With six minutes left in the first half, senior Harrison Radis put his body on the line, causing a collision that took two Latin players to the floor and put the ball in Junior Nick Skok’s hands for a fastbreak to extend Parker’s lead against Latin.

On Friday evening, January 31, the DePaul McGrath-Phillips Arena was filled with spirited members of the Parker and Latin communities holding creative and colorful signs and giant posters of the players’ faces. The second annual Parker-Latin game, dubbed the “Blue Out,” and the first such rivalry game of the new decade, was about to begin. Latin hosted the home court for this game so the cheering sections for each school were flipped from the previous matchup in December. From the very first tip-off of the game, both sides were on their feet, cheering the teams on.

The game was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. but started late after the Latin girls’ basketball game ran late. The anticipation only seemed to further energize the crowd.

The starting five players on the court were the same as the previous game and included the four senior captains: Oliver Manilow, Pierce Ashworth, Gabe Rothschild, and Scott Ingall, along with Skok.

The game began similar to its White Out counterpart, with Parker showing their dominance by taking an early lead of 4-0. A string of key turnovers late in the first quarter allowed Latin to come back and take the lead 14-12 by the end of that quarter. After a quick break, both teams came out strong in the next period, but Parker overcame their opponent and began to pull away after Pierce Ashworth sunk two consecutive three-pointers to increase the Colonels’ lead. Ingall said, “I think we started pulling away in the second and it became clear we wanted it more. I couldn’t feel their passion”

At half-time, the Colonels led an impressive 35 to 25. The Latin team was visibly frustrated as they headed back from the locker room. The Colonels came out at the start of the second half with the same passion and energy from the first. “We didn’t want to get cocky.” Manilow said, “There was still a lot of time left, and we needed to keep our composure and stay focused. The first game was similar at half, but this time we wanted to extend the lead and really demonstrate our skill.”

The Colonels furthered their lead in the third quarter to 50-35. “We didn’t give them anything easy,” Radis said. “They were clearly frustrated and tired later in the game.”

Early in the third quarter the ball made its way from Radis in the paint to Ingall in the corner, who drained a three. “That play really showed that we are a strong team all around.” Manilow said, “We have great vision and ball movement, and all our players are lethal shooters when given the space.”

The Latin Romans started press early in the fourth quarter, needing to get quick possessions and hold the Colonels. They couldn’t stop them though, with Skok accumulating 31 points by the end of the game, a season and career-high for him. The other top scorers were Manilow and Ashworth, with 13 and 11 respectively. 

The final score of the game was 70-44, with the Colonels demolishing the Romans and sweeping them in the two-game series. “People say that if it’s a close game it can be attributed to coaching, but if it’s 20 points or more, it shows a skill gap,” Ingall said. “We are in a unique situation where we won the first game by a little and the second by over 20. It shows that we have great coaching, but also that our team has more talent.”

After the game the team headed to the locker room on the third floor for a debrief. There, they found the whiteboard Latin had used from the first game, with their writing left up. On the board were the names of the 4 senior starters, and some other players, but Skok’s name was nowhere to be seen. “It showed us that had not scouted out Skok before the last game, or thought they didn’t need to worry about him,” Manilow said. “So [Skok] went out and took over, playing some of the best basketball of his career, proving them wrong.”