Five Takeaways: WCAC Semifinals
American University hosted the WCAC semifinals yesterday and once again there was more drama in the most prestigious high school basketball conference in the country. To begin the day, the number 4 seed Gonzaga beat the WCAC regular season champions and 1 seed Paul VI, 68-58. In the second game, the number 2 seed DeMatha beat the number 3 seed Bishop O’Connell, 74-63. Below I breakdown five takeaways from the two games.
Paul VI Looked Gassed
First and foremost, Paul VI went undefeated in the regular season in the WCAC which is an amazing accomplishment. Unfortunately, the Panthers ran into some health issues as 2018 Villanova commit, Brandon Slater, broke his wrist and was not able to take part in any postseason play. In the WCAC each team plays each other twice and most of the teams at the top of the WCAC are also involved in multiple national showcases throughout the year. All of those games looked to have caught up to the Panthers. But we can’t take away the credit they deserve for not losing any conference games in during the regular season.
Myles Dread Keeps On Scoring
If Gonzaga ends up winning the championship tonight, Penn State pledge Myles Dread will most likely win MVP of the tournament. He had 21 points on Saturday in the quarterfinals against St. John’s, and yesterday he finished with 19 points against Paul VI. He is shooting lights out from three and has Gonzaga in the championship game for the second year in a row. Dread has gone from a role player to the ultimate leader of Gonzaga.
Xavier Johnson Showed Why He Was Player Of The Year
The Nebraska commit finished with 27 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists for Bishop O’Connell last night. He got to the rim and scored pretty much whenever he wanted to. Nebraska is getting an absolute steal in Johnson as he taken his game to a totally new level this year. It is important to note too that he got his 27 points while also picking up his 4th foul early in the 3rd quarter.
Justin Moore Has His Best Performance Of The Year
The 2019 guard finished with 34 points for DeMatha in a win over Bishop O’Connell. In my opinion, Moore has not looked 100 percent this year coming off ACL surgery but he might be looking his best come the right time of year. Bishop O’Connell had no answer for his jumper last night as Moore was totally in the zone. He also had great success at driving hard to the rim and getting to the free throw line. Wake Forest, Maryland and Villanova were all in attendance for him last night.
The Trilogy between Gonzaga/DeMatha
The 3rd matchup of the year between Gonzaga and DeMatha is set to tip off at 8 PM tonight at American University. They split in the regular season and they have both been on a roll this week in the conference tournament. This matchup will also feature the two teams that have the most WCAC tournament championship titles of all time.