La Salle is “Coaches vs. Cancer Night” and proceeds from the gate will go to cancer charities.

Livatino said other activities are planned at the school.

“We are going to talk about it during the week, just experiences guys have had in their lives, within their families,” the coach said. “Then, they’ll go and sell ribbons all week during their lunch periods in order to get a lot of people supporting the cause.”