Coming off of wins over Simeon and Morgan Park earlier in the week, it would have been easy for Bogan to overlook St. Ignatius at the MLK Dream Classic Sunday at Young.
For the first 18 minutes, it looked as if that may have been the case, as the No. 6 Bengals trailed by 10 points early in the second quarter and were tied 35-35 at the halftime. But Bogan righted the ship behind the hot shooting of Luwane Pipkins and cruised to a 64-45 win.
“We didn’t come out overlooking them, they’re a good team,” Luwane Pipkins said. “They played really hard and we just had to play harder. It doesn’t matter who we play, we just look at everything one game at a time.”
Pipkins was forced out of the game early after picking up his second foul with 1:24 remaining in the first quarter.
With the Bengals’ leader out, the Wolfpack went on a 12-2 run to lead 24-14 with five minutes remaining in the second quarter.
Pipkins promptly returned to the game and hit his next seven shots, including six three-pointers.
“I knew I had to score when I came back in,” said Pipkins, who scored 22 points in the first half. “It was hard sitting out but two fouls is two fouls and coach did what he had to do. I knew I had to do better.”
The Bogan’s full-court press shutdown the Wolfpack in the second half. The Bengals held St. Ignatius to 10 points in the final two periods.
Bogan (18-2) forced seven St. Ignatius turnovers in the third quarter.
Pipkins finished with 24 points, while Antoine Boyd had 12 and Tom Johnson added 10. Thomas Digenan had 10 for the Wolfpack (9-7).
