Team effort propels Brebeuf Jesuit to VYPE GOW victory

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By DAMANI DICKERSON

For VYPE Magazine (Central Indiana)

Class 3A No.12 Brebeuf Jesuit (10-5) visited host 3A Bishop Chatard (5-10) in the second installment of Friday night’s girls/boys doubleheader at the VYPE Basketball Game of the Week.

With star junior guard P.J. Thompson in foul trouble most of the night the Brebeuf Jesuit Braves demonstrated “there is no I in team” defeating their parochial school rival 57-44 in front of a ruckus sellout crowd.  

The victory was less about Thompson shooting the lights out and more about his team’s play.

“In big games like this sometimes it doesn’t go your way, and that is what teammates are for,” Thompson said following the game. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. They stepped up and did there thing.”

VYPE MVP Malik Ferguson led the Braves defensive charge. He had the tough assignment of guarding Chatard senior forward Joe Fagan. He stayed in his hip pocket all evening and held him to just 14 points.

“Malik defended his butt off,” Brebeuf Jesuit head coach Noah Haynes said.

Ferguson knew he had a tough assignment so he came prepared.

“It was a low scoring defensive game,” Ferguson added. “I was focused on defense today. Obviously, I had to focus on Fagan.”

The Braves jumped out to an early 6-0 lead but by the end of the first period the Trojans fought back to knot things up at 12 apiece.

A 3-pointer from Fagan gave the Trojans a 15-12 lead to begin the second period, then the Braves went on a 10-0 run taking a 26-18 advantage into half.

Midway thru the third the Braves increased their lead to 13. A few minutes later Thompson went to the bench picking up his fourth foul and the Trojans finish the quarter on a 6-0 run closing the margin to 40-31 going into the final period of play.

“It is a little different,” Thompson said about being sidelined. “I am not use to it, but that is when you really have to step up and be a leader. I did what I could to lead our guys from the bench.”

The Trojans continued to play hard and with just over one minute to play Fagan’s trey made the score 47-42. The Braves responded with a 10-2 run and went on to ice the game from the line.

“We gave up two runs and both runs were with their best guy sitting on the bench. Both of those were damaging to our chance to win.” Bishop Chatard head coach Travis Daugherty said following the game. “The credit goes to them, they played us tough and made it hard for us to score and executed better than we did.”

Haynes agreed.

“Boy, we played an inspired game,” he said. “That is the first time I would consider us playing four quarters all year, and I’m really happy with it.”

Thompson led the Braves with 13 points and five rebounds. Junior forward Adam Kroot and senior center D.J. Perdue both finished with 12 points each. Ferguson finished with eight points and four rebounds.