Nikko Landon, Bennett Kwiecinski lead Loyola past St. Ignatius to win Jesuit Cup

Loyola senior Nikko Landon got off the team bus at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Friday night with a new mindset.

The Ramblers, minus injured leader Connor Barrett, had lost three in a row. Landon decided Friday’s 43rd annual Jesuit Cup matchup against St. Ignatius — a game charged with emotion and meaning for both programs — was the moment things needed to change.

“Since Connor was our leading scorer, teams think now that they can take over and do what they want to us, so I wanted to prove everybody wrong,” Landon said. “During warmups, during stretches, I just knew I had to have a straight business mindset to get this done.”

In front of a rowdy crowd at Northwestern — albeit slightly rowdier on the St. Ignatius side — Landon did just that.

The senior guard scored 16 points and eight rebounds, set up 6-8 big man Bennett Kwiecinski on many of his game-high eight baskets and helped Loyola scrape out a 56-46 win.

“Landon was the player of the game for us,” Ramblers coach Tom Livatino said. “He controlled the game, he was aggressive off the dribble, he scored when he needed to, he let the game come to him and did a good job on defense, too. … Sometimes when guys go out, it’s the next man up, and he seems to have really ran with that.”

PHOTO GALLERY

Loyola’s Bennett Kwiecinski (15) scores over St. Ignatius’s Derek Dingens (22) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

1 of 10

Loyola’s Matthew Enghauser (1) shoots between St. Ignatius’s Luke Collins (11) and Derek Dingens (22) in their 56-46 wini at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

2 of 10

St. Ignatius’s Christian Davis (3) drives past Loyola’s Jordan Kwiecinski (2) in their 56-46 loss at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

3 of 10

Loyola’s Bennett Kwiecinski (15) shoots over St. Ignatius’s Kolby Gilles (13) during their 56-46 win at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

4 of 10

St. Ignatius’s John Digenan (21) scores against Loyola in their 56-46 loss at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

5 of 10

St. Ignatius’s Christian Davis (3) shoots over the Loyola defense in their 56-46 loss at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

6 of 10

Loyola’s Bennett Kwiecinski (15) scores against St. Ignatius in their 56-46 win at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

7 of 10

St. Ignatius’s Parker Higginbottom (1) gets away from Loyola’s Matthew Mangan (21) and Bennett Kwiecinski (15) at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

8 of 10

St. Ignatius’s Derek Dingens (22) scores against Loyola’s Quinn Pemberton (11) in their 56-46 loss at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

9 of 10

Loyola’s Quinn Pemberton (11) drives around St. Ignatius’s Parker Higginbottom (1) in their 56-46 win at Northwestern University in Evanston, Friday, February 8, 2019. | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

10 of 10

Loyola (18-9, 8-5 Catholic-Blue) scored the first nine points of the game and led 27-10 at halftime, at which point St. Ignatius (11-14, 2-10) had made only three field goals.

But the Wolfpack then, finally, found their rhythm. Star guard Christian Davis scored nine of his 16 points in the second half, off-the-bench sparkplug John Digenan scored all 10 of his after the break and St. Ignatius cut the deficit to as little as seven points in the final minutes. For a while, a repeat of last year’s drama — in which the school from the city rallied from 17 down to nearly win at the buzzer — seemed possible.

Kwiecinski (24 points) and senior guard Quinn Pemberton (eight points), however, hit almost all their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

Coach Matt Monroe, whose Wolfpack have now lost eight of nine, said his team needed to get going sooner offensively not only to keep the score closer, but also give the struggling squad a reason to keep the faith.

“When some our shots didn’t fall … we started to search off the bounce instead of using our screening and ball movements for open looks,” he said. “The thing that would’ve really changed the game for us would’ve been if we had hit some of those open shots. That would’ve given us more confidence.”

Instead, it was Loyola celebrating with the snazzy, silver Jesuit Cup trophy after the game for the third consecutive year and 25th time since it debuted 1977 (St. Ignatius, by comparison, has won it 18 times).

Livatino said he read out letters from 45 different alumni to his squad over the past week to emphasize the importance of this rivalry. His strategy clearly worked. The Ramblers snapped their losing skid with an all-around thorough performance, living up to the intense atmosphere and Big Ten arena in which they played.

“It’s about … the culture that we try to embody,” Kwiecinski said. “We’re playing for all the people that have graduated in the past.”