CREVE COEUR • The De Smet basketball team got its difficult week off to a good start on Tuesday night, thanks to Nolan Berry.
The standout junior forward scored a career-high 36 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Spartans to a 68-62 overtime win against visiting Hazelwood Central.
"We were fired up," Berry said. "We were ready for this one. We know we've got a tough week, so we just tried to get after it in practice to get ready for these guys."
De Smet's difficult week includes its final Metro Catholic Conference game of the season at league leader Vianney (21-1) on Friday and its match against John Carroll (22-5) on Sunday in Bel Air, Md.
The Spartans (17-6, No. 8 in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings) also got 14 points from guard Jimmy Barton and nine points and eight rebounds from center Eric Moeller.
"To me, it's less about winning and losing, but how we played -- to battle back, to scrap and get loose balls, to pick up tough stops," De Smet coach Kevin Poelker said. "Even if in overtime somebody rattles one in and you lose, all the things that we did in the game, I still feel really, really good about."
Central (17-6, No. 7 large schools) was led by the trio of Jordan Martin (17 points), B.J. McLaughlin (16) and Marcus Lampley (15).
De Smet led 20-17 after one quarter and 35-23 at halftime after a strong second quarter. But Central rallied in the second half and eventually tied the score at 57-57 with 14 seconds left in regulation on a putback by Martin.
"We had a bad second quarter, and they opened up the lead, had a 12-point lead at half, and that really hurt us," Central coach Josh Martin said. "Our guys showed a lot of character. We battled back, took the lead, made some plays down the stretch and did a good job and gave ourselves a chance."
After Central scored the first three points in overtime, De Smet took control of the game with an 11-0 run that included six points and an assist by Berry.
"We got off to a fast start, and we knew they were a good team and were going to come back with runs at us," Berry said. "So we just tried to respond and get back in our system, play our game and, in the fourth quarter and overtime, I think we did that."
Tuesday's victory gives De Smet a 2-1 edge in three games with Hazelwood Central this winter. De Smet beat Central 69-54 in the semifinals of the Meramec tournament on Dec. 28, but Central bounced back to defeat De Smet 67-54 in the championship game of the Ameritime Classic on Jan. 27.
