Boys Hoops: St. Rita finishes fourth at Proviso West Holiday Tourney

By Steve Millar
Correspondent

St. Rita went into the Proviso West Holiday Tournament as one of the event’s “big three” teams, along with Chicago Public League powers Whitney Young and Kenwood.

The perception was those three teams were far above the rest of the field.

In the end, however, the Mustangs finished fourth.

St. Rita endured back-to-back gut-wrenching defeats, including a 66-61 overtime loss to Proviso East in the third-place game on Dec. 29.

“We just have to be better,” St. Rita coach Roshawn Russell said afterward. “I thought, mentally, we were just not ready to go. Credit to Proviso East. They’re a good team and they played well. But we made it a game and, at that point, anything can happen.”

Coming off a 68-66 semifinal loss to Young, the Mustangs (8-5) could not pull away from the Pirates (10-2).

Nojus Indrusaitis, who announced his commitment to Iowa State on Dec. 22, led St. Rita with 21 points. Illinois recruit Morez Johnson had 18 points and 16 rebounds, and James Brown added 16 points and eight rebounds.

Johnson scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to try to put the Mustangs over the top. St. Rita led 59-55 with a minute left, but the Pirates tied it on Juaquin Dixon’s drive to the basket with 19 seconds to go. Indrusaitis’ off-balanced 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark.

The Mustangs then went ice cold in overtime, scoring just two points on a Johnson basket with 10 seconds left.

The loss gave St. Rita a lesson on taking a serious approach to every game.

“The key is staying focused on your goals,” Johnson said. “Having the right mindset and not messing around.”

In the semifinal against Young, St. Rita trailed by 17 points early in the third quarter before storming back. Three-point plays in the final 90 seconds by Johnson and Brown brought the Mustangs to within 68-66.

Indrusaitis’ potential game-tying shot at the buzzer was off the mark.

St. Rita opened the tournament with wins of 91-34 over Bowman (Indiana) and 82-68 over Lincoln Park.

For the week, Johnson averaged 19.8 points and 13.3 rebounds, Indrusaitis averaged 18.5 points, Brown contributed 14.3 points and 10 rebounds per game, and Nashawn Holmes chipped in an average of seven points.

St. Rita will need to respond from a pair of tough losses.

“That’s the great thing about tournaments,” Russell said. “They prepare you for the playoffs. We obviously did not play to our abilities at Thanksgiving and we did the same here at Christmas. Hopefully, when it’s time to do it again, when it matters, we’ll respond better and learn from this.”