By Michael Wojtichiw
With a program like Young, the goal is to win championships, whether they’re state, city or both.
The Dolphins’ AJ Casey had been open about the desire to win both the city and state championships as a senior this season.
After taking down Kenwood in the semifinals and avenging one of their two in-state losses, the Dolphins would need to defeat another potential sectional opponent in Curie Saturday at Credit Union 1 Arena if they wanted to win the program’s first city title since 2013.
Consider Step One completed after Young defeated Curie 55-50 to win its fourth city title.
“This feels amazing right now, it’s my first city championship, it feels great,” Casey said.
“This has been a phenomenal week of basketball, especially after coming back after COVID,” Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “For us, we’re happy to have this opportunity. We’ve had three upsets in one week. I’m excited about that.”
Unlike the girls’ game previous – also a Young win – the Dolphins had control pretty much from the get-go, leading for a total of 28:46, compared to 1:38 for the Condors.
One of the reasons for that was the shooting of Young’s Dalen Davis.
“The way Curie was playing, they left me open,” he said. “I shot my threes, I shot my shot. Thursday we didn’t have a great day shooting the ball, but everyone has an off day. We came out, played our game and got the W.”
The junior guard was hot out of the gate, scoring 11 of his team-high 15 points in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers. And a big part that he, as well as the other players and coaches, felt that helped propel them was the fan support, mainly their raucous student section.
“It’s amazing when they come out and support, I think it gives us an extra boost of energy and makes us want to win even more,” Casey said. “We already want to win it for ourselves, but we want to win it for them as well.”
Even though it was the Dolphins who controlled much of the game on the scoreboard, a 17-7 run to close the second quarter, including a 3-pointer by Phoenix Bullock just before the buzzer, gave Curie a 32-29 lead going into the break.
“In the first half, we had a big lead and we lost it,” Slaughter said. “That’s generally been our second half MO. Today what we talked about in the locker room was really just trying to get after them defensively. The guys made a decision that they were going to get after them and make them do things they were uncomfortable with.
“That team we played tonight is a phenomenal team and Carlos Harris is a player that this state is going to know about in the ensuing days, months and years. He’s a superstar in the making.
Unfortunately for Curie, their 34-32 lead a couple minutes into the third quarter would be their last of the night, as a basket off a steal by Young’s Xavier Amos gave the Dolphins the lead for good at 36-34.
Amos (12 points, nine rebounds, three steals), was a force inside for the Dolphins.
“In the first half, especially Jeremy (Harrington) were having their way in the post, so at halftime we got together and talked about fronting the post and other adjustments so they wouldn’t be able to score and get the ball,” Amos said.
“We knew they were going to be physical, they’re going to try and out-tough you, but you can’t back down,” Casey said.
“I feel really good about this group. We got down big in the beginning, but they’ve got fight in them,” Curie coach Mike Oliver said. “We started playing defense. They were making shots, then we got out on their shooters and played defense. It’s how we got back into the game.”
Sophomore Carlos Harris led the way for the Condors with a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds, while Bullock added 10 points and Jeremy Hrington 15 points and six rebounds. Casey was the third Dolphin in double digits, finishing with 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
The two teams have an opportunity to meet in the state playoffs, where they are the top two seeds in the Class 4A Lyons Sectional and would potentially meet Kenwood in the Supersectional, coincidentally back at Credit Union Arena, for a chance to go downstate.
