PONTIAC—DePaul Prep has won back-to-back Class 3A state championships with teams built on defense. This season’s edition of the Rams plays a more up-tempo style, but Saturday in the 93rd Pontiac Holiday Tournament championship game it all came down to one final defensive stop.
Benet’s Blake Fagbemi missed a three-pointer at the buzzer and DePaul Prep captured the title with a 59-56 win.
The Redwings led 56-54 after Fagbemi’s jumper with 3:48 left. Benet didn’t score again.
Rashaun Porter, a 6-7 junior, led the Rams (14-1) with 17 points and nine rebounds. His strong presence in the post also helped limit Benet’s size advantage of 7-2 junior Colin Stack and 6-9 senior Daniel Pauliukonis.
DePaul Prep tied the game on a fast break basket by WIU recruit Makai Kvamme and took the lead for good on Porter’s post basket with 1:28 to play.
DePaul Prep’s Rykan Woo had a fantastic day. The junior guard finished with 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in the title game. He had 17 points in the semifinal win against Curie.
Woo began high school at Young. He was an eye-opening player as a freshman on the Dolphins’ sophomore team but didn’t play much on varsity last year and transferred to DePaul Prep.
Junior guard AJ Chambers, a first-team all-tournament selection, was injured on the last play of the first half and didn’t return. Jonas Johnson, a 6-6 senior, stepped into the starting lineup in his place and finished with two points and five rebounds.
It was the first appearance at Pontiac for DePaul Prep, which won the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic last season.
Fagbemi led Benet with 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists and Pauliukonis added 17 points.
The Redwings (13-2) have lost the Pontiac championship game in each of the last three years and five of the last ten years. Benet has never won the tournament.
This was the first title game matchup between private schools in the tournament’s history. The last private school to win the championship was Providence-St. Mel in 1984.
Simeon and Curie have combined to win the last 13 titles at Pontiac. The last non-Public League team to win the championship before DePaul Prep was Waukegan in 2009.
