By Ryan Minkrmink@digitalsports.comNaji Hibbert could have stayed at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore – close to his current home – filled up box scores and still signed with Texas A&M.
But two seasons ago, Hibbert instead chose to drive more than an hour south to DeMatha nearly every day to be part of the Stags. It’s because he wanted to learn to be a teammate and he wanted to win championships.
Now Hibbert, nearing the end of his high school career, has done both. And he’s starting to fill of those stats as well.
Hibbert scored 20 points to lead DeMatha to a 55-48 win over Ballou in Monday’s City Title Game at the Verizon Center, including 10 points in a tight fourth quarter.
“I’ve been a distributor all season,” Hibbert said. “Today, the game got close and I decided to be a leader and put the team on my back and tried to win this game.”
Hibbert certainly entered the season as one of the Stags’ most prominent players. But by averaging just 12.2 points per game over the course of the season his talent was often overshadowed by his teammates.
As Hibbert readily points out, DeMatha (29-3) has at least seven players who could start -- even for the WCAC champion Stags -- and all of them can score. Thus, he has enjoyed blending in while occasionally flashing his scoring potential.
“I get a lot of talk, ‘Why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that?’” Hibbert said. “I just try to be a team player. … No matter how much talent I have or how much talent everybody has, we just try to put our egos to the side and come together.”
Hibbert said he felt DeMatha has better prepared him for college, where despite an individual player’s ability to drop 20 points a game, they must learn to gel with equally talented teammates.
“DeMatha is DeMatha; we’re one of the best teams of the nation,” Hibbert said. “We’re still ranked high and everybody still getting fame no matter if you score 10 points a game or six points a game.”
Hibbert, who scored the game-winning layup in Thursday’s WCAC final, could ill afford a low-scoring night on Monday, however.
The Stags trailed Ballou (19-7) at one point midway through the third quarter in large part due to
Chris Mozee’s career-high 21 points for the Knights.
Hibbert broke the tie and DeMatha never trailed from then on but the game was still close throughout. The biggest lead was eight points while the past four City Title Games were decided by an average of 31 points – all won by the WCAC.
Senior
Marcus Rouse had 12 points and sophomore
Quinn Cook chipped in 10 points, but Hibbert went on a tear in the fourth quarter that put the game away.
He first hit a three-pointer to give DeMatha a six-point lead, pointing his finger at some Warriors supporters as he went back down the court. Then he converted 1-of-2 free thorows, hit another bucket, followed a miss with a graceful put back to give the Stags an eight-point lead and lastly blocked a Ballou shot on the following possession.
It all added up to a second championship for HIbbert, who never won a high school championship before last weekend’s WCAC title.
The Stags will go for one more championship in two weeks when the travel to Frostburg, Md. for the prestigious Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament.
“Not a lot of DeMatha teams have won all three,” Hibbert said. “We want to go out with a bang, especially us seniors.”