CLEVELAND, Ohio — East Tech senior guard D.J. Harrell admitted he kind of wanted to play Glenville again.
Rhodes spoiled that.
The Rams will try to spoil some more Friday in the Senate League boys basketball championship Friday night at East Tech. The city championships in Cleveland will be moved from the East Professional Center to East Tech because of problems with the bleachers at the old East High, so the Rams (12-6) and Scarabs (17-2) will return to the site of their semifinal victories from Wednesday night.
Rhodes beat Glenville, 63-60.
East Tech topped MLK, 63-54.
"I actually wanted to play Glenville," said Harrell, who scored 24 points, "because we definitely have something to prove. I wanted my payback from last year."
Instead, the Scarabs draw Rhodes in the second game Friday following the girls Senate championship between top-seeded John Hay and East Tech, a rematch of last year's title game won by the Hornets. On the boys side, Harrell wanted that rematch because Glenville ended East Tech's four-year reign atop the Senate with a 60-43 victory.
East Tech will play in its sixth straight Senate championship game and seventh in eight years.
Rhodes is in its first title game since 2009.
The experience is an all new one for Shawn Spencer's squad. Freshman guard Jamal Sumlin said Wednesday he's never played in front of such a big crowd, a raucous one that filled the gym at East Tech to see him take four charges and sophomore Amarion Dickerson's vicious slam dunk in which he soared through the air with one hand raised high before coming down on the rim and a defender.
Afterward, that dunk and the realization of being one win away from a championship left Rhodes players on Cloud 9.
"In my opinion, that should be on SportsCenter. No. 1. That dunk was crazy," said Marlon Landingham, who scored a game-high 21 points, including his own slam to seal the game at the buzzer.
In his third season as coach, Spencer has quietly built his Rams into a force within the city limits. They not only have Sumlin as a freshman and the 6-foot-5 Dickerson as a sophomore, but Landingham is still just a junior and a guard whom the Rams lean on in half-court sets on offense and perimeter defense.
The Senate championship has typically been decided between East Tech and Glenville, but Rhodes played spoiler as the only west-side school in the four-team semifinal.
"I'm pretty sure everyone on the west side wants to see us win," Landingham said.
They could.
While East Tech has been in so many city championships, it escaped Rhodes on Dec. 11 with a 72-69 win. It was the closest of the Scarabs' 15 straight wins to start the season, but the last two weeks have brought struggles. East Tech suffered its first loss at the Chet Mason Invitational, playing Maple Heights for its third game in as many days.
No practice, no time for rest, Harrell said that stretch and no school for a few days because of frigid temperatures wreaked havoc on him and his teammates. They are the only city school ranked in the cleveland.com Top 25, checking in this week at No. 18 but peaking a few weeks ago at No. 8.
They followed up that stretch of three straight games with two close matchups against Glenville (a loss) and MLK (a win), which helped rekindle a competitive edge.
"I feel like we won in practice," Harrell said.
Those last two games before the Senate tournament are why coach Brett Moore thought this was one of the most balanced final fours the league has seen in years. It translated with the down-to-the-wire matchup before his team took the court.
MLK again pushed Moore's Scarabs, but point guard Johnny Bigsby pushed back in the second half. He finished with 20 points to complement fellow senior guard Harrell, who hit five first-half 3-pointers.
"We're going to go as our guards go," Moore said. "Johnny is more of a play in the flow of the game type of guy. Sometimes you have to impose your will on the game, and I think he did that in the fourth quarter."
A year ago in this tournament, Rhodes faltered in the semifinals. East Tech lost in the finals — and for good reason.
"Even if we did win the city championship, it wasn't earned," Moore said. "Last year before we played the city championship, we only had four guys at practice. The game plan went out the window."
Three of the four players who showed up last year to that practice were on the court Wednesday: Harrell, Bigsby and Rahsean Adkins.
"I'm happy for them to get a chance to right their wrongs," Moore said.
Vindication is within reach for both teams, which want it for different reasons.
Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on Twitter (@mgoul) or email ([email protected]). Or log in and leave a message below in the comments section.
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