Saturday, February 17, 2001

By Ken Gordon
Dispatch Sports Reporter

Looking back, Dan Garrick had no reason to be worried. But he's a coach, and worrying is what coaches do.

So forgive him for thinking even for a moment that his DeSales boys basketball team might lose its edge prior to its regular season-ending game against Ready last night.

Ready had been upset by Hartley on Monday, taking some of the luster off the once greatly anticipated rematch between Central Catholic League rivals. DeSales clinched the CCL title before last night's contest.

"It would have been easy to let our guard down," Garrick said. "But I talked to the kids on Tuesday and they said, 'Don't worry, we want to finish this thing,' and that was music to my ears."

The Stallions struck a rare chord last night, capping an undefeated CCL season with a 60-57 win at Ready.

It marked the first time in DeSales history a team had swept its league opponents, and only the second time any CCL team has done it since 1992 (Rosecrans was unbeaten in 1997).

"The pressure was off (because of Ready's loss)," Stallions guard Tony Borghese said. "But we didn't want them saying, 'What if we had beaten Hartley?'

"We'll be on a high for a few days, then we have to put it behind us."

Borghese played a starring role in helping DeSales (19-1, 12-0) put Ready behind it, bombing and slicing his way to a team-high 27 points.

He almost single-handedly held off the hard-charging Silver Knights (16-4, 9-3) down the stretch, scoring 14 of his team's 16 fourth-quarter points.

The fact that Borghese's points were just enough was a credit to his Ready counterpart, Dashon Harper, who brought the hosts back from a 14-point fourth- quarter deficit.

Harper ended with 29 points.

"This was a battle between the two best point guards in Central Ohio," Garrick said. "I can't think of two who are any better."

Harper put on a clinic in a fast-paced, well-played first half. The 5-11 junior rained in a trio of three-pointers and added several sweet moves to the basket. He capped the half with a one-on-two breakdown dribble and a pull-up jumper at the buzzer.

Through the early part of the third period, Harper was scoring at a point-a-minute pace. Then Garrick called out a defense he had never called out before: a 2-3 zone.

It worked. Harper scored only two points in an 11-minute stretch, and the Stallions built a 53-39 lead with 4:37 remaining.

"We're not a great offensive team, we have to be efficient," Ready coach Bob Ghiloni said. "They did a good job of bottling us up down low and having someone around Dashon."

But great players can't be contained forever. Harper ended his drought with a trey that cut it to 53-46 at the 3:20 mark, and the teams careened to an exciting finish.

Borghese and Harper traded scores and the outcome wasn't decided until Borghese hit a free throw for a 60-57 lead with 39 seconds left and the Silver Knights missed two shots on their final possession.