Michael O’Brien’s notebook: Nov. 24, 2018

CHAMPAIGN—Looks like things were interesting at the shoe company event on the South Side.

I was busy covering the Brother Rice-Loyola football game and dealing with a demanding print deadline when word came that the Morgan Park game had been stopped due to a fight on the court.

From what I’m hearing the Mustangs led Mayfair, a high school from Lakewood, California, 50-32 with three minutes to play in the third quarter. There was some kind of scuffle between the players and the game was called.

Morgan Park junior Adam Miller had 30 points at the time according to Mustangs coach Nick Irvin.

I’m guessing some of you were at the event, Young and Hillcrest both won games earlier in the night. Fill us in down in the comments if you saw what happened.

Saturday’s top games

No. 2 Evanston 72, No. 9 St. Viator 63: The big game of the night, a major road win for the Wildkits. Preseason rankings don’t mean a thing. They are a best guesstimate. Evanston took a huge step towards actually earning the No. 2 tonight. Tremendously balanced scoring. Jaylin Gibson had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Lance Jones scored 15. Read more on the game down below from Matt Harness.

No. 4 Bogan 67, Minooka 32: The Bengals win the title in Rock Island. Another nice game from big man Rashaun Agee with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Jordan Booker scored 15 and had seven assists. Bogan’s guards are rock solid, if Agee continues to play like this look out.

No. 10 Oak Park 74, No. 16 St. Rita 68: The Huskies bounce back after losing to Riverside-Brookfield. Chase Robinson scored 21. Rough first week for the Mustangs.

Lincoln Park 57, New Trier 56: The Lions win the New Trier/Loyola Tournament. Mike Robinson led the way with 14 and Tahir Thompson scored 12.

Solorio 46, Clemente 33: The Sun Warriors win the Clemente Tournament. Freshman Donovan Jones turns in a monster debut week, had 20 points and eight rebounds in the title game. Sincere Key added eight points and nine rebounds and Tyrell Williams added 13 boards.

Orr 73, St. Louis Cardinal Ritter 70: Tujautae Williams is another player on fire to start the season. He scored 26 and had five boards.

Carmel 70, North Lawndale 57: The Corsairs and Phoenix both finish the week 3-1, but Carmel wins the title. Nice start for two teams that began the season just outside the Super 25.

Curie 88, East St Louis 81 OT: Big win for the Condors. Starting to wonder if they are becoming the favorite to grab the top seed at Pontiac. DaJuan Gordon dropped 34 points. Justin Harmon scored 19.

St. Charles East 77, Willowbrook 60: So, haven’t really thought about the Saints at all so far this season. That was clearly a mistake. Here they are winning the Thanksgiving Tournament. Cody Mitchell was the tournament MVP.

Riverside-Brookfield 72, No. 22 Kenwood 49: So the Bulldogs’ win against Oak Park was no fluke. Kind of a shocking margin of victory in this one. There was a running clock to start the fourth quarter. Pat Hanley scored 25 and Zach Vaia added 12 points.

Matt Harness is doing write-ups from the St. Viator Joe Majkowski Thanksgiving Classic again this year. Here is his stuff on tonight’s two games:

No. 2 Evanston 72, No. 9 St. Viator 63: The Wildkits found themselves in their first truly tight game Saturday, and they passed the test to capture the tournament title with a victory over the defending champion Lions.

After winning its first three games by 28 points or more, Evanston (4-0) wasn’t in control until taking a 69-61 lead with 35.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.

“We weathered some storms and faced some adversity,” Evanston head coach Mike Ellis said. “We didn’t get that in the first three games. [Saint Viator’s] a good team. They are tough to guard and can score in many ways. We learned some things.”

The Wildkits led 33-31 at the half and 54-46 through three. But the Lions (3-1) kept it close in the fourth quarter and were within two possessions, 65-59, with 1:58 remaining.

“Credit to Saint Viator,” Evanston senior guard Lance Jones said. “That’s a very good team, and we were happy to play in a game like this. We were tested.”

Evanston sophomore guard Jaylin Gibson finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. The Southern Illinois-bound Jones had 15 points and six rebounds. Senior guard Jaheim Holden scored 12 points to go with four assists. Senior guard Ryan Bost and sophomore guard Blake Peters each had 12 points and three rebounds.

Saint Viator was led by its Division I players. Senior forward Jeremiah Hernandez (Kent State) had game-high 22 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and two assists. Senior guard Treyvon Calvin (Wright State) scored 20 points and had five rebounds. Junior forward Michael Huene had 13 points and six rebounds.

Conant 44, Libertyville 39:Senior forward Raj Mittal scored a game-best 21 points to lead the Cougars to a win in their final game of the tournament. Senior guard Anthony Wachal added nine points.

The Cougars (2-2) were up 20-12 at the half 28-16 going into the fourth, but the Wildcats (0-4) rallied to cut the deficit to three in the final quarter.

“We hung in there and made plays when we needed to down the stretch,” Conant head coach Jim Maley said. “If you would have told me Monday we would be 2-2, I would have taken it. There’s a lot we can do to improve. The more practices we have, the better we will get.”

Libertyville was led by senior guard Brian Wilterdink, who scored 15. Junior guard Jackson Watson contributed 12 points.