Potent H-F outlasts Loyola and Munsey-Johnson’s big effort

Brody Munsey-Johnson and the Loyola Academy crew were ready early.

The mobile and high-energy senior forward made big plays on the offensive glass and defensive end in the first half, as the Ramblers jumped on top of Homewood-Flossmoor by double-digits in the second quarter.

Munsey-Johnson, a 6 foot-4, long and athletic Wisconsin-Eau Claire baseball commit, finished with a team-high 21 points and created opportunities galore for the Ramblers.

“He’s a quiet kid. He’s been really good,” Ramblers coach Tom Livatino said. “He rebounds the ball. He’s selfless. He scores the ball at a high percentage around the rim. He’s competitive. He does a lot of good stuff.”

Munsey-Johnson’s performance, though, wasn’t enough, as Loyola — playing less than 24 hours after a last-second victory on the road — ran out of gas against the run-and-gun, south-suburban juggernaut Vikings (20-3), falling 66-61 Saturday afternoon, Jan. 31.

Saturday was the 16th War on The Shore, a Livatino creation that has annually brought marquee basketball matchups North Shore. Each year, Loyola (18-6, 3-2 Catholic League Blue), Evanston and New Trier welcome top programs in support of the Danny Did Foundation, a nonprofit that works to prevent deaths related to epilepsy.

New Trier (19-6) topped Glenbard North (17-6), 58-41, and Bolingbrook (18-6) bested Evanston (20-4), 79-63 in other War on the Shore action.

Per Munsey-Johnson and Livatino, the Ramblers need to improve their conditioning and intensity and that originates in practices. The senior also said he must be more vocal.

“Up intensity in practices. We’ve been playing with some low energy in a few games,” Munsey-Johnson said. “Low communication, so I feel like we’ve got to improve on that.”

Time and again Saturday, Munsey-Johnson came through in big moments only for the Vikings to answer in those critical junctures late in both the third and fourth quarters.

“Fatigue, trying to get better sometimes, leads to missed closeouts or rotations on defense and opponents get open shots and it hurts toward the ends,” Munsey-Johnson said.

The Vikings came out of halftime surging off the play of Dante Ruffin Jr., who converted an easy layup and a quick mid-range jumper off a slick crossover to give this team a 38-33 advantage.

The Ramblers answered, as a Trey Williams triple knotted the game at 38 apiece.

The two squads traded blows from there, with the Vikings’ Marvin Douglas delivering consecutive and-one buckets plus free throws and a two-handed slam off the dribble to propel H-F to a 51-45 lead.

Big-time buckets from Luke Alvarez (a wing three-pointer) and Munsey-Johnson (a put-back layup) pulled the Ramblers back within a point, 55-54, in the fourth.

The relentless senior forward finished another attempt through contact and sank the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 57 with just under 6 minutes remaining.

But the Ramblers only hit a single shot from the floor the rest of the game — a Munsey-Johnson bucket off a Williams assist with 45 seconds remaining to pull within two, 63-61.

Homewood-Flossmoor was led by Douglas’ 22 points and timely play around the rim.

Williams scored 13 points and contributed in a barrage of other ways with and without the ball less than 24 hours after he sank a deep, buzzer-beating three-pointer to give the Ramblers a 36-34 win against Catholic League Blue foe Fenwick.

“I wouldn’t call last night a big win,” Livatino said. “I thought we played very poorly, and I thought that Trey Williams played very well. I don’t mean (just) the last shot; I mean he has (played well) in this last stretch of games. He has really galvanized his toughness and he has really demonstrated a lot of growth in that area and I’m tremendously proud of that, and we need some other guys to follow that lead.”

The Ramblers accepted the challenge of playing Homewood-Flossmor’s quick pace early. After trading early clunky possessions, Munsey-Johnson created opportunities for teammates on second-chances. The Ramblers led by as much as 11 in the first quarter and 22-14 after a period.

With games next week in the Catholic League Blue against De La Salle next Friday, prefaced by a road contest at state-ranked St. Patrick, the battle-tested Ramblers are looking back to the drawing board.

“Unfortunately we can’t win the Catholic League Blue. DePaul (Prep) has already done that, but we have focused ourselves on finishing in second by winning the last two games and that’s an important step,” Livatino said. “What we really talked about was resting up, sleeping, hydrating, eating and coming to practice on Monday to have the greatest practice in the history of Loyola Academy.”

Samuel Golden added 13 points and Luke Alvarez 10 for Loyola on Saturday.

“I think we’re disappointed as we should be. I think that we played a really good first quarter and then we immediately ran out of gas,” Livatino said. “I think we were physically tired and that didn’t allow us to do the stuff that we would normally expect to do.”

With the Ramblers sitting on the cusp of another 20-win season, something the Ramblers have done every full season since 2016-2017, the Ramblers have been tested enough to be primed for another late-season run.

“I’m here for this and I’m here to win,” Munsey-Johnson said. “So we’ve got to do that as a team and go as far as we can.”

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.