Playing on the wing opposite of McDonald’s All-American Austin Freeman has cast DeMatha’s Isaiah Tate in a subordinate role. Making matters worse, the Stags’ senior isn’t even the most famous Tate on his team. That distinction belongs to explosive shot blocker and football standout Kenny Tate.
Wednesday night in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title game, however, Isaiah Tate played a starring role as he scored a career-high 24 points to spark DeMatha to a 76-62 victory and its 36th conference title in 47 years.
With his future college coach, George Mason’s Jim Larranaga in attendance at Gallaudet, Isaiah Tate started fast, slam dunking a lob pass from Freeman for DeMatha’s first basket. Then the 6-foot-4 left-hander hit a pair of 3-pointers as the Stags raced to a 15-2 lead that St. John’s never challenged.
“That was unbelievably big,” said DeMatha coach Mike Jones. “I don’t think he thinks he’s overlooked. He’s going to a team that went to the Final Four last year. In some respects he’s in the best position of any senior.”
Isaiah Tate and Freeman (25 points) combined for DeMatha’s first 18 points then DeMatha (25-5) held off the Cadets the rest of the way despite a strong individual effort from Georgetown-bound guard Chris Wright (35 points).
St. John’s (24-7) cut the lead to 39-30 early in the third period on a 3-point play by Vlad Moldoveanu (13 points), but that’s the closest the Cadets would come as Freeman (25 points) steadied the Stags.
“I wanted to start fast and make sure they didn’t have a chance to be in the game at the end,” said Tate. “I knew coach Larranaga was coming. That got me flowing a little bit.”
Girls Final: Holy Cross 50, St. John’s 43
Wednesday at Gallaudet, Holy Cross senior Robin Colbert showed the Tartans the way to their first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship since 1981. Dominating the third period with her defensive intensity and daring drives to the basket, Colbert propelled Holy Cross to a 50-43 victory over St. John’s.
Colbert scored 11 of her game-high 19 points and got three of her seven steals in the third period when Holy Cross (24-5) used a 1-3-1 half-court trap to rattle St. John’s, expanding a two-point lead to 15.
St. John’s (20-10) rallied in the fourth quarter behind senior Dominique Bryant (13 points) and freshman Marissa Brock (10 points, 10 rebounds), cutting the lead to 44-43. But in the final 35 seconds, Colbert (eight rebounds) and the Georgetown-bound Monica McNutt (11 points) combined to hit 6 of 6 free throws to put the game away, touching off a raucous celebration worthy of a 26-year title drought.
