Stags Win Home Opener vs Eleanor Roosevelt 77-63

Head Coach Mike G. Jones is off to a great start to begin his DeMatha coaching career. He got his first DeMatha win on the road as the Stags would face the Coolidge Colts, and beat them  75-39.

The team would then travel to California to take on Southern California Academy and win that game 78-76. Senior Mason So would lead the way for the Stags, ending that game with 27 points. 

The trip was not over for the Stags though, and unfortunately they would lose their game against Notre Dame after they fell behind 29-6 after the 1st quarter of play. At the end of the 3rd quarter the Stags had cut the lead down to 20, but it wasn’t enough. In the end the Stags would lose the game 84-93. Senior Jaden Winston kept the Stags in it as long as he could, he would finish the game with 21 points.  

The Stags returned to Hyattsville to face the Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders at the Brendan Looney Convocation Center. The Stags won this game 77-63. The Stags struggled in the 1st quarter with bad turnovers that could have easily been prevented. Eventually the Stags clicked, but not on offense. The Stags used the fastbreak to create their offense. At the end of the 1st quarter, the Stags lead Roosevelt 15-9, and junior guard AJ McClary became a spark plug off the bench for the Stags scoring 5 pts in the 1st quarter. The Stags defense forced three- 5 second violations in the game. The Stags had to face consequences for playing such a physical style of defense, as sophomore Kade Sebastian got into foul trouble early forcing to come out for the 1st quarter. 

In the 2nd quarter the Stags played almost perfect basketball. The highlight of the game came when junior Malcolm Thomas caught a lob from senior Jaden Winston, then got a chase down block a few seconds later. With 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, Mason So would get into foul trouble and be taken out to prevent him from fouling out. At half, the Stags would be up 43-21, and the Player of The Half was senior Logan Lewis, who had 7 points. 

To begin the 3rd quarter, Malcolm Thomas would come up with another highlight play and make a huge block, though unfortunately that didn’t rile the Stags up like it did in the 2nd quarter. The Stags came out the half sluggish defensively, letting Roosevelt bring the deficit down to 6. Coach Jones would make the decision to change the defensive gameplan, going from a full court press to a 12 zone defense. When asked about the switch Jones would say, “We decided to get them [Roosevelt] out of their rhythm. They found a good little rhythm in the 3rd period, so I had to go to my bag of tricks…” By the end of the 3rd quarter the Stags were up 58-49.

 In the 4th the Stags made sure to close out the game and get the win 77-63. The Player of the Game was senior Jaden Winston, who ended his night with 15 points. When asked about being in front of the home crowd, Winston said, “It was great first home game of the senior season, people [fans]  were out there supporting, guys played well, we gotta lot a work to do but we’ll get there.”  Other top scorers are below: 

Logan Lewis, senior- 9 points

Isaiah Arnold, senior- 11 points

AJ McClary, junior- 10 

Prashant Hill, senior- 9 points