Grant Best’s defense helps Mount Carmel take down Brother Rice

Senior year is different when your junior season ends in the state championship game. Mount Carmel stars Grant Best, Noah Mister and Cameron Thomas know how it feels to stand on the court in Champaign and watch another team celebrate a championship. The Caravan lost to DePaul Prep in the Class 3A title game last season.

“We know what our goal is,” Best said. “It’s been our goal since last year. We set the standard last year and we have to make it back down.”

Best scored 16 points and had four steals to help No. 14 Mount Carmel beat No. 8 Brother Rice 70-62 on Friday in the Caravan’s last regular season game.

Best had a steal and dunk late in the third quarter and then his steal and dunk with 6:28 left to play put Mount Carmel ahead 55-53. The host Caravan held the lead from then on.

“[The steals] just worked out that way,” Best said. “I was guarding one of their best guys so they are looking to get it to him and I just read their passes.”

He was guarding senior Jack Weigus, who finished with seven points.

“Weigus is the best shooter in the Catholic League,” Mount Carmel coach Phil Segroves said. “Grant rose to the occasion. That’s why he’s an Air Force recruit. He’s that kind of guy.”

Mister, a junior point guard, led the Caravan (25-5, 5-3 Catholic League Blue) with 18 points and senior Cameron Thomas added 17 points.

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Brother Rice (23-6, 6-2) led by nine points in the first half and by six late in the third quarter. The Crusaders were at their best when Caden Workman was on the floor, but he missed nearly 14 minutes on the bench after picking up his third foul in the second quarter and his fourth foul with 5:37 left in the third quarter.

“[Workman] is their facilitator,” Best said. “We got two of their starters in foul trouble and that really helped. The bench guys aren’t as experienced.”

Citadel recruit Marcos Gonzales led Brother Rice with 36 points.

“I knew if I led [Wiegus] go off they would have won for sure,” Best said. “Because Marcos went off and Weigus did they definitely would have beat us.”

Claude Mpouma, a 6-8 junior, transferred to Mount Carmel after playing football this season at Phillips. Mpouma, who recently picked up a Notre Dame offer, is one of the top football recruits in the country. He was a starter on Phillips’ Class 2A state championship basketball team last season.

He was ruled eligible a few weeks ago and has been providing a spark off the bench for the Caravan.

“We have a pretty good team so when I come off the bench I just want to do my job, getting blocks and rebounds,” Mpouma said.

Mount Carmel beat St. Ignatius this season but lost to Fenwick, DePaul Prep, Loyola and St. Laurence. That’s not exactly what the Caravan had in mind this season, so Segroves doesn’t think his players were distracted by the release of the state playoff brackets this afternoon.

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“It’s the Catholic League,” Phil Segroves said. “It’s the most important thing to us. This game was the most important because we stubbed our two in some other games in the Blue.”

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