Queen of All Saints Brings Characters in Spades vs St. Joe’s.

The 8th grade boys Silver basketball team from Queen of all Saints fell to the St. Joseph Knights of Libertyville 45-34 in Mt. Prospect Saturday night at the 15th annual Joey Sykes tournament at St. Raymond.  The Saints fell to 7-9 and ended its run in the tournament while St. Joe’s moved to the semi-finals, improving to 10-11.  

“I’m so proud of our guys,” observed Saints coach Kyle Kuchuris (phonetically pronounced like a sneeze).  “Early in the season we were giving up more than 50 points a lot.  Now we’re focusing on finishing and pulling off wins.”

The Saints flustered the Knights out of the gate with a 3-2 zone defense.  Liam Newton had three steals in the first eight minutes and found Erik Pawlowski (10 points) for a devastating drop step in the low post with 11:30 left in the first half to cut the lead to 9-8.    St. Joe’s answered back when Thomas Hunt was fouled after scoring on a drive to the basket. Hunt missed the free throw but teammate Juan Ledezma pulled down the rebound and put back a power layup over the towering Pawlowski.  Ledezma had 9 offensive rebounds for the Knights.   He has added the missing low post component to the Knights offense since being recruited from Venezuela by coach Gerard Nichol.

The Saints found success in transition.  With six minutes left in the first half.  Xavier Klatt brought his team to within 3 points with a reverse layup off a steal and pass by Newton.  The Knights countered with a three points basket by Ben Hunt and a driving layup by his cousin, Thomas.  The Hunts combined for 19 points.   As the half ended, Ben found teammate Zach McGargill open 12 feet from the basket.  McGargill scored his ninth point of the half, swishing his shot at the halftime buzzer to give the Knights a 28-16 lead.

The Saints came fighting out of intermission.  With 16 minutes left, their defense stuffed the St. Joe’s offense with great rotation, forcing a turnover and leading to a fast break layup for Charlie McShane who was fouled on the play.  Coach Kuchuris turned to his bench and inserted Anthony Ujiki who converted two free throws after bing fouled.  The wily coach then flummoxed his opponent by inserting a player who appeared to be Harry Potter.  Simone Camarda, a dead look-a-like for the wizard at Hogwarts spooked some of the St. Joe’s defenders.  “I read what he did to Voldemort, and I wanted no part in guarding that kid,”  quipped a St. Joe’s defender who refused to give his name out of fear of receiving a spell from Camarda.

Later in the half, the Saints found Pawlowski in the low post for an indefensible running hook over the outstretched arms of Ledezma. But St. Joe’s answered back with buckets by Luke Nichol, Liam Hansen, and Tom Rudolph.  With 4:02 to play, Queen of All Saints were down 45-28.

And that’s when they made the call to Superman.

Owen O’Donnell, a little known point guard from the north side, received an outlet pass from a teammate and brought the ball up the left side of the court.   He was met by the Knight’s quickest athlete, Thomas Hunt, and dismissed him with a head fake.  O’Donnell then blew by  Zach McGargill on his way into the lane.  Ledezma and Nichol met him 10 feet from the basket when O’Donnell picked up his dribble into a Euro step and leaped over the towering St. Joe’s defenders for a left handed bucket off the glass.  O’Donnell’s basket was the most athletic play of the night and  brought the Saints’ faithful to their feet.  How was point guard able to fly? 

Superman socks.

Adorned with capes and matching colors to his sneakers, O’Donnell’s socks inspire him to fly.  “I was just mad that we were losing because we’re a really good team.  So I went for the shot.  The socks help me to play better for sure.”  But they also keep him grounded, “Sometimes I get mad when we’re losing, and I don’t want to feel down.  So I just look down at my socks and start laughing.” But they also get him grounded at school. “Yeah, this one time in the sixth grade I did break school uniform and wore the Superman socks to school.  I thought I was going to get away with it until Miss Carroll (aka Lex Luther), the strict English teacher gave me a discipline.”