Boys basketball: The future looks bright for Elyria Catholic

Elyria Catholic knew this year would be better, but even the most fervent Panthers fans couldn't have thought it would turn around so quickly. The Panthers are 14-7 heading into tonight's regular-season finale against North Coast Conference foe Padua, a game that can be streamed on weol.com and the Chronicle-Telegram YouTube Channel, with a chance to triple their win total from a year ago when they went 5-18. "The culture is different this year. These guys have all come together," Elyria Catholic coach Jason Smith said. "It starts with the players. We could have the greatest system in the world and if they aren't playing together as a unit it doesn't matter." Purvie Smallwood III is the only senior on the Panthers' roster, so the team needed its juniors and sophomores, many of whom gained important varsity experience a season ago, to step up and help turn the team in the right direction. "It started in the offseason. Our coaches were really on us about putting in more effort and energy and playing as a team," junior Donovan Shumpert said. Smith said Shumpert, who leads the Panthers with 6.4 rebounds a game, is the "heart and soul" of the team. From the first game of the season, a 36-point win over Brooklyn, Shumpert knew Elyria Catholic was a changed team. "Honestly, the first game of the season, when I saw how well the ball was moving I knew it would be different this year," Shumpert said. "We were focused on defense and rebounding instead of playing 1-on-1 and worrying about individual stats." Junior Matisse Williams has emerged as the Panthers' leading scorer with five games of 20 or more points over the past month, including a 29-point effort in Wednesday's road win at NDCL. "I've been trying to find a way to improve my game," Williams said. "I saw coming into this year we needed scorers so I knew I had to step up my game." When asked when things started to turn around for Elyria Catholic, Williams pointed to the end of the 2024-25 season, when after a 1-15 start and a 13-game losing streak, the Panthers ended the year with three wins in their final four regular-season games. "Those final games last year showed us that we were capable of doing big things if we improved over the summer," Williams said. Smith agreed that those late-season wins, which seemed inconsequential at the moment, laid the foundation of this year's success. "It was huge for us. It proved to the guys this was a group that could win. It showed them what the future could look like," Smith said. "The end of the season last year and the summer we had was like a light at the end of the tunnel." The Panthers started the year 6-1 with wins over Amherst, Bellevue and defending district champion Norwayne. "Our first road win against Norwayne was huge for us," Smith said. "Then coming back and beating Bellevue, who beat us last year, helped us go from it being a surprise we won to an expectation." Sophomore Dominique Stamper has directed the Elyria Catholic offense this year averaging 4.4 assists. He also made what was arguably the Panthers' biggest basket of the season, a 3-pointer that was the difference in an upset win over NCC-leading CVCA. "Last year, there were a lot of egos involved but this year we've been disciplined and we're playing for the team, this program and each other," Stamper said. "Last year, we only had five wins. We know this year we did not want that to happen, so we've had a chip on our shoulder all year. The CVCA game showed us where we are as a team when we play together." Elyria Catholic will get to host at least one postseason game this year when the winner of Brush and Ashtabula Lakeside come to the Coliseum on Feb. 27. But the way the Panthers are finishing this season, they are 5-2 in their last seven games, this could be the making of a true title contender next season, with almost the entire roster returning. "Our future is we're going to keep getting better," Williams said. "We're going to lose a big guy with Purvie, but other guys will pick it up and keep this rolling." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.