Gonzaga boys basketball wins first round against DeMatha

With first place in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference on the line, Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) hosted DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) for a Sunday late-afternoon tilt between conference rivals in front of an estimated 2,000 fans at Gallaudet University.

The game lived up to its billing and was closer than the final 10-point margin might indicate. But for now, it's Gonzaga, thanks to its 62-52 win over the Staggs, sitting atop the WCAC conference.

DeMatha's Mikael Hopkins (Georgetown commit) picked up three first-half fouls and his absence on both ends of the court enabled the Eagles to go on a 15-7 run in the second quarter and take a 27-18 lead into the locker room at the half.

DeMatha (19-6, 11-3) came out firing in the second half and pulled to within five points heading into the fourth quarter. The Staggs tied the game with 6:30 remaining and then took their first lead since early in the first quarter, 45-44.

DeMatha then switched to a zone defense and it was that move that seemed to doom them. Sophomore Nate Britt nailed a 3-pointer from the corner for what seemed like the final dagger in the heart of the Staggs as the Eagles then went on a run to put their conference rivals away.

Britt led all scorers with 17 points, while Binghamton commit Ben Dickinson dished out six assists and grabbed six rebounds for Gonzaga (20-5, 12-3).

Junior guard James Robinson led DeMatha with 16 points.

The teams will play again at DeMatha on Feb. 20.

EPISCOPAL LOCKS UP TOP SEED IN IAC
Wins over St. Albans, Potomac School, Bullis and St. Stephen's have Episcopal (Alexandria, Va.) (19-2, 9-1) on a seven-game winning streak and the Maroon have locked up the No. 1 seed in the Interstate Athletic Conference.

Episcopal concluded its regular season with an easy 59-32 win over St. Stephen's to earn a first-round bye in this week's conference tournament. The Maroon suffered its lone conference loss at the hands of Bullis on Jan. 21, but it has avenged that setback three weeks later with a 58-53 victory in the rematch.

Episcopal will host a semifinal game on Friday night against the winner of the St.Alban's-St. Stephen's quarterfinal, which will be contested Tuesday.

"I am very proud that our team finished in first place at the conclusion of the regular season, but this team wants to compete for tournament championships," Episcopal coach Jim Fitzpatrick said in an e-mail. "All of our players are focused and determined to continue playing basketball at a high level, and we hope that the hard work put forth this season will result in continuing success in tournament play."

DENDY JUMPS AT OPPORTUNITY IN GAINESVILLE AND THEN SETS STATE RECORD
With an opportunity to attend nearly any school of his choice on a track scholarship, Middletown (Del.) standout Marquis Dendy had narrowed his college choices down to Florida, LSU, Miami and Texas.

But it was the attraction of joining an established program with a jump coach, Dick Booth, who Dendy calls "the best jump coach in the nation," that convinced the 6-foot-3 senior to choose the University of Florida as his college destination.

"They have a really good cluster of jumpers down there," Dendy told The News Journal. "It came down to whether I wanted to be with the Miami Hurricanes and help build a program from the ground up, or do I want to go to a school like LSU, who is kind of average, they just need a couple more pieces, or go to an already really strong program."

Dendy, one of the nation's top triple jumpers, captured first place at Saturday's Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships with a state-record jump of 52 feet, 1.5 inches. Last year Dendy's triple jump resume included titles at the Delaware Division I outdoor Championships, Penn Relays, AAU Junior Olympics and U.S. Junior Nationals.

In addition to his prowess in the triple jump, he is ranked in the Top 10 nationally in the long jump at 25-5.25 and took second place in last weekend's DIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a leap of 21-11.25.

"Marquis had for him a good day," Middletown coach Bill DuBois said. "He had some very long jumps, maybe 24 or 25 feet, in the long jump, but they were slight fouls. He had difficulty finding his steps. His triple jump was outstanding."

Dendy will now prepare to finish out his scholastic career outdoors before heading to Gainesville, where he plans to major in computer software engineering.

"Marquis and his family put a great deal of thought into his choice of schools," DuBois added. "I believe his choice of Florida was made for all the right reasons, both athletically and academically."

THE BUZZ ON MILESTONES
Tatnall (Wilmington, Del.) became the first school since Dover High in 1995 to win both the boys and girls indoor track and field titles the same year. The boys won for the second straight year and the girls ran to their third title in five years. That's not a bad resume for a small private school in Wilmington with extremely high academic standards.

"This state championship was a true full team effort," Tatnall coach Pat Castagno said after the meet. "Many kids on this team sacrificed personal glory, individual state championships and personal best times to run three and four events for team points. I could not be more pleased with the insistence by these young boys and girls to put team before self. In my opinion, this is the reason for the double win today. Emotion wins championships, and these kids ran with heart and emotion out there today."

* Smyrna (Del.) star Betnijah Laney became just the fourth girl in Delaware history to score 2,000 points when she reached the milestone during Tuesday night's win over Sussex Central. Smyrna coach James Kiger said in an e-mail that Laney, last year's Delaware Player of the Year, has narrowed her college choices to Duke, Oklahoma and Rutgers.

* Delcastle (Newport, Del.) senior Terrance Bobb-Jones scored his 1,000th career point in a 65-58 overtime win against Newark on Friday.

Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance writer, and on the broadcast team for the 1290AM The Ticket High School Football and Basketball Games of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.