They saw BC High hoops win it all in 2022. Yhomby, Civello steering Eagles at winning pace

DORCHESTER — Where are they now?

In terms of the 2022 state-champion BC High boys basketball team that coasted through the Division 1 pack unscathed (25-0), its top talent is still impressing on the hardwood.

• Mike Loughnane, son of longtime Eagles coach Bill Loughnane, took a one-year stint at Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire before winding up on the team at Davidson College in North Carolina, the alma mater of Stephen Curry. He averaged 27.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game as a senior at BC High.

• Spark plug Greg Cooper made the team at Harvard, after averaging 11.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game for the Eagles as a senior.

• Mahari Guerrier, a 6-foot-4 forward, recently set the single-game program record for rebounds in a game (21) for Emmanuel College in his early days as a freshman starter. He averaged 14.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game as a senior for the Eagles.

What about Ivan Yhomby and Dan Civello?

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Those two, both sophomores at the time, were on the fringes of the Eagles' roster in 2022. Yhomby, a Quincy native, was a bench guard who received spot minutes when the Eagles lineup needed a pick-me-up defensively, and Civello, of Weymouth, alternated between the JV and varsity ranks.

This winter, they team up in the Eagles' (8-3) starting lineup as seniors, and the last remaining strands of DNA from that unforgettable 2022 team.

“It was good, sophomore year, to see how those guys carried themselves," Civello said of the title team's stars. "Over the last two years, I’ve worked as hard as I could to get better on both sides of the ball.”

“I became more of a leader," Yhomby said. "My sophomore year, obviously, I was just kind of a role guy. Now I’ve stepped into a bigger position, and I’m trying to keep it rolling.”

Civello, the Eagle's starting center, vaulted from a modest 6-foot-6 as a sophomore to stand 6-foot-9 as a senior. And, Yhomby, now a consistent double-digit scorer, has emerged as the team's late-game offensive option. He delivered the winning layup at the buzzer to stun Malden Catholic on the road, 61-59, on Jan. 9.

“From a role player to becoming men, you have to get better and take on more responsibility. They’re still adjusting, but they’re doing a good job with it," Bill Loughnane said. "I’m on both of them because we know they can be good. We want them to be good. And, for us to be good, they have to be good. We know what they’re capable of. We want them to reach their potential.”

So far, it's paid off in the team's 8-3 stature at No. 7 in the MIAA's latest release of the Division 1 power rankings.

The Eagles raced out to a 7-1 start to the season headlined by statement wins over Weymouth (75-61), St. John's Prep (59-36) and Mansfield (49-43) before dropping a pair to Catholic Memorial (75-66) and Lawrence (71-68).

Tuesday, the team righted things with a 57-49 win over Xaverian at home in which the Eagles built up a 17-point lead late despite the pass-first Yhomby finishing the night scoreless. Junior forward James Jones (of Dorchester) led with 18 points and Civello put in 14.

No points for Yhomby? No problem.

“He’s our rock,” Civello said of his point guard. “Even when he doesn’t show up on the score sheet, he does so much with playing on-ball defense and keeping the ball with no turnovers. He’s been great.”

“A lot of times, his scoring comes at the end of the shot clock when we need someone to get to the basket," Bill Loughnane said of Yhomby. "And, defensively, we want him to set the tone. That’s the role he’s had for three years now.”

Surrounding the two mainstays is a cast of Jones, junior guard Julian Sustache (who is from Easton, formerly of Archbishop Williams), 6-foot-7 forward Jalen Rogers, junior guard Hilton Iyare, senior guard Ritchny Blaise and sophomore guard Liam Lee.

In regards to his new promotion, Yhomby deflected to his teammates, saying, "We're just playing, trying to win a state championship."

What a full-circle moment that would be.

"I remember the crowds. Every single game was packed," Yhomby said of the 2022 title run. "It was fun."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Last pieces from 2022 run, BC High basketball leans on new tandem