Their tenacity was admirable, but Detroit Loyola's passion came up two points and a few seconds short in Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard's 58-56 win in the C-D Division championship game at Calihan Hall.

In a thrilling finish that saw Loyola with a chance to tie at the game's buzzer, the game's final shot that rattled away ensured a fourth-consecutive Catholic League championship for Richard and Coach Pete Schoch.

In the second game, De LaSalle, who took away any chance Orchard Lake St. Mary's had of winning a fourth-straight title with last week's 51-48 win over OLSM at Birmingham Marian, faces Novi's Catholic Central High. Both Greg Esler's Pilots and Bill Dyer's Shamrocks are longshots to win a state title, but CC's re-emergence as a basketball power and De LaSalle's annual status as a contender make this title game as compelling a championship as the CHSL has hosted in a few years.

TWO MORE SMILES FOR OAKLAND COUNTY: Longtime basketball official Gus Hughes from Beverly Hills won the 1st price in the Catholic League's 50/50 raffle. Hughes won $590. Royal Oak resident Byron Photiades, who worked the 2007 MHSAA baseball final between Lake Orion and Farmington, won the raffle's 2nd prize. Photiades, a Royal Oak Kimball grad, won $305.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released in August 2008 from Arcadia Publishing.