It has been a long and winding winter for the DeMatha Stags. The Hyattsville program, perhaps the most celebrated in the D.C. area, started the season sharp. The Stags won their first six Washington Catholic Athletic Conference games, punishing opponents with a breakneck pace and tireless defense.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” Stags Coach Mike Jones told his team at the time. “This is all part of the journey. We have to believe that.”
On Friday night at Eleanor Roosevelt High in Greenbelt, that journey ended with a nice finish. In a double-overtime thriller, No. 17 DeMatha outlasted No. 3 Bullis, 74-68, to claim the Maryland Private School State Basketball Tournament title.
“When we were losing all those games, we tried to take a lesson from every single loss,” sophomore guard Ashton Meeks said. “By the time we got to the postseason, we knew ourselves and we also had a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to show everyone that we’re a great team when we play together.”
The young Stags, playing without senior star Malcolm Thomas, entered this game as the plucky challenger. The Bulldogs (27-3) were coming off an undefeated season in the Interstate Athletic Conference, earning an outright conference title with a veteran group.
Senior Caden Diggs put Bullis up by two with one minute remaining in regulation, a blow to DeMatha (24-12) after it had held a slim lead for much of the evening. But the Stags kept their poise, and freshman Beau Daniels laid the ball in with 11 seconds left to send the game to its first overtime.
DeMatha played aggressor in the first overtime, holding a three-point lead as the clock ticked under a minute. Just as it appeared a win was in hand, Bulldogs sophomore Angelo Dickerson hit a corner three at the buzzer to extend the game and bring half of a packed gym to its feet.
Throughout this winter, win or lose, Jones and his team prided themselves on a rigorous training regimen. The coach would often say the Stags aimed to be the most fit team in the league. Nobody should be able to run with them.
That work paid off as Friday’s game reached its second overtime. DeMatha, with a deep rotation and remarkable endurance, looked fresh as it closed out Bullis. Meeks, who scored 16 points and earned game MVP honors, sunk two free throws to ice a season-altering victory.
“Going into the second overtime, I knew we had won,” Meeks said. “We have been running and running and running. All summer, then all season. … We could have played six more overtimes.”
