Strong third quarter carries Catholic Central to win over Pilots
Those three minutes made a big difference for Detroit Central Catholic.
Brandon Sinawi wanted his fourth-ranked Shamrocks to take control of their Catholic League showdown with No. 2 De Le Salle Collegiate in the opening minutes of the third quarter Friday night.
They didn’t just accomplish that mission. They did so in so dominant fashion.
DCC won its league-opening matchup over the Pilots 60-50.
The Shamrocks opened the quarter on an 11-0 run that turned what was a tight contest into a mostly runaway performance.
“The locker room happened,” Sinawi said moments after joining a crowd of students and players at center court to sing the school’s alma mater. “We made adjustments and I told the boys those first three minutes are going to win the basketball game. And they came out and executed beyond belief. We knew if we got them down by eight or 10 points, it was going to be advantage us.”
Sophomore TJ Nadeau scored a career-high 25 points for DCC.
“I wanted to make sure I was ready for this night,” Nadeau said. “I knew this was going to be a game I could get the 3-ball off. Night and day I was preparing to have the mentality that I could knock down every shot that I take.”
“He’s got a dynamic stroke. It’s a next-level stroke,” Sinawi said Nadeau’s shooting abilities. “We talked about it (Thursday) in our staff meeting that if TJ can go off, we’re winning the basketball game.”
The Shamrocks (7-1, 1-0) were up 27-24 at halftime. They not only stretched their lead to double digits during that time frame, but they completely took the Pilots out of their rhythm.
De Le Salle (7-2, 0-2) went scoreless until the 3:40 mark of the third period when Tamario Adley canned a 3-pointer.
Alton Whitehead then sank a pair of free throws and Phoenix Glasnor added a bucket to pull the Pilots to within 38-31.
Nadeau responded with one of his four 3-pointers on the night to push the Shamrock lead back to double digits.
Unlike Tuesday, when De Le Salle took Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s to double overtime before before taking the loss, this was a night that saw the Pilots struggle to climb out of the hole the Shamrocks placed them in. Coach Gjon Djokaj attributed some of that to what he called selfish basketball.
“Not sharing the ball, not driving to create,” Djokaj said of his team’s performance in the third period. “It really wasn’t De Le Salle basketball and what we’re all about. They took advantage of it.”
The Pilots’ Caleb Reese sank a 3-pointer with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter to give them one last chance at a comeback. That made the score 54-48, but Nadeau scored two baskets and in between them were a pair of free throws from Cooper Craggs to put the game out of reach.
Craggs scored 12 points for DCC. Chas Lawless had 11 and Kam Mayes added 10.
“We have more confidence, not that we were lacking it,” Lawless said after the win. “We know for sure that we can beat not just (De Le Salle), but any other team that we play. We stack up against anybody.”
“We’re number one in the state, that’s our mentality,” Nadeau said. “We believe that whoever comes at us, we’re going to beat them. There’s nobody that’s unbeatable right now in this league. We just have to come out play like this every night.”
The Shamrocks will get their first look of the season at Orchard Lake St Mary’s on Tuesday.
Adley scored 18 points for De Le Salle.
“We didn’t play our best game and we gotta head back to the drawing board and have some great practices,” Djokaj said. “It doesn’t get any easier moving forward so we gotta this one behind us.”