Leo 68, Aurora Central Catholic 30,
CCL crossover in Aurora on January 29
The three preliminary games of a rare four-game week could hardly have gone better for the Leo Lions – they dispatched Payton College Prep (48-39), Providence-St. Mel (82-30) and Aurora Central Catholic (68-30) by a combined 99 points, improving to 14-8 for the season and surpassing last season’s victory total.
Now comes the main event: Two-time defending state champion DePaul Prep visits Leo on Friday night. The Rams (21-3) sat atop the Sun-Times Super 25 and were the top-ranked team in the state as recently as last week, but back-to-back, one-point losses to Brother Rice and Homewood-Flossmoor knocked them from that perch. At 3-1, they share first place in the Catholic League Blue Division with Brother Rice and Fenwick.
And they’re loaded with talent and depth. Rykan Woo and Makai Kvamme are standout perimeter players and 6-foot-7 Rashaun Porter can be a monster inside.
Coach Tom Kleinschmidt was a big-time scorer in his playing days, but defense has been his calling card as a coach – the Rams are allowing just 45.2 points per game while scoring 61.4. Leo allows 46.6 points while scoring 57.4.
Not that there’s ever a good time to play a legitimate state-title contender, but the Lions have opened some eyes with their play of late. They improved to 8-2 since January 1 with Wednesday’s romp past Aurora Central Catholic, a game that was postponed for a week due to last week’s frigid weather.
The Chargers were too young and too inexperienced to offer much resistance. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock, even after Leo Coach Jimalle Ridley did his best to hold the score down, rarely pressing and distributing minutes to each of the 11 men he had in uniform
Ethan Jackson scored 17 points for the Lions and Brian Kizer and Kam’ron Dove added 13 apiece, Dove punctuating a career-best effort with a breakaway dunk that brought the Leo bench to life.
Bring on DePaul Prep?
“We’ll be ready,” Ridley said. “We’re playing hard and we’re cohesive. We’ll be ready.”
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