Brother Rice tops U-D Jesuit, gets Catholic League Central title
Throw the rankings out the window.
Detroit U-D Jesuit head coach Pat Donnelly has seen his share of great teams over the years. And he’s seen a good number of the state’s best this winter. And he’s convinced this year’s Birmingham Brother Rice team is the best Division 1 has to offer.
“They’re just more talented than anybody else in the state,” said Donnelly, whose team faced the Warriors twice this season, falling to Brother Rice, 73-62, Friday night. “I’ve seen almost every team in the state, in the top 20, 25, and there’s nobody that matches up with them in terms of talent, player for player. Bottom line is they have three guys who are big-time players and they made their shots tonight.”
That they did.
No. 4 ranked Brother Rice led from start to finish, knocking down five 3-pointers and cashing in on 26 of 31 free-throw attempts to take down the fifthranked Cubs for the second time in a little more than two weeks.
Seniors Xavier Thomas and Johnathan Blackwell scored 20 and 19 points to lead the Warriors, who wrapped up its first Catholic League Central regular season championship since 1996.
“It’s not the biggest prize, but it’s a pretty tough prize to win,” said Brother Rice coach Rick Palmer, whose team improved to 16-1 overall and 7-1 in Central division play. “Honestly, to win seven in a row, seven out of eight in this league, it’s probably more difficult than to win the (Catholic League) tournament. This is tough to do. It doesn’t necessarily get celebrated as much as the Catholic League tournament, but for us, it’s a pretty big deal.”
Brother Rice never trailed in the game, building an eightpoint lead midway through the second quarter before settling on a five-point halftime lead. The Warriors took charge in the third quarter, using a 15-5 run to open the quarter to build a 48-33 lead. Williams opened the run with a 3-pointer and Thomas quickly added another to give his team a 10-point lead. Two possessions later, Blackwell added a 3 of his own to give his team a 42-31 lead. Blackwell would find Warren Marshall under the basket for an easy layup and Thomas would conclude the run with a putback and a pair of free throws.
Jesuit was able to cut the lead back to seven points with just under three minutes left in the
game, but Brother Rice continued to make its free throws to fend off the Cubs (15-3, 5-3).
“We knew we needed to make them uncomfortable offensively and keep them off the glass,” Donnelly said. “And we talked about it, that we needed to win the free-throw battle. We shot it OK. But they shot 26 of 31. Our goal in any game is to make more free throws than our opponent attempts and we just put them on the line too much.”
Senior Sonny Wilson led the Cubs with 19 points, while junior Ryan Hatcher added 12.
“We knew tonight we were going to get a really good effort from them,” Palmer said of Jesuit. “They’ve been the class of this league for over a decade. Coach Donnelly does such a great job, so to have to beat them to win it, it makes it a little bit more special.”
Marshall finished with 15 points and Williams added 12 for the Warriors, whose only loss of the season came to Warren De La Salle back on Jan. 6. They have won nine straight games.
“We’re really playing a good brand of basketball right now. I’m pretty happy,” Palmer said. “We have a lot more to do, but we’re going to celebrate this one.”