By Jimmy Navarrete ‘23

The Brother Rice Crusaders ended the regular season accounting for the most wins in Brother Rice history with 27 regular season wins. The regular season went by fairly quickly-now the real season starts. Rice took care of business against Eisenhower High School in the regional semifinal. Now, the only thing left to do was to take home the regional championship on friday.

We are excited to go out there and compete for a regional championship,” said senior Ryan Kenney prior to the game vs Andrew.

The scene was set – Andrew High School vs. Brother Rice for the regional championship. Both teams found great success in the regular season, although regular season wins are irrelevant now. This is the start of a new season! Anyone’s season can end at any time.

The Crusaders came out hot in the first quarter moving the ball and finding easy baskets in transition. Henderson was controlling the offense vs the 1-3-1 defense. At the end of the first quarter the score was 19-10, all Crusaders.

Senior Ahmad Henderson said, “We came out and punched them in the mouth.”

Andrew fought back and settled in, only being down 9 at halftime. They were starting to gain momentum after being down early. The Crusaders didn’t put them away just yet. They knew that they were in for a tough, physical playoff basketball game.

The 3rd quarter started; Andrew came out the gate hot, hitting almost every shot they took. The Crusaders took all of their punches and made it out alive. The Crusaders captured a regional championship winning the game 64-48.

Senior Ryan Gierhahn said, “It felt good to get some hardware; we worked hard for this.”