- All
Boleware, Newman lead East English past Cass Tech in PSL play
Detroit – Despite an important league victory on Friday Detroit East English Village Prep coach Juan Rickman wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort.
East English (4-2, 2-0) defeated Detroit Cass Tech 75-70 in a Detroit Public School League East Division 1 game at Cass Tech.
The Bulldogs blew several double-digit leads allowing Cass Tech (3-4, 1-1) opportunities to pull off what would have been an upset.
"Discipline, discipline, discipline," Rickman said. "A lot of that was because of our effort, and I don’t really think we played that well. We have to sustain our effort, and stay disciplined."
East English led by seven with 7:06 left in the first half and looked as if they were ready to pull away. But back-to-back 3-pointers by the Technicians, and another by sophomore Leonard Silas just as the halftime buzzer sounded, tied the game at 31-31.
"If we really want to be for real this year, we have to be more focused and play defense," said East English junior Nate Boleware. "We can’t allow teams that we are better than us to stick around in games."
At 5-5, Boleware was the smallest player on the floor but he came up big for East English when it needed it the most. He scored a game-high 21 points, and set up his teammates for good shots down the stretch. Boleware made four free throws in the final seconds to ice the game.
"I really wanted to come out and play aggressive against them today," he said. "Last year they beat up bad by 20, and we felt disrespected. So I wanted to come out, lead my team, and show them that we can play."
Cass Tech (3-4, 1-1) was able to stick around in the game until an East English 11-2 run in the second half turned back the Technicians. Back-to-back-to-back triples by Chris Rollins, Karmari Newman and Boleware, and a lay-up by Cedrick Lattimore pushed the Bulldogs’ lead to 44-33 early in the third. East English relies on its perimeter shooting and made nine 3-pointers for the game.
"Yes, of course those were some of the good things we did, but we have to be better at other things," Rickman said. "We have to be better on defense. Everyone knows that we can shoot and score, but we have to play better defense as a team as well."
Newman led East English with 19 points including four 3-pointers. Senior Rob Edwards led Cass Tech with 21 points and junior Darwin Hubbard added 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Next Friday East English will continue league play against Detroit Pershing and Cass Tech will host Detroit Henry Ford.
