YPSILANTI — It seems longer than just a couple of months ago when the Eaglets of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s lived up to their advance billing as the state’s No. 1 high school basketball team kicking off the 2021-22 season with six impressive wins in a row.
Then, as one player put it, the “great adversity” occurred, right in their own playground, so to speak, in the Catholic League’s Central Division. St. Mary’s and the four other teams in the league were all ranked in the top ten.
“Unheard of,” said one coach. “It’s ridiculous,” said another. “It’ll be the gauntlet of all gauntlets.” “It’ll be an absolute dog fight,” were other reactions.
St. Mary’s got a preview of what was to come in their first league game blowing a 14-point lead and having to scramble to win by two points in double overtime.
The Eaglets went on to lose four games by a total of 17 points to wind up in the middle of the league standings with a 4-4 record. Obviously, they were the Rodney Dangerfield of the Central Division. They were getting no respect.
(I digress: I’m showing my age. The more advanced-in-age readers may have to take the youngsters in the crowd aside to explain who Rodney was.)
Close calls – final scores of four points or less – became the norm. In all, there were 16. League champ University of Detroit Jesuit (6-2) had four; second-place Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (5-3) had three, fourth-place De La Salle (3-5) two, and Novi Detroit Catholic Central had three close encounters while losing five games in a row to finish in last place at 2-6.
Hallelujah! Redemption arrived in the form of the CHSL championship playoffs for the Bishop Trophy involving teams from Central and Double AA divisions.
In the opening round played at Bloomfield Hills Marian, St. Mary’s beat up Dearborn Divine Child by 18 points, U-D Jesuit was merciless in a 28-point decision over Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, and De La Salle completed the sweep by pummeling Detroit Loyola by 24 points.
The most exciting game of the playoffs was Catholic Central’s last-second 66-64 thriller against Brother Rice. The two rivals beat each other during the regular schedule: Rice by four on the Shamrocks’ floor and CC by three points in the Warriors’ gym.
The semifinals moved to Eastern Michigan University’s Convocation Center. St. Mary’s avenged a pair of two close-call regular season games to U-D Jesuit by handily taming the Cubs, 65-43, and Catholic Central grounded the De La Salle Pilots, 63-58, to set up the finale last Saturday evening also at EMU.
The rejuvenated Eaglets (15-4) have apparently discovered their early season form by swamping the Shamrocks (9-8), 68-48, for the school’s second CHSL championship in the last three years and 14th in its history.
“I thought we’ve started coming together and doing what we do at St. Mary’s, which is play defense, rebound and push the ball,” Coach Todd Covert said.
The Eaglets were virtually unstoppable in the three-game series. Freshman Trey McKenney scored 18, 21 and 14 points, respectively, against Divine Child, U-D Jesuit and Catholic Central. Senior forward JaVaughn Hannah tallied 14, 22 and 16.
The two big men – 6-foot-9 Brad Kapustka (10 points against Divine Child} and 6-foot-7 DeCorion Temple (13 against CC) – paroled the boards.
Directing the traffic was senior guard – and a Mr. Basketball candidate – Kareem Rozier. He was a team-high 17 against Catholic Central, but his role in the Eaglets’ success, having so many weapons, is getting everyone involved.
“Being a team and sharing the ball, we try to tell everybody you might get five shots one night because they’re focusing on you or it wasn’t the flow,” Covert said. “That’s a great testament for our team, if you know, we’re sharing the ball and everybody’s kind of spread it out.”
“They’ve got so many guys that can hurt you,” CC coach Brandon Sinawi said. “Their transition offense was terrific tonight. That was a difference in my opinion. Our shot selection wasn’t great. But we got guys that can score, and we just didn’t score tonight.”
Senior Kam Mayes led the Shamrocks with 18 points, sophomore TJ Nadeau had 14, and senior forward Cooper Craggs had eight.
The drama continues: No. 1 King vs. No. 2 OLSM
For 62 years, dating back to 1944, the basketball champions from the CHSL and the Detroit Public School League meet in Operation Friendship.
This year’s match is a lulu: No. 1 Detroit Martin Luther King (18-1) and No. 2 OLSM. They tip off at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 4, at the University of Detroit Mercy Calihan Hall.
The respective runners-up, Catholic Central and Detroit Western, clash at 6 p.m.
The Public School League leads the series 42-20. St. Mary’s and U-D Jesuit each have won four times: OLSM in 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2020, and the Cubs four years in a row, 2016-17-18-19.
The girls Operation Friendship was held last Friday. CHSL champ Bloomfield Hills Marian beat Detroit Renaissance, 53-34, and Dearborn Divine Child defeated Detroit Mumford, 58-39.
Wait! There’s more Central Division intrigue to come
Brother Rice was one team that St. Mary’s lost to twice this year. The Eaglets may get their opportunity for revenge in the upcoming Michigan High School Athletic Association playoffs.
They have been assigned to the West Bloomfield High School district.
On Wednesday, March 9, at 5:30 p.m., St. Mary’s will play either Bloomfield Hills (14-4) or West Bloomfield (3-14).
Then, at 7 p.m., Brother Rice will tip off against either Birmingham Groves (12-5) or Birmingham Seaholm (7-10).
If both win, there promises to be a fierce confrontation at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 11, for the district championship. At stake: pride, naturally, but the opportunity to remain in the pursuit of a state championship.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
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