Darren Harris leads St. Paul VI past St. John Bosco to win Bass Pro Tournament of Champions
SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI – Darren Harris and the St. Paul VI basketball team returned to the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions this year as a different group than the Panthers who took home the title two years ago.
Paul VI’s strong core of seniors, led by Harris, showed their growth as a group to earn three wins in three days at Great Southern Bank Arena to take home their second championship in three years.
Harris poured in a team-high 23 points, including four 3-pointers, as the Panthers defeated St. John Bosco 71-53 in the title game late Saturday night.
“It was fun,” said Harris, a Duke signee who earned the tournament’s most valuable player honor. “All winning has the same feeling, but I think this was really unique, just the way we evolved throughout these two years. It was really fun to be out there, to be in the main spotlight on the court, and I think we proved it being the best team in the country today.”
Paul VI, out of Chantilly, Va., is ranked third in the latest SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25 national rankings, and had to beat two other nationally-ranked teams to win the title.
The Panthers defeated 25th-ranked McEachern, from Powder Springs, Ga., in the semifinals. St. John Bosco, from Bellflower, Calif., is ranked 23rd.
St. John Bosco, which was led by Brandon McCoy’s game-high 27 points, kept pace with the powerful Panthers in the first quarter before Paul VI pulled away.
Paul VI led 15-14 after one quarter but outscored the Braves 23-10 in the second quarter and 21-7 in the third.
“If you saw that first quarter and the pace that they had, they got an offensive flow and they had a rhythm,” Paul VI coach Glenn Farello said, “and it was like ‘oh boy.’ They are really good. They are really talented. I was a little bit worried because in that first quarter we weren’t aggressive, we weren’t attacking the ball pressure and our rotations we were a little on our heels.
“So I thought we really got it going defensively, we were able to speed them up a little bit and make some plays. That’s what seniors need to do. That’s what the championship moments – you need to find that and take it to another level. … I’m really proud of that effort against a very talented team that we just played. They have a lot of offensive firepower.”
The Panthers, who got 11 points from sophomore standout Jordan Smith Jr., led by as many as 30 points early in the fourth quarter.
Harris, 6-foot-11 senior Notre Dame signee Garrett Sundra (seven points, four steals) and senior point guard Benjamin Hammond (eight points, five assists) were named to the all-tournament team.
“I feel like we’re the most connected that we’ve been all year, us five coming in there, starting the tempo for the people coming off the bench,” Hammond said. “We just play off each other. It’s going real well. I feel like we’re in a good spot.”
“We’re a really connected team,” Sundra said. “I think we’re the most connected we’ve ever been all year. … I think we’re doing really well as a team right now and we got the championship.”
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
