Last Saturday Cathedral boys basketball took down Crispus Attucks in the sectional 26 championship by a score of 81-63. Last year they fell to Attucks 54-59 in the sectional semifinal so this year’s game was a revenge game for many of the Irish players.

 Last March in 2025, Cathedral lost in heartbreaking fashion to Attucks for a trip to the sectional championship. It was the second year in a row the Irish didn’t advance from sectionals after the previous two years where the Irish won state and made it to regionals. Now a year later Cathedral got its chance to go back to regionals and do so by beating the team who knocked them out the year before. 

The game started off close with both teams playing tight and emotions riding high. With technical fouls and intense emotions from both sides, the game went to the locker rooms with Attucks up four. Cathedral kept it close and went back and forth till the end of the fourth quarter when Crispus Attucks’ star player and 27 point per game scorer Dezhan Hall ‘26 fouled out of the game. After this, the Irish started to pour it on the Tigers resulting in a 83-61 win for Cathedral. 

The joy of winning this sectional was seen throughout Cathedral’s program and Head Coach Jason Delaney said, “This sectional championship meant redemption from last year when we were in control of the game, but let it slip away. We were able to battle back this year and get it done.”

One of the returning players that experienced that heartbreaking loss last year was senior R’mani Wells. Now as a senior leader he was able to beat the Tigers and advance to regionals. “Winning that game meant everything. We waited 365 days for this and its our time now,” Wells said. 

In a highly emotional game, players and coaches had to deal with technicals, fouls a plenty, and a lot of talking back and forth. Coach Delaney could see his team have the advantage in dealing with that to help them win. “I really think that our culture helped us stay poised in those moments. We work on a lot of situations and try to simulate what will be coming our way. We want to be prepared for anything that we may face, so that way we can step up in those moments,” said the head coach who passed former coach Scott Hicks in Cathedral all-time wins for a head coach.

Now the Irish turn their attention to this Saturday’s regional game against familiar foe Brebeuf in a Catholic school showdown. The Braves of Brebeuf are ranked number 3 in Class 3A while Cathedral is ranked number 2, showing this could be a game for the record books. These two teams faced off in December at the Welsh Activity Center where Cathedral won 71-62. 

Senior Keaton Aldrige narrowly missed a double-double in that matchup. He lead all scorers with 24 points, and also pulled down 9 rebounds. Senior Julien Smith was the second-leading scorer in the game with 18 points. Brebeuf had their three stars score 14 points each to keep it close. The game was decided at the free throw line as Brebeuf attempted only 11 free throws compared to Cathedral’s 43 attempts.

Coach Delaney and the Irish will look to repeat their success from earlier in the season to advance to semi-state for the first time since 2022. Coach Delaney knows what it will take to win and said, “We have to guard the 3-point line and not allow downhill drives so they can kick to their shooters. We have to win the points in the paint and the rebounding battle.”

Wells is looking forward to his first regional game of his career and keeping the Irish’s season alive. Wells said, “We can’t wait to play on Saturday. We know what this team can do and we have the toughness to go out there and do it. Just time to show it now.”