Being at Gentile Arena for the Jesuit Cup rivalry between Loyola and St. Ignatius is nothing new for Sam Golden.
Being the hero is, though.
Golden hit a turnaround three-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer, lifting Loyola past No. 11 St. Ignatius 48-45 Friday.
It was the fourth, and most important, three-pointer of the game for the 6-2 junior, who finished with a team-high 16 points.
Trey Williams had 11 points, four rebounds and two steals for the Ramblers (6-3, 1-1 Catholic League Blue), who have won 11 of the past 12 games in the series. Brendan Loftus grabbed seven rebounds and Luke Alvarez scored seven points for Loyola.
“I used to come [to the Jesuit Cup game] every year,” Golden said. “Then I was on the team last year as a sophomore but I didn’t play. But this year I had to come in and play a big role.”
“Sam had a little bit of a coming-out party,” Loyola coach Tom Livatino said. “He made some big shots all game long. He’s been trending.”
And on one of the bigger regular-season stages, too. Playing at a college arena, in front of a big crowd with a pair of boisterous student sections — it’s a different animal from your average December game.
“It’s always circled at the start of the season,” Golden said. “We always look forward to it.”
“This game does mean a lot to us,” Livatino said. “We talk about it for the whole year. For us, it’s the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. And sometimes you’ve got to be lucky.”
Loyola trailed only once, at 42-41 late in the fourth quarter. But it was close throughout, and tense for a newcomer like Golden.
“At the start, I was really feeling anxious and nervous,” he said. “But as the game went on, it kind of [became easy].”
As is usually the case in this game, Loyola is finding its way as it adds football players coming off a state championship into the mix.
Loftus, Washington football recruit Donovan Robinson and Iowa football commit Ryan Fitzgerald all fall into that category.
“For Ignatius, that’s a tough way to lose,” Livatino said. “But Sam made a shot, and like Sam said, that was in all the way. So credit to our guys.
“We’re an evolving team. We’re not even close to being fully formed. Our football guys can’t play for very long and when they do, they can’t play that hard. But they’ve got a toughness level that’s championship level. So we need to get them in shape …[then] we have a chance to be pretty good.”
St. Ignatius (7-1, 0-1) had 18 points from Napoleon Harris IV along with 12 points and nine rebounds from Northwestern recruit Phoenix Gill.
“[Harris] had a really, really good night,” Livatino said. “He made us pay for some of the things we were doing [defensively]. But we had to pick our poison with them.”
“Hats off to Loyola,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe said. “They played extremely well [and] they had a great game plan. … I don’t think we played our best basketball. We’ve been shooting 41% from three all year and we shot 3 of 19 today.”