Detroit Cass Tech rallies late to win PSL title in overtime, 74-70 over King

Down 15 points with just over five minutes remaining, Detroit Cass Tech put on a furious rally and roared all the way back to claim the Public School League boys basketball championship with a 74-70 overtime victory over King before a raucous Sunday crowd at Wayne State Fieldhouse.

Darius Acuff, the first-ever sophomore ever to be named PSL’s Mr. Basketball, finished with a game-high 27 points and orchestrated the comeback with 14 in the final quarter to go along with four free throws in the overtime as the Technicians (20-0) preserved their top ranking (No. 1 Super 10) and claimed city bragging rights for the fourth time since 2017.

“We came this far, we are 20-0 and no way in a city championship rivalry game, we don’t lose,” Acuff said. “So that timeout at the end of the third (quarter), we just said, ‘Let’s get to it, let’s fight bro,’ and that’s what we did and we won.”

King (9-7), which lost to Cass in a previous meeting on Jan. 20 (57-55), started the season losing six of its first eight games, but caught fire entering the city title game and appeared poised to make a statement, only to fall victim to a 13-0 Cass Tech run during the final period boosted by eight turnovers.

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With 5:04 remaining in regulation, King junior point-guard Chas Lewless (25 points) made a basket to put the Crusaders up 55-40, but then it all came tumbling down thereafter as Acuff’s 3 with just under 41 seconds to go sent the game into OT at 64-all.

“It’s situations in practice, we go when we’re down or when we’re up,” Acuff said. “It might have looked hopeless, but it’s toughness. That’s what we talked about. And Chas, he played good. We knew we had to contain him, so that’s all that was — toughness and heart.”

The Technicians continued their momentum into the four-minute extra period, taking a six-point lead on a pair of Acuff free throws with 1:15 left along with a free throw each from freshman Corey Sadler (10 points) and Travon Cooper in the final 12 seconds. Sandwiched in between was a key offensive rebound by Sean Hodges off a missed free throw for Cass Tech to retain possession.

Acuff struggled through three quarters, but scored 18 of his teams' 27 points during the final 12 minutes.

“I feel like I wasn’t as aggressive in the second quarter and I was missing a lot of easy floaters and stuff,” Acuff said. “But the second half I just stayed smart. I was shooting a lot of jump shots in the second half, I had to get to the rack and that’s what I did.”

Cass Tech, which started the game making 7 of 17 free throws, made 13 straight during crunch time.

King, which had captured the last two PSL crowns entering Sunday, jumped out to a 17-11 lead after one quarter and increased its advantage to 31-22 at halftime using a balanced scoring attack. The Crusaders shot 12 of 22 from the floor behind Thomas McTyer’s eight points and seven from Lewless.

In the third quarter, Cass came out and scored the first six points to cut the deficit 31-28, thanks to a free throw by Dejuan Miles Jones, but King still led by nine, 44-35, heading into the fourth.

A three-point play from 6-foot-7, 240-pound center Jonathan Coffey gave the Crusaders their biggest lead of the game, 49-35, with 7:28 remaining in the fourth. (But with 3:05 in the game, Coffey fouled out.)

Kenneth Robertson, who also played a pivotal role in the late comeback for Cass Tech, added 16 while Derrick Miller contributed nine.

“We’ve been getting people’s best shot, too much now,” said a relieved Cass Tech coach Steve Hall. “We knew it would have a tough game. It’s a rivalry, it’s the City championship. We didn’t get out of the gate like we wanted to. We dug a hole for ourselves, but we showed the heart of a champion and that feels good.”

The Technicians’ spotty free-throw shooting (22 of 36) nearly cost them, but they made them when it counted.

“I’d say uncharacteristic, but I believe we’re normally a good free-throw shooting team,” Hall said. “Free throws, rebounding, turnovers ... those are the things that win or lose championships and to be on top. I’m glad better late than never. I’m glad we finally got it together.”

King’s Kenneth King added 15 points, while Daniel Hayes and Coffey each added 13. McTyer added 11.

“We replaced our first seven guys (from last year) that I talked to you about and you could see the inexperience in this type of situation in the last five minutes of the game,” King coach George Ward said. “Obviously Darius played his ass off in the fourth quarter, but really, there was nothing they could do. We just got careless with the basketball and our inexperience showed. And evidently, I didn’t do a good job of preparing them the last five minutes of the game.”

Meanwhile, the Crusaders could get one more crack at Cass in the Division 1 district tourney which will be hosted by the Technicians.

“It was a well-played game,” Ward said. “Chas played a wonderful game. They fought but not having Jonathan on the floor hurt us big time. I just told them to relax (during the timeouts) and remind them to do the things that they’ve always done.  We prepared for this and this moment ... it’s just unfortunate we couldn’t capitalize on it. We dominated the game and lost the last five minutes.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Cass Tech rallies to win PSL title in OT, 74-70 over King