New-look St. Rita wins Thanksgiving hardware

Alec Millender didn’t want St. Rita to go 0-for-2 on Saturday.

Millender and his basketball teammates spent the morning in DeKalb watching their football counterparts rally late before losing to Rochester in the Class 5A championship game,

Then they headed to Riverside-Brookfield to play Morton in the title game of the Bill VandeMerkt Thanksgiving Classic. St. Rita fell behind by 12 in the second quarter but stormed back to win 71-70 and move to 4-0.

“It was great for them to make it all the way to the state championship,” Millender said of the football team. “That’s inspiring for us. ... We said, ‘If our brothers lose, we’re going to win for them.’”

It took a collective effort for St, Rita to offset Morton’s 1-2 scoring punch of Kendell Nichols, who had a game-high 27 points, and Manuel Rodriguez, who added 18.

Four St. Rita starters scored in double figures, and freshman Kaiden Space did the same off the bench. Christian Henry scored 17, Connor Severn had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Space added 14 points, Kevin Murney had 13 and Millender finished with 10.

It’s an encouraging start for a team with a new coach in Roshawn Russell and only one returning player who averaged double-digit minutes last season (Millender).

“I have to focus more on being a leader,” MIllender said. “I’ve got to show these younger guys how to respond.”

Murney sees himself in a similar role, and so does his coach.

“He’s the glue,” Russell said. “He’s the heart and soul of the team. ... He’s our constant, he’s the guy who does the dirty work. He gets loose balls, he gets rebounds.”

“I just like to pick everybody up when they’re down,” Murney said. “I like to be the positive guy, make sure everyone has their head up.”

That was needed in the first half, when Morton (3-1) was shooting 72 percent from the floor (18-for-25). Morton’s lead peaked at 41-29 with 1:21 left in the second quarter before St. Rita went on a 9-2 run to end the half and cut the gap to 43-38.

“At halftime, we knew they’re not going to shoot as well as they did in the first half,” Russell said. “So we had to stay the course, we had to adjust, we had to slow them down.

“In our man (defense), they got whatever they wanted. Our zone took some time off the clock and it worked out for us in the end.”

St. Rita took went ahead for the first time since the first quarter with a 9-0 run that made it 71-67 with 2:53 left. Rodriguez cut the lead to 71-70 with a three-pointer at 2:36 and neither team scored again.

“I think it’s a statement for us,” Murney said. “We’re a young team, but we have a lot of talent. ... No one really talks about us, but I think we’re for real this year.”

So does Millender.

“All the changes we had, we just wanted to come out and show people we’re still about business and we’re good,” he said. “We felt pretty disrespected that we weren’t talked about this year at all.

“We’re playing with a chip on our shoulder.”