Five Takeaways: Mt. Carmel vs Loyola Blakefield

<p>Yesterday morning a rescheduled matchup between Mt. Carmel and Loyola took place for an 11 a.m. tip. It was a closely contested game throughout, but Mt. Carmel made their runs late when needed on a way to a 68-59 win. Here are five takeaways from the contest.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="837931" first="Kevin" last="Kalu"] dominates</strong></span></p> <p>I saw steady progression from Kalu over the summer and fall league sessions, but yesterday the 6-foot-8 forward was dominant in just about every fashion as he led the Cougars with a game-high 18 points. There weren’t rebounding statistics available, but I had Kalu down for 13 rebounds and 4 blocks as well. Six of his 18 points came from dunks and each of them sent a message to the opponent. His first dunk came off a drop step operating on the right block. He took a power dribble to the middle, jumped off both feet and flushed the ball with two hands right over his defender. The second dunk came via dump off pass from 2022 guard Toby Nnadozie when Kalu was hanging in the dunker’s spot to the left of the rim. He caught the no-look pass and raised up over two defenders for another poster finish. The third dunk put the nail in the coffin when he had the entire lane to himself and flew high above the rim, coming down with enough authority that I thought the backboard may give out. Kalu has a few low-major programs tracking him. If you had to base an evaluation off yesterday’s performance, he looked like a legitimate mid-major big. </p> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="902019" first="Cam" last="Smith"] comes on late</strong></span></p> <p>The 2021 forward got off to a slow start, but scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the second half to keep the Dons within reach. The 6-foot-7 forward was effective on the defensive end throughout and made sound rotations as the weakside defender where in one instance, drew a charge. Smith got started in the second half burying a three and took his business inside or off the dribble from there on. If he came out with that aggressive mindset from the start, Loyola may have been in better position to steal this game.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Toby Nnadozie shows his upside</strong></span></p> <p>Nnadozie is a prospect I’ll be tracking closely because of what he brings to the floor. He has great size and strength for a combo guard at 6-foot-3 and is equipped with elite athleticism and explosiveness. One of the top high-flying prospects in the area, Nnadozie made multiple plays in the lane where he hung in the air for crafty finishes. He canned two triples as he displayed his much improved jumper and even handled the ball for stints to initiate the offense and make plays for others while 2022 point guard [player_tooltip player_id="904628" first="Deon" last="Perry"] was out. </p> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="904648" first="Gavin" last="Walsh"] logs productive day</strong></span></p> <p>Walsh is one of the players in the MIAA that will experience a bigger boost in stats because of his improved skill set and becoming more comfortable with his body. Walsh is nearing 6-foot-7 and can be a scoring threat from all three levels. He’ll knock down three’s off the catch, but also has the confidence of putting the ball on the deck, getting into the paint and showcasing his underrated athleticism. Walsh finished with 15 points in the loss, 12 of which came in the second half as he and Smith led the Loyola charge. It wasn’t enough to come out with the win, but the growth in his game is evident.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Looking ahead</strong></span></p> <p>With the win, Mt. Carmel improves to 2-0 on the year and will travel to McDonogh on Monday as they look to establish a streak. Loyola falls to 1-1 with the loss and will host St. Frances for a very tough matchup on Monday for a 6 p.m. tip.</p>