Publications & Sites 
Boys Basketball: Fenwick rolls to easy win over Loyola
Oak Park Friday 2-10-12 Fenwick's #42 Samuel Ainsworth gets and easy layup in front of Loyola's #5 James Clarke during their game at Fenwick High School in Oak Park Friday evening 2-10-12. | Kevin Tanaka~for Sun-Times-Media.
Article Extras
Updated: March 17, 2012 8:13AM
A couple of young, up-and coming Chicago Catholic League teams squared off in Oak Park Friday night, but it was host Fenwick that came out and looked like a squad of upperclassman as they had the upper hand in a 78-52 victory over Loyola.
The Friars (7-12, 4-6 CCL North) emptied its bench and had 11 players score, led by Sam Ainswoth, the only senior starter, who poured in 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Loyola (9-15, 4-5) also starts just one senior but he was held scoreless, while juniors Peter Pujals and Richie Wehman did most of the damage for the Ramblers with 18 and 12 points, respectively.
Fenwick sophomore Scott Lindsey came up big with 13 points and four rebounds as he sparked the Friars early with eight first-quarter points, including two three-pointers, that helped stake his team to an 18-11 first quarter lead.
That would be as close the Ramblers would come as the Friars countered an 11-0 first-period run with a 10-0 streak to start the second as sophomore Tom Planek (10 points, 5 rebounds) got into the flow offensively and defensively.
“This, in many ways, was our most satisfying win of the year because we felt we received contributions from a lot of players,” Fenwick coach John Quinn said. “It wasn’t just one guy, everyone was making the extra pass, attacking the other team instead of allowing them to dictate the tempo of the game. We’ve been trying to get our team to understand that concept all year, and I think a couple of our sophomores took a big step in this game tonight.”
The Friars also were almost flawless from the free-throw line as they connected on 21 of 22 from the stripe compared to 10 of 15 for Loyola. Ainsworth was a perfect 8-for-8 as was Planek who hit 6 of 6 from the line.
Fenwick junior Luke Lattner had 10 points to go along with four boards while sophomore Keshaun Smith impressed his coach with seven points, four rebounds and five assists.
“Keshaun proved to himself he could do many things on the court tonight. Rather than defer things to others, he’s making plays,” Quinn said. “Scott has a truckload of ability and he’s just growing into his body and growing into himself. He’s only a sophomore and he has a great passion for the game — and he’s really just learning how to play. We found him tonight where he can be effective. We found him with passes on the break and in our overall offense. We got much better guard play than we have been from these two. When you get that, it makes all the difference. People stay in a nice rhythm and defensively it helped us take them out of their offense.”
The Friars’ bench scored 20 points, led by Thomas Dougherty with five, Dan Dwyer and Josh Carlisle with four each and Scott Gruszka, whose brother Jeremy was out of town for the game, canned a trey.
James Clarke added seven for the Ramblers, while Matthew Bauer contributed five off the bench.
Loyola coach Tom Livatino didn’t make any excuses for his team’s loss.
“We didn’t make any shots, we didn’t defend, we got beat in transition, we got beat on the glass. We just didn’t play well,” he said.
