There’s so much to despise about high school sports in 2025: crass commercialization, win-at-all-cost woefulness, etc.
Counterpoint: Paul VI vs. Gonzaga! On Tuesday night I attended this matchup of the top two basketball programs in what is historically the strongest hoops conference in the strongest hoops city in the country, played in front of an overflow crowd in a tiny gym on a historic campus in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol Building.
Oh, what a night! Oh, what a game!
I didn’t want to go, only because I’m old and tired and don’t like going anywhere for any reason. Getting me off my couch is like getting Harry R. Truman off Mount St. Helens. But a few hours before tipoff, a nice pal offered me and my son tickets to the game, which had been sold out for more than a week. I initially said “Nah!” to the freebies, but my kid reminded me how many ridiculously memorable Washington Catholic Athletic Conference contests we’ve seen through the years, including the 2018 DeMatha–Gonzaga league championship football game at which the legend of Caleb Williams was born, and how he had to fight me to go to all of ‘em but I always relented. So I relented. And, yeah, I’m so glad.
D.C.’s an event town more than a sports town, and this had a big-event feel even outside the venue. I avoided the jam getting into the on-site parking lot by taking a space just across North Capitol Street NW from the regal Gonzaga campus. The school is more than 200 years old and helped mold such luminaries as Lincoln assassination co-conspirator David Herold, Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan, the nation’s first drug czar, William Bennett, plus fabulous novelist and novel fabulist Pat Conroy. Of late its most-heralded alums are jocks, including Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner turned Chicago Bears punching bag.
There was a merry loud mob of fans at the entrance of Gonzaga’s gym and a louder, merrier mob inside. But thank goodness nobody called the fire marshal! The field house is so small that walking to find a seat during warmups meant I had to brush up against players from both teams in their layup lines. I’ve been going to schoolboy sporting events for half a century, but I’d never been so stunned by the massiveness and athleticism of the athletes as I was Tuesday night. These are kids? I’d bet even the managers on these teams can dunk behind their back. The big-event feel was enhanced when I saw Penn State football coach James Franklin and ESPN’s Michael Wilbon hanging out at different sides of the court.
The same teams met in last year’s WCAC conference championship game. Paul VI won that title matchup, 63-51. Both squads came into this game undefeated in league play. Gonzaga is as loaded as any high school in the country. Every starter from last year’s nationally ranked squad returned this season, and all of them have already committed to a D-I program; Xavier-bound guard Nyk Lewis and UNC-Chapel Hill commit Derek Dixon are the most renowned Eagles at the moment. But the Eagles’ sixth man, Carter Meadows, is getting national attention for his football skills too, and currently rates among the top edge rushers in the country. (Surely Franklin was in D.C. to woo Meadows to State College.) The roster of Paul VI, which finished second in most national rankings last season, may not be as stocked with big names right now as its fans are used to, but this is a school that in recent years has sent four players to Duke: Trevor Keels, Jeremy Roach, Darren Harris and Patrick Ngongba. And for all Gonzaga’s might, Paul VI had the best player on the court: Jordan Smith, a 6-foot-2 junior who has not yet declared a college choice but will be welcomed by any of ‘em.
On paper, the court would likely be littered with future NBA talent. And after tipoff, the level of play matched the resumes. Paul VI took a 31-29 lead into halftime, mostly on the back of Smith, as much a Can’t Miss Kid as an 11th-grader can be.
Gonzaga’s gargantuanness proved to be the difference in the second half. Meadows’s football physicality paid off inside whenever he came off the bench. Christian Gurdak, Gonzaga’s bulky 6-foot-10 senior center and Virginia Tech commit, had two huge plays down the stretch. Gurdak had started his high school career at Paul VI before transferring to the WCAC rival after his freshman year, and spent much of the night taunting supporters of his former school. And he backed things up with his play when it mattered: Among the night’s biggest roars came after he threw down a huge dunk in front of the screaming and shirtless student section with four minutes left. (Gonzaga is an all-boys school.) Gurdak also bodied a Paul VI defender to the floor and put in a serene 10-footer to put Gonzaga up by three in the last minute.
Paul VI had a chance to tie the game when Smith calmly brought the ball upcourt with 10 seconds left and his squad down by three. And after surveying the defense and everybody in the gym knowing he’d be taking a shot from beyond the arc, Smith pulled up at the top of the key and began his launch of a three-pointer. But Nyk Lewis got in his face, and while clearly trying to avoid fouling Smith, he disrupted the shooter just enough. Smith’s shot caromed off the rim. Smith somehow got his own rebound in traffic while surrounded by much bigger bodies, and smartly sprinted out to the three-point line to try one last shot, but instead turned the ball over in a chaotic scramble just before the buzzer sounded.
Final score: Gonzaga 61, Paul VI 58. Dixon finished with 19 points, and Gurdak 16, to lead Gonzaga. Smith led all scorers with 20 in the losing effort.
The Gonzaga lads in the end zone bleachers put all their clothes back on and, like a huge portion of the crowd, stuck around wandering on the court just wanting to talk about what they’d witnessed with anybody who’d listen. I was among those talking and listening. I left feeling lucky just to have been there.
As great as the game surely was, local hoop hardcores know it’s just an hors d'oeuvre for the upcoming WCAC tournament. Anybody who loves basketball at any level should make at least one pilgrimage to the annual event. It’s phenomenal entertainment every year, but there’s no time like the present: Four teams in the league (Gonzaga, Paul VI, St. John’s, and DeMatha) have been in the national Top 25 rankings this season. So great as they are, there's no guarantee Gonzaga and Paul VI will rematch in the final.
The tourney tips off Feb. 22. Again, I don’t like leaving the couch. But after Tuesday night, hell if I’m going to miss that.
