St. Paul's nearly blew a nine-point lead in the final minute but held on to edge Aberdeen, 67-63, while host Cardinal Gibbons rolled to a 90-45 victory over Arlington Baptist in the fourth Coach Ray Mullis Christmas Classic.
Played at Cardinal Gibbons High in southwest Baltimore, the tournament is named after the late Mullis, who coached the Crusaders for 30 years and won the most games (621) of any Baltimore metro-area coach.
It's going to be an all-Crusaders final -- both A and B conferences represented -- and an all-Eagles consolation.
No. 13 St. Paul's (6-1), the defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference champion, will play 19th-ranked Cardinal Gibbons (7-3) of the combined Baltimore Catholic League/MIAA A Conference at 7 tonight for the championship.
No. 12 Aberdeen (5-1) and Arlington Baptist (3-8) play in the 5 p.m. consolation.
Gibbons led Arlington Baptist, the defending MIAA C Conference champion, 15-14, at the end of the first period. Gibbons stretched the lead to 42-27 at the half and 67-39 at the end of three periods thanks to its advantage in height and speed.
Ken Hasbrook led five Gibbons players in double figures with 18 points. Twelve Crusaders scored as coach Bob Flynn emptied his bench early.
The other scoring leaders were Glenn Nelson and Brahn Jenkins with 11 points each, and Leon Williams and Angelo Wells with 10.
Jason Barkley (15) and Sean O'Meara combined for 28 of the Eagles' points.
"St. Paul's is for real," Flynn said, looking ahead to tonight's final.
"They've got the two big guys inside, and they're disciplined. It's huge because its the Ray Mullis Christmas tournament and we want to keep the trophy here. We know St. Paul's is going to try and take it from us."
In the first game of the classic, St. Paul's took a 65-56 lead with 57 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by Jason Caldwell, who had 12 points. But the Eagles fought back.
After the free throws by Caldwell, Phil Brown (14 points) launched a three from the corner to make it 65-59 with 32 seconds left. Dejon Brown (13 points) then stole the ball from the Crusaders on back-to-back possessions and scored twice.
Suddenly, it was 65-63 St. Paul's with 14 seconds left. Five seconds later, the Eagles fouled Shel Simon and he made both attempts to give St. Paul's a four-point lead that would stand up.
"We made too many stupid plays and were not thinking out there," said St. Paul's 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior center Holden Plack, who had game-high totals of 28 points and 14 rebounds. "But we got it done and it feels good to beat two ranked teams [then No. 8 Calvert Hall last Thursday] in eight days."
St. Paul's coach Jack MacMullan said, "Their [Aberdeen's] pressure was very good and we were clinging for dear life because we stopped playing defense and missed free throws."
Erin Henderson led Aberdeen with 22 points and nine rebounds.
"We didn't shoot the ball well and they [St. Paul's] won the war of the boards," Aberdeen coach Richard Hart said.