It was quite the contrast in school history. The Shoes are competing in their 99th season and are nearing 2,000 wins. This is just the ninth year for DePaul College Prep, a Catholic high school on the north side of Chicago. The school started its basketball program for the 2014-15 season. It was known as Gordon Tech prior to that.
Over the past nine years, the Rams have bounced back and forth between Class 3A and Class 2A. They have eight regionals, three sectionals and three super sectional titles under their belt during that stretch. They also have two third place finishes – 2019 in 3A and last year in 2A.
DePaul will now play for the state championship Saturday afternoon against Bloomington Central Catholic. Tipoff is scheduled for 12:45 p.m.
The game was low-scoring, but close in the first half. A basket by James Niebrugge tied the game at 6-6 at the 2:08 mark of the opening quarter. Two jumpers by Payton Kamin gave the Rams a 10-6 lead by the end of the period – a lead they never relinquished.
Garrett Gaddis scored to open the second quarter and get the Shoes within 10-8, but DePaul then went on a 9-1 surge. A three-pointer by PJ Chambers and then a jumper and a dunk by Jaylan McElroy gave the Rams their first double-digit lead.
James Niebrugge added a bucket to make it 19-11 as the two teams headed to the locker room at intermission.
“Had we knocked down a couple shots, it might have made a difference,” Reeder noted. “They were doubling Caleb (Siemer) before we even got the ball down the floor. If we had made a few of those shots, it might have made a difference in what they were able to do with Caleb. But we had a few shots rattle out and things just snowballed on us.”
It actually became an avalanche in the second half, especially the final 12 minutes.
Maurice Thomas hit a pair of shots from long range and Jonas Johnson added a basket for DePaul, but T-Town countered with scores from Joey and James Niebrugge, plus another by Siemer. It was still a 10-point gap, 27-17, midway through the third quarter.
Unfortunately for the Shoes, they didn’t score again. The rest of the game. They missed their final 13 shots, plus turned the ball over six times, as the Rams continued to widen the gap.
Thomas had two more buckets, plus Makai Kvamme and Chambers added scores to give DePaul a 35-17 advantage heading into the final eight minutes. The Rams then outscored THS 10-0 in the fourth quarter to end the second half with a 26-6 scoring advantage.
“I thought we really made them work offensively,” said Tom Kleinschmidt, who has coached the Rams all nine seasons and sports a 197-77 career record heading into Saturday’s championship contest. “We fronted their big (Siemer) and shaded their shooters (Brendan Niebrugge and Gaddis). We felt that took away some of their options. I think our defense wore them down.”
Reeder agreed.
“They have so much length,” the THS coach explained. “And that length can guard multiple positions. McElroy guarded Caleb, but could also step out and defend our guards. That length bothered us and affected the things we wanted to do.
“The guys just weren’t themselves today,” Reeder added. “The stage wasn’t too big for them, though. Our effort on defense was tremendous. Our offense was just in slow motion. We had some early turnovers, missed some open shots and things just wore on them. We got on our heels early and never regrouped.”
“And, like I said. That’s a very good basketball team that we played.”
The Rams, who improved to 22-12, had two players in double figures. Thomas finished with 16 and McElroy added 10. They hit 62 percent of their shots, connecting on 21-of-34 attempts. They were 3-for-10 from three-point range and 0-for-3 from the foul line.
James Niebrugge led the Shoes with eight points. T-Town made just 8-of-32 shots overall, an icy 25 percent clip. They were 0-for-9 from long range and 1-for-3 at the line.
THS dipped to 28-8 and was scheduled to face Taylor Ridge (Rockridge) in the third place game.
“Did you see how many people came from T-Town to support this team?” Reeder said. “The support we get is second to none. We’re the luckiest team in the state.”
Coach Reeder was also feeling lucky about being on the sidelines once more this year with this group.
“I get the opportunity to coach this team – and these five seniors – one more time,” he said. “It would be nice to take home the third place trophy, but I just want them to play as hard as they can and leave everything on the floor. I can’t wait to coach these guys one more time.”
