IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Loyola Academy’s Pete Mangan drives to the hoop in the team’s War on the Shore win over Detriot Jesuit on Jan. 27. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
In the middle of a postgame conversation last weekend, Loyola Academy senior guard Pete Mangan received a cupcake-pop-on-a-stick from teammate John Lynch.
The icing around the cupcake resembled the contours of a basketball. The cupcake was the size of a Ping-Pong ball.
Mangan — like he does so well with a regular basketball in his possession on a court — made a quick, smart decision with the sweet treat in his right hand.
“I’m not going to eat this,” said Mangan, a huge fan of hot wings. “I don’t like cake.
“I’ll give it to one of my teammates.”
Another Game Day, another assist for Mangan, this one resulting in a swallow, not a basketball falling through a net.
Mangan had dished well and scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in LA’s 39-35 defeat of visiting Detroit Jesuit in the third and final game of the War on the Shore event on Jan. 27. But the moment in Wilmette that epitomized his value to the Ramblers (19-3) occurred early on, when the Winnetkan soared and fought with junior forward Jalen Thomas for a rebound at the 4:38 mark of the first quarter.
Both hoopsters ended up tangled and on the floor, with both refusing to concede a two-handed grip on the ball.
Mangan stands 6-feet-3.
Thomas checks in at … 6-9.
A referee signaled jump ball.
“He’s the ideal Loyola Academy basketball player,” Ramblers senior forward Patrick Russell said of Mangan, who averages eight points, six rebounds and four assists per game and ranks second among teammates in steals and deflections. “Pete does everything — big things and little things, all while usually guarding the other team’s best player. Great team player, great with the ball.
“Pete,” Russell added, “is a warrior and our ironman.”
At 2:49 of the third quarter against the Detroit Jesuit Cubs (10-3), Mangan suffered a jammed left thumb but never came out of the game. His bucket a little more than halfway through the fourth quarter cut Jesuit’s lead to 33-32 and triggered a 9-2 game-ending run.
“Petey scores in a variety of ways, guards, rebounds, takes charges,” Ramblers coach Tom Livatino said, adding Mangan’s number of charges taken (14, through Jan. 27) is tied for the team lead with senior Kevin Cunningham. “He buys into everything we do and … does it.
“I like how his game has evolved. I also like his personality; it’s the best, because he’s always happy.”
Mangan and several of his buddies ran a kids sports camp last summer at The School of Saints Faith, Hope & Charity in Winnetka. Some 30 kids (ranging from kindergarteners to seventh-graders), played baseball, softball, football and dodge ball. They tossed water balloons around as well, often eliminating the need to cool off at a local swimming pool.
The happiest kid on Camp Days?
Perhaps Mangan.
“I probably had more fun than the kids did,” said Mangan, whose brother, University of Rochester junior guard Michael Mangan, served as an LA basketball captain, earned Team MVP honors (2014-15 season) and helped the Ramblers win a Class 4A sectional championship in the 2013-14 season.
“I also learned a lot. The camp taught me responsibility. We’re hoping to run another camp for the kids this summer.”
Back in the winter of 2014-15, Mangan made the freshman ‘B’ basketball team at Loyola Academy. Nothing jacked him up more during those months than the opportunity to battle the ‘A’-teamers did.
“Pete was the man for us on that team,” Russell recalled. “Pete carried us. He relished his role, and he loved competing in games and in practices, especially when the coaches let us take on the ‘A’ team. Pete’s a funny and laid-back kid. But he means business when he’s playing basketball.”
Put Mangan on a basketball court, anywhere (positions 1-5), and watch him become an indispensible “employee” in quarters 1-4.
See Pete Mangan bounce a sharp pass to a cutting guard for an easy layup.
See Pete Mangan block a shot against a considerably taller foe on the other end of the court.
See Pete Mangan box out another taller opponent and score via a put-back.
See Pete Mangan sprint from a spot in the backcourt to pounce on a loose ball in the paint.
“I like providing energy and playing all over the place,” said Mangan, who averaged between one and two points as a first-year varsity reserve last season and fully accepted that role “because we had a great team.”
Mangan finished with 12 points, five rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block and one charge taken in LA’s 63-47 defeat of visiting De La Salle on Jan. 26. Nothing flashy.
Nothing vanilla.
It was a Pete Mangan game: workmanlike, quietly effective, a little this and a little that.
“Here’s what Petey is all about,” Livatino said. “He makes winning plays, and he basically guards a really good player — a team’s top scorer, often — and shuts him down; what more could you ask from a player than that? You want Mangan, a great leader and a great teammate, on the court at all times. And those 50-50 balls? Petey does not lose those. Ever.
“He’s got,” the coach summed up, “the heart of a … Rambler.”
Notable: Ramblers junior guard Connor Barrett scored a game-high 13 points (three treys) and grabbed four rebounds in Loyola Academy’s 39-35 defeat of visiting Detroit Jesuit in a War on the Shore game on Jan. 27. Jesuit High School entered the game with a 10-2 record and the No. 10 ranking in Michigan. Jesuit’s Cubs opened the game with a 9-0 run and led 18-14 at the half. LA took its first lead (19-18) on the first of two free throws made by junior guard Quinn Pemberton at 4:02 of the third quarter. Sophomore Bennett Kwiecinski finished with eight points and six rebounds. LA outscored Detroit Jesuit 13-7 in the fourth quarter. “Great win on a great day of basketball,” Ramblers coach Tom Livatino said, referring to the three-game event benefitting the Danny Did Foundation (a mission to prevent deaths caused by seizures). “Every team we play on War on the Shore Weekend is a strong one.” The win last weekend upped LA’s War on the Shore record to 7-1. “We’re proud of that; that’s a legacy thing for our program,” Livatino added. …. Livatino’s club topped visiting De La Salle 63-47 on Jan. 26 to improve to 5-1 in the Chicago Catholic League. Bennett Kwiecinski paced the victors with 13 points. Senior guard Kevin Cunningham and junior guard Connor Barrett each tallied 11 points and went a combined 5-for-8 from three point land, with Cunningham connecting on all three of his trey attempts. LA junior guard Quinn Pemberton (7 points, 3 assists) hit his only three-point attempt, netted his only two-point field-goal try and made both of his free throws.
Pete Mangan celebrates with teammate John Lynch following LA’s win over Detriot Jesuit. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER