It was a tough assignment, but Grant Best welcomed the challenge.
The Mount Carmel senior was tasked with guarding Brother Rice standout Jack Weigus in a Catholic League Blue game on Feb. 14.
“You’ve got to take pride in it,” Best said. “I knew if I let him get off they would have won for sure. Because Marcos (Gonzales) went off and if I let Weigus get off, they would have definitely beat us.”
Gonzales was brilliant, scoring a game-high 36 points. But Best helped to make sure no other Crusader reached double figures — Weigus and Max Justic both scored nine — as the Caravan won 70-62 at home.
Noah Mister led Mount Carmel with 18 points, Cameron Thomas had 17, Best finished with 16 and Kyle Chevalier scored 11.
“He had to guard the best shooter in the Catholic League,” Mount Carmel coach Phil Segroves said of Best. “Grant rises to the occasion. That’s why he’s an Air Force commit. … When we told him he had Jack, with all due respect, he couldn’t have been more excited. He looked at it as an unbelievable challenge.”
Brother Rice (23-6, 6-2 Catholic Blue) opened a 20-11 lead after one quarter. But Best’s quick reactions on defense in the second quarter helped Mount Carmel (25-5, 5-3) pull into a 32-32 tie at halftime.
He finished with four steals and a pair of dunks, including one that gave the Caravan the lead for good at 55-53 early in the fourth.
“I knew I was guarding one of their best guys, so their guys were trying to get it to him and I just read their passes,” Best said.
He had enough spring in his legs for the dunks, but was wearing a big ice pack on one knee after the game.
“It’s been messed up a little bit,” Best said. “But it didn’t hurt much during the game. And then I got kneed when I was guarding Jack, he was coming off something. So yeah, that hurt a little bit.”
What felt better, especially to Segroves, was wrapping up conference play with a win. That’s even with attention about to shift to the state playoffs.
“It’s the Catholic League,” he said. “It’s the most important thing to us. If you ask any coach in the Catholic League, from (Loyola’s) Tom Livatino to (DePaul Prep’s) Tom Kleinschmidt to (Rice’s) Conte Stamas, they’d all say the same thing. …
“This game was the most important for us because we stubbed our toe in a couple other games in the Blue. So this really showed us that we are in that top tier.”