"I really didn't know where I was. I just tried to grab the loose ball, check the clock real quick to see if there was any time left and just heaved it," Ughetti said.
-taken from the Battle Creek Enquirer-


I made my first ever visit to Battle Creek St. Philip last night to check out 5 CDBA members, EVAN URE, PATRICK REILLY, DARIO & DREW UGHETTI-all of St. Philip, and GABE FRISBIE of Mendon.

First I'd like to say that this place was NOTHING like DARIO had told me. I mean, for 3 years I have passed the school on my way to our youngest team practices at the Battle Creek Y-Center. DARIO had firmly planted it in my mind that St. Philip was a drab old place with leaking ceilings, sorta like the classrooms on SISTER ACT II.
Yes, the gym was small, but much bigger than I imagined, umm was told. Yes, it is true that you can't shoot 3's from the extreme corners, cause you will hit the lights in the ceiling. I had heard these things for years...

EVAN URE played on the Freshman team. They faced Bronson because Mendon didn't have a Frosh squad. No disrespect to EVAN, but my Portage West 7th graders would beat BOTH of those Frosh squads by 20+ points! St. Philip won the Frosh game by 3.
The JV game was supposed to feature 3 players from our youngest team, but an unfortunate event- a DREW UGHETTI ankle injury suffered on Tuesday kept him in street clothes. DREW UGHETTI is St. Philip's leading scorer on the JV team.
The starting line-ups were announced, and PATRICK REILLY and GABE FRISBIE were squared off at the point guard slot. Both guys played well, GABE didn't score as much as I thought that he should, but he was running the whole show for Mendon. I thought that I'd get a chance to see him do *the move* a couple of times! PATRICK was his usual self. Running the show as well as his mouth>g<, making plays to make up for DREW's absence. St. Philip won a close game.

VARSITY GAME: First of all, I only knew what I was told about St. Philip, and as I wrote earlier-DARIO gave me the impression that I had...
The teams come out for warm-up, and all of a sudden, I hear Lil' Jon and the East Side Boys booming from these massive speakers!
I was sitting next to Mr. Ughetti*more on him later*, and I say to him ~THIS IS HIP-HOP!!?!?!~ He says ~yes, it is!~ I was like ~but this is Battle Creek St. Philip!?!~ Mr. Ughetti replied again ~yes, it is~.
I sit through the 106&Park style warm-ups and I look around the gym. I must say that I had the wrong impression about Catholic Schools- or maybe just B.C. St. Philip. Lots of FUBU & PHAT FARM, scantly clad girls, and more swearing in the stands than at a Pistons v Pacers game.

The game was nip & tuck from the start as GABE FRISBIE's older brother Jake put on a low post clinic throughout the 1st half. Jake along with ~that hairy linebacker kid/Andy Motz~ were a decent 1/2 punch.
DARIO had one move that was ~Yeazel like~ He shot faked, went 2 hard dribbles into the lane, jump stopped, and finished! Yeah boyee!!
The 1st half ended with St. Philip holding a 1pt lead thanks to a 60ft bomb from Ryan Reilly~PATRICK's Brother~.

Having already been stunned by what I thought that St. Philip was like, and what I was seeing, here comes the half-time show.
Yes, St. Philip has a DANCE TEAM! 8 girls dressed like J-LO in that dance audition video. Dancing rather suggestive*IMO* to you guessed it... HIP-HOP. They were pretty good I'll have to admit-much better than Portage Central's, but Lansing Waverly has one that features BRYAN HORN's older sister. I'll check them out next month*how did I go from basketball to rating dance teams, oh boy...* St. Philip's cheerleaders also throw out beads during time-outs-like MADI GRAS but not really like that if you know what I mean>g<.

The 2nd half went just like the first. It was a 3 on 3 battle as Mendon's Jake Frisbie, Brock Alexander, and ~the hairy kid~ did battle with DARIO, Andy Solich, and Andrew Criswell.
St. Philip was down 2 with 20sec to go and elected to go for the win. They went to the basket with 10 sec left, but Mendon knocked the ball out of bounds. After a time-out, St. Philip inbounded the ball under their own basket, They ran KEVIN-1/NATION for Andy Solich. Solich's shot barely missed, and the ball went out to the key area. DARIO got to the ball with 2.something secs on the clock, looked at the clock, took 2 dribbles, and launched from about 23ft over 6'3 Frisbie and 6'5 Luke McGlothen...... NOTHING BUT NET- GAME OVER, DRIVE HOME SAFELY!!!!!! The crowd went wild, Mr. Ughetti gave me a bear hug like I've never had before. The look on Mr. & Mrs. Ughetti's faces was priceless... The shot was similar to the one that DARIO hit before half-time in Vegas against Waco, Tx.
DARIO finished with 14pts to go along with Andy Solich's 27. Jake Frisbie paced Mendon with 19.

I want to give a shout out to the best female point guard ever to last a season with me-Jessie Green of St. Philip. Jessie/Jessica was All-State in class D, and will play at Albion College next fall.

Thanks to the Ughetti's and the ~loser section~ that allowed me to sit in their section to enjoy a great night of hoops. The post game party was also great. I made it home safe>g<. I hope that UMA wont complain to the coach, the team won the game!!

-Darryl