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Boys Basketball: Peter Pujals leads Loyola past Evanston
Evanston junior Pete Winslow (30) puts up a shot down low during the game at Loyola on Saturday, December 10, 2011.
| michael jarecki ~ for Sun-Times Media
Peter Pujals hasn’t been with the basketball team for very long this season after helping Loyola to the Class 8A title game in football.
But the senior sure is making up for lost time.
Pujals scored a game-high 20 points Saturday, and his steal and two free throws in the closing minute carried the Ramblers to a 49-44 win over visiting Evanston.
Ahead one going into the fourth quarter, Loyola leaned on Pujals in the final eight minutes. His basket midway through the quarter gave the Ramblers a 42-36 advantage, and his baseline layup upped the lead to seven with 1:48 to play. He scored 16 points in the second half.
Loyola coach Tom Livatino won’t return the victory, but he knows his team needs to play better moving forward.
“I think we have a lot of pieces to be a good offensive team,” he said. “I have to do a better job of coaching them.”
Despite struggling on offense, Livatino lauded his team’s character and will to win Saturday.
“We are finding ways to win against good teams,” said Livatino, whose team improved to 4-3 overall.
The No. 25-ranked Wildkits lost for the second time in a row to fall to 7-2. They never trailed in the first half until Richie Wehman’s running 25-footer at the buzzer lifted Loyola to a 19-18 lead at intermission and capped an 8-0 run by the Ramblers.
Loyola didn’t pull away for good until the fourth quarter.
Leonard Garron led Evanston with 11 points, including a three-pointer with 11.4 seconds to go to get the Wildkits within four. Evanston was without Josh Irving, who sat out Saturday’s game after getting two technical fouls in Friday’s loss to Waukegan.
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