“Our defensive effort was not there,” Szabo said.
Badin took advantage with 28 points in the paint to shoot 57.9% and knock off the Eagles 69-59. The Rams won their first district title since 2002. And they had to do it against a CJ team that beat them by 19 and 14 points in two regular-season games.
“They did a good job spreading us out, had a good game plan and they knocked in shots, so give them credit,” Szabo said. “But that wasn’t the same team you saw beat Alter.”
CJ stunned Alter 65-37 on the final night of the regular season.
After trailing 26-22 at halftime, CJ (12-12) controlled the third quarter with defense to take a 44-41 lead into the fourth. Cal Weatherspoon scored inside to make it 46-41. Then it was all Badin (16-10). The Rams attacked the basket and knocked down a couple timely 3-pointers.
The Rams finished on a 14-7 run and pushed the lead to 63-52 with 1:45 left. Leading the Rams were Cooper Ollis with 24 points, Grant Wissman with 18 and Aidan Brown with 17. As a team the Rams made 7 of 16 3-pointers and shot 65% in the second half.
“We didn’t play ball screens well, we didn’t keep them out of the paint, we didn’t keep them in front of us,” Szabo said. “Our good pressure that we had was not there. And kind of from the jump we looked like the more tentative team, especially defensively, and that’s the disappointing thing.”
Weatherspoon and David Cartwright led CJ with 16 points apiece. The Eagles shot 50% from the field, but made only 4 of 13 3-pointers and committed 14 turnovers to only eight by Badin.
After losing George Washington III, who now plays for Michigan, and B.B. Washington off last year’s state final four team, Szabo expected no less than for this year’s team to be playing in another district final.
“It’s always the expectation,” he said. “You don’t take it for granted, but you know what you’re capable of. We were very capable of going on and playing next week if we would have done the things we do. And that’s what you’re supposed to do, play winning basketball we like to call it, and we did not do that today.”
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