QUARTERFINALS BOUND
De La Salle headed to quarters after beating U-D Jesuit
Linden Holder and his De La Salle Collegiate teammates were ready for the moment.
Staggered by U-D Jesuit’s third-quarter barrage that cut a 20-point lead to four, Holder and the Pilots scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter and Holder made a pair of free throws with 7.2 seconds left on the way to a 64-59 victory in a Division 1 regional championship basketball game at De La Salle on Thursday night.
“We earned this,” Holder said after the Pilots won their first regional since 2018. “We deserve this.”
Gjon Djokaj, in his first season as the Pilots’ coach, said the Warren team was prepared for any challenge the Cubs might raise.
“Everyone stepped up,” Djokaj said.
The coach called it “fitting” that Holder, a senior guard, made the clinching free throws.
“There isn’t a person in the world I’d rather have at the line than Linden Holder,” Djokaj said. “The kid’s dedication to the game, to our team and to our program is second to none. He was born for moments like this.”
The Pilots advanced to meet Dakota in a state quarterfinal game at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Detroit Renaissance. The winner plays at the Breslin Center on Thursday.
Holder made a basket, Triston Nichols turned a steal into a basket against the turnover-prone Cubs and Caleb Reese made a three-point play before Nicholas capped the run as the Pilots extended a precarious 50-46 lead to 59-46 with 4:57 left.
“We came out with fire,” Reese said about the fourth quarter.
The third quarter belonged to the Cubs and Charles Turner, which didn’t surprise Djokaj.
“We knew a storm was coming,” the DLS coach said.
Turner, a junior, made five 3-point goals and scored 17 points in the quarter as U-D Jesuit carved into the Pilots’ 46-26 lead, drawing to within 48-46 before Holder made the final basket of the quarter.
Turner, whose 3-pointer with four minutes left gave U-D Jesuit its first points of the fourth quarter, finished with a game-high 23 points. Sophomore Sonny Wilson added 12.
Sophomore Nino Smith, whose 3-pointer at the buzzer lifted the Pilots to a two-point victory over Detroit King in the semifinals, led DLS with 15 against the Cubs.
Reese and Nichols had 14 each and Holder 11 for the Pilots.
Holder split two free throws
with 1:02 left for a 62-57 lead. His pair with 7.2 seconds left closed the scoring.
“When I got the ball, I knew they were going to foul me,” Holder said. “I was ready. We practice scenarios like that in practice all the time.”
It looked during a nightmarish first quarter for the Cubs like they’d be
no match for the Pilots.
U-D Jesuit committed six turnovers and missed three free throws in the first six minutes as De La Salle built a 15-5 lead.
“The last time we played them in the regular season, we lost,” Holder said. “So we came out with extra fire today, knowing it was for a regional championship. “We came out ready.” The second quarter didn’t go much better for U-D Jesuit. The Cubs committed four more turnovers
and missed two more free throws in the first four minutes.
Meanwhile, Smith scored nine of the Pilots’ first 12 points of the quarter and gave DLS a 30-18 lead with a 3-pointer with 3:44 left before halftime.
De La Salle led 36-23 at the intermission and opened the third quarter on a 10-3 run for the 4626 lead.
“We talked about being ready and having our moment to shine and putting together one of our
best games,” Djokaj said when asked about the Pilots’ early surge. “We played the right way from beginning to end. A hot start was definitely part of it.”
Dakota won the Troy regional with a 58-52 victory over Stoney Creek.
DLS and Dakota are the Macomb County teams remaining in the tournament.
Michigan Collegiate lost to Loyola in a Division 3 regional final at Detroit Pershing.