High school basketball is more fun with big men. High quality guards will always rule the high school game, but when a skilled and exciting tall player showcases his skills, the gym feels like a special place.
DePaul Prep senior Rashaun Porter will spend the winter bringing that buzz to gyms all across the area. Porter is 6-7, on the small side for a big man, but he’s athletic and has learned how to fully dominate in the post.
“He’s really confident,” Rams coach Tom Kleinschmidt said. “He’s developed his game and figured out he can own the paint.”
Top-ranked DePaul Prep rolled to a 53-24 win against host Lane to win the Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament on Wednesday.
Porter, a Toledo recruit, scored the first ten points for the Rams on a variety of post moves, using both hands for buckets at different moments. He finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
DePaul Prep struggled mightily with shooting. The Rams were 0 for 14 from three-point range. Porter was so good that it didn’t matter.
“I didn’t even notice [DePaul Prep guard Rykan Woo] was cold,” Porter said. “He does things that can’t be put on the stat sheet.”
Woo and fellow guard AJ Chambers and Blake Choice weren’t hitting from outside, but they got the ball to Porter and didn’t commit turnovers. The Rams didn’t commit a turnover for the first 20 minutes of the game.
DePaul Prep (3-0) led 28-10 at halftime. The Rams held Lane (1-2) to just one bucket in the second quarter.
Lane has a Division I-bound star in 6-8 Matt Szafoni, an ISU recruit, but the rest of the team is young and inexperienced. Sophomores Isaac Summers, Ethan Chan and John Lamperis all started.
Summers led Lane with 10 points and Szafoni finished with five points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
Woo finished with six points and Choice, an active and intriguing sophomore, had four points and six rebounds for DePaul Prep.
“We are not where we need to be,” Kleinschmidt said. “You can see it in our woeful shooting percentage from three and our lackadaisical passing late. We left a lot out there today. Our ceiling is high, but we have a lot to work on, a lot to improve on. It has to happen quickly. We have Hyde Park and Loyola and La Lumiere coming up.”