BATES MOTEL
High-scoring senior hits for 33 points as De La Salle stuns redhot Marian Catholic
De La Salle coach Gary DeCesare crunched some numbers on DaJuan Bates, his star senior guard.
DeCesare pointed out how Bates has seven 30-point-plus games, 15 20-plus games, and is almost at 600 points for the season.
“That’s unheard of,” DeCesare said. “I looked that his numbers and said, ‘Wow, he is having one hell of a senior year.’
“He’s definitely the most dynamic scorer in the state.”
Bates’ seventh venture into 30-point territory came Friday night at home.
He scored 33 points, including eight 3-pointers, as the Meteors stunned red-hot Marian Catholic for a 68-37 nonconference victory in Chicago.
Marian (19-10) had won nine of its last 10 games but played without standout senior guard Jeremiah Jones, who was “banged up,” according to coach Mike Taylor.
The 6-foot-1 Bates was on fire early, scoring 11 points in the first quarter to give De La Salle (10-21) a 17-13 lead. He cooled off a little to start the second quarter.
After scoring just three points in the first five minutes, Bates then hit four straight 3-pointers in the final 2:41 to give the Meteors a 40-18 lead.
“I was just feeling it,” said Bates, who finished with 26 points in the first half. “I know I have the ability to score. This is nothing new to me.”
Despite being such a prolific scorer, his college recruiting has been a mystery.
The only names that surfaced on the internet came in 2018 on a list that included Colorado State, Miami of Ohio, Toledo, Tulsa and West Virginia as being rumored as showing interest.
Bates played it close to the vest. “I’m still going through that process now,” he said.
The Meteors, meanwhile,
entered Friday on a two-game winning streak thanks to a 58-45 victory last Saturday over Jones and a 78-45 win Tuesday over Providence St. Mel.
Playing a tough schedule benefited the Meteors, who picked up a third seed in the Class 3A King Sectional behind St. Ignatius and Westinghouse. De La Salle hosts a regional and will face North-Grand at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The way the regular season played out in the last week also pleased Bates. Ten of the Meteors’ 21 losses were by 10 points or less.
“We always knew we were a good team,” Bates said. “We started off rough, but we continued to face adversity, kept coming out and stayed together — and that’s all that matters.”
Jalen Brown added 11 points Friday for the Meteors, including nine in the second half. Tre Davis led Marian Catholic with eight points, all in the first half.
Taylor expects Jones to be back for the postseason.
Jones was named the East Suburban Catholic Conference MVP after the Spartans beat Benet 55-46 in the ESCC Tournament championship game. He added the winning shot with 25 seconds left in Wednesday’s 40-39 victory over DePaul.
“He got banged up against DePaul and we wanted to rest him up,” Taylor said of Jones. “We went in with the
idea that next week is more important than tonight.
“I didn’t expect it to be that lopsided. But (Bates) comes out and was hot.”
The Spartans are seeded fifth in the 3A Marian Catholic Sectional and face 12th-seeded Bremen at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Morris Regional semifinals.
“We’ll be all right,” Taylor said. “We’ll bounce right back. We turned the corner in winning close games. That was something we weren’t able to do at the beginning of the season.
“We wanted to look at a couple of guys and see if we could find something for next week. We’ll lick our wound and move on.”