For the most part, the Catholic League’s basketball championship finals on back-to-back Sunday afternoons at University of Detroit Mercy Calihan Hall went about how everyone expected.

Three top-notch teams had predicted runaway victories.

Bloomfield Hills Marian (16-1, No. 1 Class A) easily dispatched Dearborn Divine Child (12-5, No. 8 Class B), 63-39, for the girls A-B championship, the Mustangs’ 14th CHSL title, all under the tutelage of Mary Lillie-Cicerone. Marian had defeated the Falcons twice during the regular season.

Last Sunday, Detroit U-D Jesuit (17-2, No. 8 Class A) captured its third consecutive boys A-B title, out-scrapping Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, 58-44, after trimming the Eaglets twice during the regular season.

Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes (No. 3 Class D), who had beat Royal Oak Shrine also twice during the season, had no difficulty in the championship game, 66-43, to successfully defend its C-D crown. Lakers senior forward Nick Robak sank five triples en route to a 34-point performance.

The victory kept the Lakers’ record a perfect 19-0, the best season-start in school history.

On the little bit unexpected side, Madison Heights Bishop Foley, gunning for its second straight girls C-D crown, had the better overall record — 13-5 to Riverview Gabriel Richard’s 8-7 — but didn’t play that way to the frustration of coach Dave Joseph, losing 37-26 to the Pioneers.

“It just wasn’t our day,” he said.

But what was a major surprise was the appearance, for the second year in a row, of St. Mary’s in the A-B finale against U-D Jesuit.

A year ago, coach Greg Esler’s Warren De La Salle squad was the odds-on favorite to face the Cubs. The remaining obstacle was a semifinal match-up against St. Mary’s, a team that the Pilots had taken care of an astounding 13 games in a row, including three other CHSL semifinal contests.

Coach George Porritt’s Eaglets paid no attention to history, pulling off a stunning overtime upset, 66-61. St. Mary’s then went on to get trounced by U-D Jesuit, 58-42.

This year, De La Salle was the early favorite to reach the CHSL championship game. However, the Pilots faded down the stretch and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, ramping up its game, became the favored team to meet the Cubs, especially when two weeks earlier the Warriors handed U-D Jesuit a 58-53 defeat.

All Rice had to do was get past St. Mary’s, a team they beat twice in the regular Central Division season. It wasn’t to be. The Eaglets held on for a 46-43 squeaker.

This begs the question: Did the Pilots and Warriors overlook St. Mary’s looking ahead to the championship game? Only they know the answer.

Another question: What gets into St. Mary’s that it seems to get stronger as the season wears on?

Perhaps assistant coach Todd Covert provided an insight.

He blames it on the long football season — made longer by the Eaglets, who more times than not are playing in late November on Thanksgiving weekend for a state championship, as they did last fall in a grueling 7-0 conquest of Muskegon for the Division 3 title.

He pointed out that nine of the 14 players on the basketball roster were on the football team as well.

“It takes them about half a season to get from the football mentality to basketball,” Covert said. “Football is such an intense sport around here.”

I passed on his analysis to Porritt.

“That may be,” he smiled. “I’ll have to ask the football coach.”

He can look in the mirror for that conversation. Porritt has coached Eaglets football every autumn since 1989, racking up five state championships in 11 times to the Big Game.

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Don Horkey may be reached at [email protected].