Detroit – Michael Oravetz and Corey Green led the charge. Madison Heights Bishop Foley came out for the start of the second half, trailing Detroit Loyola by eight points.

An energized Oravetz sank four free throws, a basket and a triple, and in three minutes, the Ventures put together an 11-3 run to take their first lead in the game, 37-36.

“The championship was on the line,” he explained later about Bishop Foley’s resurgence.

Green was right alongside him. He took control of the backboards (13 rebounds for the game) to spark a defense that limited Loyola to just four points in the third quarter.

The Oravetz-Green duo accounted for all of the Ventures’ 16 points in the quarter for a 42-38 advantage heading into the final eight minutes.

When the Bulldogs recouped to go ahead 45-44 early in the fourth quarter behind their own 7-point-duo of Toby Sharpe and Willie Boykins, Green sank a pair of free throws and a jump shot to put the Ventures back on top to stay.

The Ventures persevered for a 59-53 victory and now the CHSL C-D championship is in their trophy case, right next to last year’s trophy, the first in school history.

The Bulldogs’ 180-degree turnaround in the second half left coach John Buscemi near speechless. “It’s a mystery,” he said in the gloom of the hallway outside a quiet locker room. “It’s a young team. They don’t know what it takes to be a champion.”

“We had to make a move,” said Bishop Foley coach Marc West, who has eight seniors on his roster, all of whom played in last year’s title game. “We were getting denied. We had to turn on the pressure. We had to take charge.”

Loyola opened a nine-point lead with seven quick points in the last minute of the first quarter on a pair of free throws by Sharpe, a triple by James Stewart and a basket by Richard Gold. When Gold scored opening the second quarter, increasing Loyola’s lead to 11 points, it seemed a rout was on.

Down the stretch, Loyola got to within a point, 50-49, at the two-minute mark. Baskets by Max Aleshire and DeAndre Jackson, and a basket and three free throws by Oravetz iced the game for the Ventures.

Oravetz scored a game-high 20 points. Green had 19.

Sharpe (13) and James Stewart (10) were double-figure scorers for the Bulldogs.