By Perry Green
AFRO Sports Writer
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DeMatha wins both the DCIAA Championship and the DC Title game. (Photo by Robert Eubanks)
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(March 12, 2009) - It was one of Washington’s most competitive high school basketball championships in recent years, but when the final buzzer when off, it was DeMatha who emerged as champion.
DeMatha (29-3) slid past Ballou, 55-48, Monday to win the D.C. Title at the Verizon Center with 5,000 in attendance.
In the past few seasons, the score has been more lopsided than Monday’s tightly performed game.
The annual D.C. Title Game matches up the victor of the DCIAA championship against the winner of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. And for the past few years, WCAC teams have dominated the Title Game.
According to the Washington Post, since 2004 the WCAC representative has won the previous four games by an average of 31 points.
But Ballou wasn’t going to be embarrassed Monday night.
DeMatha’s Naji Hibbert showed off for the large crowd, scoring 20 points on the night, but his team never led by more than eight points the entire game.
Ballou guard Chris Mozee put up a career-high 21 points, more than three times his season average, helping the Knights keep the score close.
However, DeMatha was too balanced offensively, with Marcus Rouse scoring 12 points and Quinn Cook adding 10 points.
And whenever the score margin got too close for DeMatha’s comfort, its best player, Hibbert, would make a big shot.
“With our team, everyone can score,” Hibbert told the media. “Today, the game got close and I decided to be a leader, put the team on my back and tried to win the game.”
The six-foot-six-inch tall guard from East Baltimore is one of the best players in the WCAC and will attend Texas A&M next school year.
But in the more immediate future, he plans on adding more to this season’s legacy. DeMatha will travel to Frostburg, Md. in two weeks to participate in the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament.
After barely escaping Gonzaga, 62-61, in the WCAC Championship, DeMatha has a chance to win three championship games in one season.
"Not a lot of DeMatha teams have won all three," Hibbert told the media. "We want to go out with a bang."