Tampa Catholic pulls away from Crescent City Christian late

It was close for quite some time.

In the end, the size and athleticism of Tampa Catholic, FL was too much for Crescent City Christian as the Crusaders pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 76-66 victory over the Pioneers in the opening round of the 10th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Prep Classic boys National bracket.

Center Johni Broome was a load inside for Tampa Catholic with 22 points and 15 rebounds. Broome added three blocks.

The Pios started well, playing at a frenetic pace to take an 18-14 lead after one quarter, forcing seven Crusader turnovers in the period. The Pios went on a 9-0 run in the quarter to establish the lead.

While the first quarter belonged to Crescent City, the rest of the game belonged to Tampa Catholic, though the determined Pios would never go away.

In the second quarter, Crescent City opened up a 25-19 lead before Tampa Catholic went on an 11-0 run and captured the lead at 32-30 going into halftime.

The Crusaders (8-4) increased the lead to 55-48 after three quarters before blowing the game open in the final stanza.

Tampa Catholic built an insurmountable 16-point lead in the final quarter before the Pioneers scored the final six points of the game.

Kobe Knox had 19 points, four assists and three rebounds, Derrick Mitchell had 13 points and Marcellus Crutchfield added 11 points and four rebounds for the Crusaders.

Byron Joshua topped Crescent City Christian (11-7) with 20 points, four assists and three rebounds while Jordan Farrell added 19 points and nine rebounds. John Kelly had 17 points and seven rebounds.

Tampa Catholic advances to play the winner of Southwest DeKalb, GA and Madison Prep in the quarterfinals Friday at 5 p.m.

FINAL
TC 14 18 23 21 — 76
CCC 18 12 18 18 — 66

Scoring:
TC—Johni Broome 22, Kobe Knox 19, Derrick Mitchell 13, Marcellus Crutchfield 11, Alijah Harrison 4, Jayan Reid 4, Isaiah Elmore 2

CCC—Byron Joshua 20, Jordan Farrell 18, John Kelly 17, Glenn Rhone 6, Ahmad Raymond 2, Holdin Diaz 2