D.C. City Champs: DeMatha Beats Roosevelt 52-50 On Robinson’s Free Throws

Point guard James Robinson made two free throws with four seconds to give DeMatha a 52-50 victory over Roosevelt on Monday in the Abe Pollin City Title Game before a crowd of about 6,000 at the Verizon Center.

Roosevelt, which won its league semifinal and final on last-second shots, committed a turnover on its final, frantic possession this time.

For nine of the past 10 years, the private school champion of Washington has won the city championship in boys basketball. There’s no reason to bet against the trend Monday, when DeMatha plays Roosevelt at the Verizon Center.

DeMatha has won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championship for the third straight year and 34^th time in history. Roosevelt won Washington’s public school league, called the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA).

DeMatha won its sixth championship in seven seasons in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) on Monday, defeating rival Gonzaga 51-48 at Washington University.

DeMatha led 27-17 at halftime and never trailed in the second half, although Gonzaga had the ball trailing by three in the final 10 seconds. Two 3-point attempts, one a desperation throw, were no good.

Theodore Roosevelt doubled up Eastern 70-35 when the two teams met in December, but the outcome was quite a bit closer Saturday evening when the two teams met in the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) championship game.

Roosevelt jumped to a 9-0 lead but couldn’t maintain its quick start as Eastern took an 18-13 lead into the beginning of the second quarter and held on for a 27-23 halftime lead

Roosevelt (24-5) is favored Saturday to win its second championship in four seasons in the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) against Eastern, a team Roosevelt defeated 70-35 in December.

Senior guard Antone James’ 3-point shot at the buzzer gave Roosevelt a 71-69 victory over Spingarn in the semifinals on Thursday. Eastern beat Coolidge 68-54 in the other semifinal.

There will be a new boys champion crownded Saturday in the the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association basketball tournament, which plays its semifinals Thursday at Coolidge High School.

Roosevelt (23-5) knocked out two-time champion Ballou 61-56 in the quarterfinals this week and will play Springarn at 5 p.m. in Thursday’s semifinals. Springarn, whose alumni include Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing, is seeking its first title since 2002.

Archbishop Carroll’s boys and girls teams won their play-in games Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.

Carroll’s boys got 20 points from Kenny Cherry – including 13 in the final quarter – to beat Good Counsel 56-55. Carroll faces No. 1-seeded DeMatha on Friday.

The Washington DC high school basketball postseason gets underway Wednesday night with the start of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament for both boys and girls. Each tournament will start with two play-in games. With the boys, Bishop Ireton will face St. Mary’s Ryken at 6:30 p.m., and Carroll will play host to Good Counsel at 7 p.m. In the girls tournament, Carroll will play host to Bishop Ireton and St. Mary’s Ryken will play host to O’Connell.

The top two seeds in the boys tournament are No. 1 Dematha and No. 2 Gonzaga, as Adam Zagoria wrote about earlier today. DeMatha clinched that top seed with a 53-50 win on Monday over St. John’s. The Stags will play on Friday against the winner of the Good Counsel vs. Carroll game, and Gonzaga will play host to the other winner from tonight, either Ireton or Ryken.