Nate Brandt controlled the Fatima offense early, but the Comets spread the ball around as they pulled ahead.
Fatima scored the first 11 points, and 18 of the first 21, in the fourth quarter to build a 58-46 win Thursday night against the Helias Crusaders in the semifinals of the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic at Fleming Fieldhouse.
With the win, Fatima (7-3), which is making its first appearance in the Classic, moves into today’s 7 p.m. title game against Jefferson City, which beat The Webb School, Tenn., 73-66 in Thursday’s other semifinal.
“We are excited, we are dead tired, but we’re excited,” Fatima coach Ryan Robertson said. “We’ve got to do a lot of homework tonight. (Jefferson City coach) Josh (Buffington) has the Jays looking, they’re so athletic, they play so hard. We’ve got our hands full and we know that, but we’re going to enjoy this one for a couple of hours.”
The Fatima and Jefferson City game will be the first in-state championship matchup in the Classic since Helias played Father Tolton in 2015.
Helias (5-4) moves into the third-place game at 5:30 p.m. today against The Webb School.
“They’ll bounce back,” Helias coach Joe Rothweiler said. “It wasn’t our best performance, but they’re a really tough group of kids and they’ll come back ready to play tomorrow. We’re gonna play a really good team. I know that we’ll fight a lot harder tomorrow.”
The teams went back and forth in the third quarter, tying at 33, 35 then at 37 which sent the teams into the fourth quarter even.
Levi Robinson got the Comets streaking with a putback layup, two of his 17 points, then Jack Robertson stole a pass and worked it to Nate Brandt for a layup, two of his game-high 24 points, before Matthew Robertson dished an assist to Jack Robertson for a left-wing 3. Less than three minutes into the fourth, the Comets had a 44-37 lead.
“He’s being rewarded for the time he’s put in on his own,” Ryan Robertson said of Brandt. “He just plays free, he enjoys playing and he’s having fun. It’s almost like if there’s a big moment and he misses, so be it. And I think that’s how we have to play, we can’t be scared of failing.”
Easton Haslag then dished an post-entry assist to Cooper Kleffner for a layup before turning a steal into a layup of his own to extend the advantage to 48-37, the Comets’ biggest lead of the night thus far.
Trey Bexten ended the Helias scoreless streak at five minutes and 51 seconds when he used one of Sam Lopez’s game-high six assists to start a traditional three-point play at the 4:13 mark of the fourth quarter. But Fatima got right back to work when Robinson hit a 3 from the right corner off a Jack Robertson assist before driving the baseline for a one-handed dunk to get the Fatima student section jumping.
“I’m just so impressed with the effort, I know they’re gassed,” Robertson said. “When you can see both teams are red in the face it just comes down to who can make one or two more shots.”
Fatima connected on five of six free throws down the stretch to maintain the advantage.
“We didn’t play very well, but credit to Fatima they played a great game,” Rothweiler said. “They out executed us, the out toughed us. Part of our identity this year has been tough team wins and we’ve been the toughest team in a lot of games we played, but we were by far not the toughest team tonight.”
The Comets jumped ahead early, but were unable to pull away in the first half.
Robinson opened the game with a post layup, then Brandt got started with a drive for a traditional three-point play. Brandt would go on to score 13 of the Comets’ final 15 points of the first quarter.
“We didn’t execute early for whatever reason,” Rothweiler said. “Especially on (Brandt). Once he got going, he’s a good player. If you let a good player get the easy looks he got early, he’s going to go off like that.”
But Helias was able to stay close after a Jacob Rembecki baseline drive off a Lopez assist, two of his team-high 10 points, and a Lopez-assisted 3 from Landon King.
Helias cut the lead to 11-9 when Lopez drove the base line through contact for a layup, then got within 17-14 after Rembecki hit a 3 from the right corner off a Logan Hillman assist.
Fatima took that 17-14 lead into the first break.
King opened the second quarter with a layup to cut the Comet lead to one, then Helias tied for the first time since tip-off when Henry Neuenswander hit a right-wing 3 off a Trey Bexten assist.
“Both teams fought, I just absolutely love how Helias plays,” Ryan Robertson said. “They make you guard 15 passes, they snap the ball, they move it and it wears you out. But I thought our kids dug in there.”
Fatima extended back to a 24-19 lead after Brandt used a transition drive for a finger roll layup, then stayed in front to go into halftime up 33-29 with the help of 20 points from Brandt.
Helias took its first and only lead of the game when Lopez hit two free throws with 4:16 left in the third to go up 34-33.
“Fatima is a good basketball team,” Rothweiler said. “We did not play anywhere close to what we should play and what we have been playing like. If you don’t, you’re going to lose games like that.”
Brandt added six rebounds to his 8-of-13 day shooting, while Robinson had seven boards and a 6-of-8 day from the field.
Fatima hit 20-of-32 (62.5 percent) of its shots from the field, 5-of-11 (45.5 percent) of its attempts from 3 and 13-of-18 (72.2 percent) of its tries from the free throw line.
Helias made 16-of-43 (37.2 percent) of its shots overall, 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) from 3 and 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) from the free-throw line.
Rembecki added three steals to his offensive performance, while Hillman led the Crusaders with five rebounds. Lopez scored eight points and dished out six assists and Bexten had nine points and four boards.