Boys Basketball: DeMatha 52, McNamara 46

By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

DeMatha senior Naji Hibbert is accustomed to having good friend Josh Selby by his side.

But ever since late January, the Baltimore duo has been shrunk to one. And that means Hibbert, along with his other DeMatha teammates, have been forced to shoulder more of the load.

Hibbert stepped up Sunday, scoring 22 points, including 15 in the second half, to lead DeMatha to a 52-46 win in McNamara's sold out gym.

The Stags previously beat McNamara by 14 points this season, but Sunday’s game was a fight all the way to the end.

“I’m a senior and I have to show leadership and take big shots and knock them down,” Hibbert said. “I’m sure we all wish he was back. We all have to hold the fort down until when he comes back.”

Selby is still enrolled at DeMatha and still on the team, but has not played since DeMatha’s loss to Gonzaga on Jan. 21 for unknown reasons. The Stags won their first game without him, beating O’Connell, but lost their second against Good Counsel.

Since then, however, the Stags have reeled off seven straight wins heading into a grueling final stretch. DeMatha (22-3, 13-2) plays O’Connell in Tuesday’s nationally televised game and first-place Gonzaga Friday.

“He was a huge asset that we lost,” senior Marcus Rouse said of Selby. “We can do it though. We need him, but then again we don’t need him. We have enough weapons in our firepower to get the job done. Today proves we can get the job done.”

The Stags led McNamara (18-8, 11-5) by just one point after McNamara’s Rashad Whack hit a three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter. That shot made Whack just the sixth WCAC player to ever reach 1,000 career points, and halted the game momentarily to honor the milestone.

But after a team huddle, the Stags were jump started by a monstrous Victor Oladipo dunk on an assist from Rouse and a big jumper by Hibbert that increased DeMatha’s lead to five points.

McNamara tied it at 38 on back-to-back buckets by Lawrence Smith before Hibbert nailed a three-pointer that gave DeMatha the lead for good.

From there, the Stags capitalized on McNamara’s poor free throw shooting and connected on their own chances from the stripe. The Mustangs were 2-of-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter while DeMatha went 9-of-10, including four by Quinn Cook.

“In clutch games like this, we need free throws,” Cook said.

Oladipo’s dunks certainly gave DeMatha the energy that Selby’s absence has surely hampered. Oladipo had three field goals in the second half – all dunks – and finished with nine points overall.

“I’ve got to step up my game until [Josh] comes back,” Oladipo said. “Everybody has a role, but when somebody drops that, we feel like we have to pick it up until he comes back.”

Junior center Mikael Hopkins also stepped up, helping limit McNamara’s front court duo of Talib Zanna and Brandon Coleman to just 11 points combined. Coleman got in early foul trouble and Hopkins made things difficult for the Mustangs by recording nine blocks.

Overall, the Stags are once again showing the amount of talent they have, that despite the absence of one of the league’s premier players and a Tennessee commit, that DeMatha is still at or near the top of the WCAC.

“We’re still at the same level without him,” Oladipo said. “But when he comes back we’ll just be even better.”