Lake Forest’s Mead Payne tries to muscle up a shot against St. Ignatius’ Dariusz Muta during action at the New Trier-Loyola Academy Thanksgiving Tournament. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Pouring in 46 points in the first two games of a tournament can be very persuasive.
It was for Lake Forest’s Mead Payne.
The 6-foot-7 senior center opened the New Trier-Loyola Thanksgiving tourney in impressive fashion. Payne scored 20 points in an opening win over Butler Prep 63-45 on Nov. 20.
And then, Payne tallied 26 points and nine rebounds in a 65-53 loss to Lincoln Park.
Those two outings made him a good fit for all-tournament honors.
The other selections were New Trier’s Brian Conaghan, Andrew Kirkpatrick and Griffin Ryan; Loyola Academy’s Connor Barrett and Kevin Cunningham; Lincoln Park’s Chris Roberts and Terrance Shannon; St. Ignatius’ Luke Deely and Dariusz Muta; U-High’s Christian Brookens; Butler Prep’s Teon Nesbitt; and Von Steuben’s Michael Adedun.
Kirkpatrick was named tourney MVP. In helping the Trevians finish 4-0, the senior guard came up with 18 points in NT’s 63-51 victory over St. Ignatius in the championship game on Nov. 25.
NT’s other scoring leaders against St. Ignatius included Ryan (9 points), Noah Osher (13), Ciaran Brayboy (8) and Spencer Boehm (8).
Loyola Academy topped Lincoln Park 58-37 in the third-place game on Nov. 24 to finish the tourney with a 3-1 record. Cunningham (12 points, 7 assists), Barrett (12 points), Pete Mangan (13 points) and Jordan Kwiecinski (7 rebounds) paced the Ramblers.
In its 44-32 win over Von Steuben on Nov. 20, LA was led by Cunningham (9 points), Mangan (8 points, 5 assists) and Bennett Kwiecinski (9 points). And, in their 50-47 victory over U-High on Nov. 21, the Ramblers were paced by Barrett (23 points), Mangan (10 points) and Cunningham (7 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds).
Meanwhile, in addition to Payne, Lake Forest (2-2) received solid showings from seniors Ben Gibson, Jed Thomas and Sean Trkla.
In the fifth-place game — a 41-32 victory over U-High — on Nov. 25, Gibson led the Scouts with 15 points, three rebounds and two assists. He had 16 points and four rebounds in a 51-40 setback to St. Ignatius in Day Three of the tourney. He had a combined 30 points in the games against Butler and Lincoln Park.
Thomas came up with six points and four assists in LF’s win over U-High. He had seven points and two assists against Butler.
Trkla tossed in 11 points versus St. Ignatius, while he had six assists and eight rebounds against Butler.
After a tough game against St. Ignatius, Payne helped the LF cause with eight points and 11 rebounds against U-High.