To say the Bishop McNamara boys basketball team is starting a gauntlet of games might be an understatement.

The Fightin’ Irish’s Chicagoland Christian Conference slate heats up this week with a trip to defending IHSA Class 2A third-place Christ the King and a home game with the conference’s largest school, Wheaton Academy.

But before that, the Irish had to get past a young, but fearless Manteno team on the road Tuesday night.

Safe to say, they passed that test.

After outscoring the Panthers by 14 points in the first quarter, the Irish continued their heater into the second, where they scored the first 13 points of the frame to leave little doubt on their way to a 61-24 win.

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Boys Basketball: Manteno vs. Bishop McNamara Bishop McNamara's Jayson Benton tips the ball away from Manteno's Cade Bechard during the Fightin' Irish's 61-24 victory over Manteno on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Senior point guard Teddy Fogel, who grew up in Manteno before moving to Bourbonnais in recent years, couldn’t have been happier to trek back a few miles north, stop by his childhood home and orchestrate the offense for the Irish (16-3) in a nonconference rivalry win.

“It’s pretty special to come back here, play my home team and get a really good win for our team,” Fogel said.

What was special was the commanding lead the Irish took early and never let go. After an 18-4 advantage in the first, their lead swelled to 31-4 off that 13-0 run before settling into halftime with a 42-10 margin before the running clock activated in the fourth quarter.

Tuesday was the third win in a row for the Irish, who got 14 points from Coen Demack, 11 from Richard Darr and 10 from Karter Krutsinger. After catching a bug near the end of their time at the State Farm Holiday Classic, Irish head coach Adrian Provost has seen that rest pay off since they returned to game action last week.

“We took a few days off to get healthy, and since we got back in the gym we’ve really emphasized defense,” Provost said. “And it showed tonight.”

Provost had a chance to kill two birds with one stone when he scouted both the Panthers and Christ the King when they played for the blue bracket championship at last month’s Kankakee Holiday Tournament. In that game, one the Gladiators won 65-52 after holding on to a two-possession lead most of the night, Provost saw the potential the sophomore-heavy Panthers have.

“I thought we did a nice job of making them uncomfortable and taking away some of the things they like to do,” Provost said. “They’ll be fine. They’re a young basketball team that’s a much better basketball team than they were tonight.”

Fortunately for the Irish, some of the youth that’s provided some early sparks for the Panthers (8-9) wasn’t able to find that same level on Tuesday, giving them their fourth loss in five games.

Sophomore Ramsey Owens tallied a team-high nine points, followed closely behind by senior leader Braden Campbell’s seven.

“Credit to them, they came out swinging and kicked us in the mouth,” Myers said. “I didn’t feel like we responded very well. We are young and trying to figure some things out, but they made some shots and I thought we had some open looks early that didn’t fall. That put us in an early rut that was tough to come back from.”

After going decades without seeing each other on the schedule, Tuesday was the second half of a home-at-home series that was rekindled at McNamara last season.

Provost, a 1992 McNamara graduate who’s served as head coach at his alma mater from 2004-06 and again since 2014, can’t remember the last time before last year that the schools had played.

But he’s glad it’s back.

“It’s awesome,” Provost said. “It’s a unique gym with one-sided bleachers, a local game with a good crowd and two good student sections, two schools that do it the right way. We can’t get enough of these games.”

And, like last year, basketball wasn’t the main priority on the night. After coming together to raise money and stuffed animals for Comer Children’s Hospital and recognizing brave local childhood cancer patients at McNamara last year, this year’s meeting supported Harbor House.

Safe Harbor night collected items that the Kankakee and Iroquois County domestic violence shelter is in need of and also raised money for the organization.

“We just picked an organization that maybe doesn’t always catch the limelight, but an organization that I feel is a very meaningful thing for our area,” Myers said. “I know winter time is a time they can get especially busy, so we wanted to bring that to light and help in any way we could.”