By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Call it a win 19 years in the making.
Rush-Henrietta head coach Calvin Betts doesn’t need to be reminded of the final game of his high school playing career. The now second-year head coach remembers it well.
Betts, then a teenager and R-H faced Fairport for the 2006 Section V Class AAA championship. The Red Raiders had beaten Rush twice during the regular season. The outcome for the title game stayed consistent with those previous meetings. Corey McAdam led Fairport to a 52-50 victory.
Betts and his teammates had hoped to win a second title in three years instead they walked off Les Harrison Court with a loss.
Saturday night the roles were reversed, and Betts made sure the current Royal Comets understood what was on the line.
“I’ve been holding on to that,” he said. “We wanted this. I wanted this. We wanted to repay them for what they did to us our senior year.”
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JENNIFER LAEMLEIN.
Jalen Taggart and Jahquin Brown finished with a game-high 18 points apiece as top-seeded R-H (20-2) erased a halftime deficit to beat No. 2 Fairport, 53-50 in the 2025 Section V Class AAA championship game at Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester War Memorial.
“It’s amazing,” Betts said. “I just had a full-circle moment. I couldn’t be more proud of my guys. I couldn’t be more proud of my staff.”
Taggart, who was named tournament MVP, scored six during the fourth quarter. His 3-pointer with less than four minutes remaining gave the Royal Comets their largest lead of the game at 52-46. This after trailing by eight early in the third quarter.
Jalen Taggart gives @RHBoysVarsityBB its largest lead of the night at 52-46 with 2:27 remaining. pic.twitter.com/Y1YZiJ74k7
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
“We’ve been in a lot of moments like this, so we are kinda used to it,” the junior guard said. “When it happened, we just knew to stay under control. Basically, we worked as a team. Talked it out.”
The championship was the first since 2011 and seventh* in program history.
“My assistant coaches, the community, the school it’s a joint effort,” Betts said. “Everybody had their hands in on this. I’m really excited right now.”
Early on, it looked like Fairport (18-4) might avenge the two regular season setbacks.
Jonathan Roessel and LaShard Lowry Jr. connected on separate baseline jumpers, and Hadi Dergham slipped ahead of the defense for a layup as the Red Raiders closed the first quarter on a 6-0 run.
Landon Brunken’s layup in the open court pushed the advantage to eight early in the second quarter, and Fairport had a six-point lead going into halftime.
Rebound and outlet. Landon Brunken gives @FCSDSports a 20-12 lead. @SecVBBasketball pic.twitter.com/nB7ah294Zw
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
“During that stretch we moved the ball a little bit better,” said Fairport head coach Scott Fitch. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. When you play a team three times, you know them extremely well. They know us well, so it makes for an uglier game just because everybody knows each other’s stuff.”
A defensive adjustment coming out of the locker room at halftime paid dividends for R-H.
“We went to our 1-3-1,” Betts said. “It caused them some problems in the third and fourth quarters. Once we did that, we were able to slow them down and have them second-guess some things I would say.”
R-H forced four turnovers during a six-possession stretch late in the third.
“Their zone is tough,” Fitch said. “They got length out there, so it’s hard to move it against their zone. I thought they did a good job defensively.”
Talhah Ali converted a steal and layup. Then Brown hit a catch-and-shoot triple from the left side for a 38-36 lead – the Royal Comets’ first advantage since 7-5 midway through the first quarter.
“When we were in our man-to-man, they were comfortable,” Betts said. “Once we switched to our 1-3-1, it caused them problems.”
Brown’s trey, his second of the third stanza, marked the first of five lead changes the teams exchanged over the next four-plus minutes.
Steal and layup. Talhah Ali cuts the deficit to one for @RHBoysVarsityBB @FCSDSports 36-35 late in the third. pic.twitter.com/VsyhWSArmg
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
“I felt like everything was a battle,” Fitch said. “We outworked them maybe a little bit during that one stretch, but we lost the rebound battle and we lost some key battles we knew we had to get to beat them.”
LaShard Lowry Jr. hit a corner three to give Fairport its last lead of the game at 46-44 with 5:53 left in the contest.
“I was proud of our kids,” Fitch said. “They hung in there. They battled all year and we were always outsized. Tonight, wasn’t any different. We definitely left everything we had out there. That’s all you can ask of your team.”
Brown scored 10, of what ended up being a season-high point total, in the third quarter.
“Just had to be confident,” the senior forward said. “My shot was falling tonight. We won the game. I’m happy about that.”
Jahquin Brown connects from distance. pic.twitter.com/kE4TaTF1GF
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
Avery Council follows his own miss and gives @RHBoysVarsityBB a 44-43 lead early in the fourth. pic.twitter.com/FDf4QU81KF
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
Avery Council added 10 points in the win. Ali accounted for seven.
“We just played our basketball,” Betts said. “They’re a great team. I take my hat off to them. If we do what we do, there are a lot of teams around that are not going to beat us. We truly believe that.”
Rush-Henrietta advances to face Section VI champion Jamestown in the state quarterfinals. The two teams met earlier in the season with Jamestown taking a 71-51 decision.
The Royal Comets defeated Fairport by scores of 66-62 and 86-82. The second of which was a double overtime game.
LaShard Lowry Jr. gives @FCSDSports a 31-23 lead with 5:56 to go in the third. pic.twitter.com/02wJpRXbyd
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 9, 2025
2025 CLASS AAA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Jalen Taggart MVP (Rush-Henrietta), LaShard Lowry Jr. (Fairport), Avery Council (Rush-Henrietta), Landon Brunken (Fairport), Jahquin Brown (Rush-Henrietta), Mackie Terry (Aquinas) and Henry Fox (McQuaid Jesuit).
FAIRPORT (18-4)
Gannon Culver 0 0-0 0, LaShard Lowry Jr. 4 1-2 12, Alexander Grejda 2 3-4 7, Sam Roselli 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Roessel 2 0-0 4, Landon Brunken 4 2-2 10, Drew Sisson 2 0-0 6, Hadi Dergham 5 1-1 11 TOTALS 20 6-8 — 50
RUSH-HENRIETTA (20-2)
Jahquin Brown 7 1-5 18, Jalen Taggart 5 5-10 18, Avery Council 3 2-2 10, JJ Ward 0 0-0 0, Amir Abdul-Haqq 0 0-0 0, Talhah Ali 3 1-2 7, Kingston Henry 0 0-0 0, Daniel Schmitz 0 0-0 0 TOTALS 18 9-19 — 53
FAIRPORT 13 11 16 10 — 50
RUSH-HENRIETTA 7 11 20 15 — 53
3-point goals: FAIRPORT 3 (Lowry, Sisson 2); RUSH-HENRIETTA 6 (Taggart 3, Brown 3).
*Rush-Henrietta Sperry won one sectional title (1976) and Rush-Henrietta Roth two (1980, 1981) before the schools combined for the 1987-88 school year. The seven titles account for those won since 1987.
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