Catholic holds off Rummel to advance to boys basketball quarterfinals

BATON ROUGE – In a close game throughout, filled with many runs, third seed Catholic of Baton Rouge held off No. 14 Archbishop Rummel 61-58 in the LHSAA Select Division I Regional Round Tuesday night.

Raiders sophomore T.J. Duhe had a shot to tie it from the top of the circle at the buzzer but came up just short, hitting the rim and the Bears had a hard-earned victory.

The game had many momentum swings.

The first quarter saw Catholic strike first with a 3-pointer by Tate McCurry to start the game and kind of set the tone for the game and the teams battled and were tied 10-10 with 3:05 to go in the quarter before Catholic went on a 5-2 run to close the quarter with the 17-12 lead.

The second quarter saw Catholic in the lead most of the way but Rummel kept chipping away, led by sophomore Ja’Mard Jones, who had 12 points in the half, and Chase Marino, who scored nine points as the Raiders rallied to tie the game 29-29 at halftime.

The third quarter saw Catholic open on a tear with a 12-0 run to lead 41-29 with six minutes to go in the quarter. The Raiders first basket of the second half was made by T.J. Duhe with 5:35 to go in the quarter. The Raiders had a 6-0 run of their own with Kendrick Joseph leading the way and then Rummel pulled with 47-40 by the end of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Catholic led by as many as 10 points at 52-42 with five minutes left in the game. Down 61-53, Rummel scored five straight points and got stops to pull within 61-58 but could not get the final shot to fall.

Catholic (24-6) shot the ball extremely well throughout, including sinking 16 of 19 free throws and needed all of it.

Rummel (23-13) played without talented guard Darrius Davis, who was injured in the opening round playoff win over Warren Easton.

Tate McCurry led Catholic with 20 points while Nico Jones added 15 points. Dylan Hebert had 11 points and Stan Levy added 10 for the Bears.

Sophomores Ja’Mard Jones and Kendrick Joseph each scored 14 point for Rummel while Duhe and Chase Marino, the lone senior for the Raiders, added 11 points.

“My guys were disappointed in their first half play.” Catholic acting head coach Ben Relle said. “They talked amongst themselves at half and knew they had to play with higher energy and they did that to open the second half. We had to hang on at the end for dear life.”

Rummel Head Coach Scott Thompson was proud of his team’s effort.

“We knew Catholic would be a challenge they are a talented team , they have depth skill and handle the basketball well,” Thompson said. “They play great defense and are well coached. We knew it would be a challenge but we had a plan we felt good about and we excuted it.” “Our shot selection was good and I felt we needed to attack more. We battled to the end, our defense kept us in the game and our fan and student support in Baton Rouge was great tonight and this was a learning experience.”

Catholic will host No. 6 Captain Shreve in the quarterfinals. The Gators downed No. 11 McMain 37-32.