Two years ago DeMatha won its third straight WCAC championship with relative ease, defeating a Chris Wright-led St. John's team by 14 points. Thursday night the Stags waited until there were less than five seconds on the clock to take the lead for good. Naji Hibbert's layup in the final seconds of the game catapulted DeMatha past Gonzaga for a 62-61 thrilling victory in front of nearly 5,000 people at American University.
"The play wasn't really designed for me to be open," Hibbert said. "It was supposed to go to Jerian [Grant], but he made an unbelievable pass. I was ready for it and came through in the end."
Gonzaga held the lead for the majority of the second half, and the Eagles were able to go up by as many as five points at one time, but DeMatha played its best basketball in the game's final minutes. Freshman James Robinson picked a great night to have one of his best performances of his short DeMatha career. The 6-foot-1 guard knocked down two crucial jumpshots in the final minutes.
"Jerian made a great pass after he drove to the hole hard," Robinson said. "We work on that all the time in practice, and I was able to knock it down."
Robinson (9 points) played like a veteran throughout the night, and he never appeared phased by the intense atmosphere at American.
"I wasn't really nervous throughout the game" Robinson said. "We're used to playing in front of big crowds like this, so it was a good win for us."
After the first quarter ended in a stalemate, Gonzaga was able to to take a three-point lead in the second quarter as Ian Hummer (18 points) and Tyler Thornton (14 points) controlled the tempo for the Eagles. Gonzaga even increased its lead to six points by the end of the third quarter as Cedrick Lindsay (17 points) began to heat up, but the game's final eight minutes would belong to DeMatha, especially the play of junior Jerian Grant.
Grant scored six of his 10 points in the fourth quarter and dished out three assists, including the game-winner to Hibbert. Although this is his second year on varsity, it was Grant's first championship he played in after watching his brother, Jerai (Clemson), win a WCAC title in 2007.
"My brother told me how great he felt when he won his championship, and I wanted to feel the same way," Grant said. "I came out here and played my hardest and got it done."
Grant also got the job done on the defensive side of the ball. He was given the unenviable task of guarding Gonzaga big man Ian Hummer.
"I had to check Ian Hummer the whole game, and you know how big he is," Grant said. "It's tough to stay in front of him, but I just played my hardest, tried to keep him out of the lane, make him take jump shots and box him out when the ball went up."
Grant also pointed out the play of Robinson, who stepped up and made a name for himself after going unnoticed the majority of the night.
"He's just a freshman, and I didn't think he was going to even take those shots," Grant said. "You don't really expect him to come through in the clutch, but you need to watch out for James Robinson now."
DeMatha will move on to the City Title Monday at the Verizon Center. The Stags will face Ballou, who defeated McKinley to win the DCIAA title last weekend. Gonzaga will play next in the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament next weekend, and the Eagles will be joined by DeMatha, O'Connell and McNamara.