The Lions won a Feb. 11-13 tournament at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio after sweeping a Jan. 28-30 tournament at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.
Sacred Heart fielded two teams in the Ohio tournament, but its “B” team, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, failed to win a single game.
The Lions, however, clinched their victory in the five-team tourney with a 25-point win over St. Paul’s Seminary from Pittsburgh, Pa., said Jesuit Fr. John McDermott, who is the seminary’s basketball coach in addition to teaching theology.
He said success came despite key player Tim Horst getting a bloody nose in the first game, making him unable to contribute to the Lions’ effort in Columbus the way he had at Mundelein.
But Fr. McDermott said the Lions saw a good play from Nick Thompson, the team’s captain, and from Mike Weisbeck, Aaron Bellisle and Vince Richardson.
At the 11-team Mundelein, the Lions won five games to become the champions, Fr. McDermott continued, saying the Lions “played very well as a team, and with great discipline.”
While calling the victories “really a team effort,” he noted that Horst, a first-year philosophy student, scored the most three-point shots of any player on any team and was declared the most valued player of the entire tournament.
Fr. McDermott, who is in his third year as coach, said he has built on the foundation laid by the late Fr. Paul Berg, who was the seminary’s long-time basketball coach.
“This year’s team is exceptionally good,” he said, noting that the Lions had only lost one game during the entire season before going into the Mundelein tournament.
