Boys Basketball: Young Loyola squad suffers back-to-back losses

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Wilmette, 01/27/12--De La Salle forward Josh White (left) tries to block Loyola's Richie Wehman in Wilmette, IL on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. | Shauna Bittle~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:34AM

A young Loyola boys basketball team made progress last week, before heading in the other direction.

The Ramblers (7-13, 3-4) defeated Hales Franciscan 58-48 on the road Jan. 24. But that was before Friday night’s 52-33 defeat against talented De La Salle and the following evening’s 59-49 loss to St. Patrick.

“Was it a step in the right direction? It was,” said Loyola head coach Chris Livatino. “But at the end of the day, we were 1-2, and you know that wasn’t the end result we were looking for.”

Livatino sounded most pleased about his team’s defensive performance during the stretch.

“Defensively, we had a good week,” the coach said. “To hold De La Salle to 52 points and Hales to 48, that’s pretty good. (St. Patrick) was probably our worst effort. To give up 58 — you want to hold that team under 50, for sure.”

The Ramblers struggled on the boards, especially against De La Salle, surrendering 22 offensive rebounds — albeit against the Meteors’ enormous front line.

“You still have to do a better job rebounding,” Livatino said. “I’m not concerned about the size disadvantage. We have to be more physical. We have to hit people. For the most part in 2012, we have done a good job rebounding.”

The coach said his team, like many young ballclubs, has struggled with consistency. The Ramblers have been unable to put all facets of the game together on the same night.

“To play the (quality) schedule we do, we have to play a good all-around game,” Livatino said. ‘We’ve yet to have five players do well on the same night. We have to shoot it well, rebound it well and so on. (Jan. 24) was one of those nights when we did a lot of that.”

In that contest, which had been postponed the previous Friday because of the snowstorm, sophomore Jack Morrissey led the Ramblers with 23 points. He shot 7-for-12 from behind the three-point line.

Junior teammate Peter Pujals scored 17 points and sophomore James Clarke added 14.

Livatino and Co. were hoping to build on the victory over Hales, hosting the Meteors in front of a large Coaches vs. Cancer Night crowd.

But Loyola had little answer for the Chicago school’s front line, which features NCAA prospects Gavin Schilling (6-foot-9), who tallied 16 points and 11 rebounds, and 6-8 Alex Foster (14 points, 10 rebounds).

De La Salle collected 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, and led 24-12 at the break. The Meteors extended the lead in the third, and Loyola cut the deficit to 12 early in the fourth but could get no closer.

“We just were not on,” Livatino said. “We didn’t play as well as we expected to play. We had a great crowd and expected to play better. That was somewhat disappointing.”

Pujals led the Ramblers with nine points.

Morrissey paced Loyola with 17 points at St. Pat’s on Saturday. But Livatino said his team left the Shamrocks’ Royale Ewing (19 points) and Parish McCullum (17 points) open far too often, as the ESCC opponent prevailed in a nonconference game.

The Ramblers visit Gordon Tech at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and host Waukegan in the third game of the Second Annual War on the Shore at 7 p.m. Saturday. The tripleheader also features New Trier vs. St. Ignatius at 3 p.m., and Evanston vs. St. Patrick at 5 p.m.

Livatino started the event last year with New Trier coach Scott Fricke and Evanston head coach Mike Ellis.

“It’s a way of promoting basketball on the North Shore,” Livatino said. “We want to bring quality teams from around the area to give our fans a chance to come out and see really good North Shore teams play against three teams from outside the North Shore. It’s a good lineup, and at a good price ($5). There will be a lot of Division I-level players in the field and a lot of good teams. We have six regional-championship-type teams.”

Some proceeds from the event will go to the Danny Did Foundation, which was established by Loyola alum Mike Stanton, and his wife, Mariann, to fight Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), which took the life of their son, Danny, in 2009.