The Jesuit Rangers basketball team continued to impress last weekend December 1-3, 2011, earning second place in the annual Knights of Columbus Basketball Tournament held at Jesuit.
Just days after running up the score in a game versus Garland Lakeview Centennial, in which Senior center David Lacey scored a whopping 32 points, the Rangers kicked off the yearly tournament with a matchup against St. Paul, another Jesuit school from Canada. Excited about the opportunity to play some foreign competition, the Rangers got off to a quick start and never looked back, taking home a convincing win.
With the Canada game in the books, the Varsity team looked forward to playing the Australian Jesuit team, which travelled all the way from the province of Victoria to play in the tournamenr. With many of the Australian players staying in the homes of some of the Varsity players, this matchup of newly acquainted Jesuit brothers slowly but surely took on a greater importance as the week progressed.
The two Jesuit schools battled it out on Friday night in front of a packed crowd. Dallas Jesuit struck first in the first quarter, with a string of three pointers from senior Reid Leinbaugh as well as good defensive play by juniors JD Waggoner and Steven Speith. Despite the Australians’ advantage in length and size, the Rangers still managed to stay aggressive on the boards.
The Australians, however, showed great offensive strength throughout the first half, especially in the half-court game, where they thrived on set plays. But they were not able to keep up with the likes of the speedy Jesuit offense, which exploited the Australians’ spotty transition defense all night, scoring very rhythmically off of turnovers and fast breaks.
In the second half, Dallas Jesuit bust open the scoring on the Aussies, putting the game out of reach. The game ended 60-38 in favor of Dallas Jesuit, but no love was lost between these two newly acquainted teams, who after the game shared handshakes and congratulatory fist bumps.
With a solid second round victory, the Rangers moved on to the finals to play Mesquite, far and away their biggest competition in the tournament. They kept things close throughout the beginning of the game, and after one quarter the score was 15-14 Mesquite.
After going down by 7 points at the half, the Rangers kept it close the entire game, but eventually lost to the Skeeters 61-56. The Skeeters avenged their loss in the first game of the season, pulling through in the finals of the Knights of Columbus tournament to upset the home team.
Despite this loss, which Coach Chris Hill described as “unenergetic,” Lacey once again proved that he is becoming a true star for the Jesuit Rangers, leading all scorers with 21 points. Lacey, the agile senior center, has been the leading scorer for Dallas Jesuit in every game this season.
On top of Lacey’s stellar performance in the final, Reid Leinbaugh ’12, the Rangers’ long distance sharp shooter, scored 10 points, while newcomer Bryan Stankey ’13 had 9 points.
Despite this tough loss in the finals, the Rangers must mentally prepare for a busy upcoming week that involves not only a huge showdown with Plano West, but also a big trip to Buffalo, NY for the Canisius Shootout, two very exciting prospects for a team that is showing much promise at 6-2.
