The Country Day Yellowjackets caught the Dakota Cougars sleeping.

The two teams opened the final day of the 29th Motor City Roundball Classic with an earlier-than-usual 10:45 a.m. start on Monday, and it was apparent that one team was wide awake from the jump: The Yellowjackets started on an 8-0 run and never trailed on their way to a 63-57 win over the Cougars.

“We know it’s an early morning game,” said Country Day head coach Darryl Nobles. “We played in one of these before, and we came out slow, and we saw what that result looks like. So today, we just wanted to just jump out early. We had an early morning practice yesterday just so we can get used to being up early for that. And the players really responded to it, which, you know, that’s a credit to them.”

After going down 8-0 halfway through the first quarter, Dakota started to turn on its jets — they finished the quarter out-scoring Country Day 8-7, but still found themselves down 15-8 after eight minutes.

But yet again, the Yellowjackets were faster to start a quarter — this time, going on a 9-2 run to open the second quarter, putting them up 24-10, their largest lead of the day.

“We tried to guard against the early morning start, and we didn’t,” Dakota head coach Paul Tocco said. “Obviously it’s my bad, because our team was not ready to play early on today. Not at all. They weren’t. They were out of it in the first and second quarters.”

Finally, in the third quarter, the Cougars showed why they entered Monday at 8-1 — Dekovan Thomas scored five near-instant points to start the second half en route to a 9-0 run that took just 90 seconds to complete, pulling Dakota back within three points.

With one minute left in the third quarter, Dakota tied the game for the first time since it was 0-0, drawing even at 40-40. But in that final minute of the period, Country Day scored eight points to break the tie — and they led the rest of the way.

Had the Yellowjackets allowed themselves to panic or split apart, they may not have survived that run. But that’s not what happened.

“They stuck together,” Nobles said. “You know, they really stuck together. And they just played basketball the way that we teach them. We have a really talented group, and what they’re learning is that individually, we can’t do anything by ourselves. But if we stick together as a team, we can take over anything. And they’re starting to really believe that.”

Two players in particular stepped up in the second half for Country Day: Christian Cast and Kordell Robinson combined to go 10-for-12 from the free throw line, and the pair scored 18 points in the latter 16 minutes.

Isaiah Marino, too, was effective, leading the team with 16 points — 11 of which came opposite Cast and Robinson in the first half.

Along with them, there was one Yellowjacket whose impact goes beyond the two points he scored.

“Cade (Wilhelmi) will help me, like how he controlled the glass,” Nobles said. “He was our enforcer inside. He’s a football player but he really loves basketball, and he’s the big brother of this group. We only have three or four seniors on this team, and the rest of our team has a lot of underclassmen that really play, so they really lean on him to just be the big brother, to be the selling force.”

As a private school with an enrollment of 602, Country Day, now 4-5, relishes the opportunity to go against schools like Dakota whose halls are more crowded.

“These types of games get us ready for March and that’s what Country Day is all about, is what we do in March,” Nobles said. “And as long as we’re competing, we’re ready to rock in March when playoff time comes. And we want to put more banners up and more stuff like that. We’re doing our job.”

Alongside Marino, Cast also scored 16 points. Robinson had nine (all in the second half), Roman Allen had seven, Trent Tacke scored six, Evan Singleton had four, Ethan Bray scored three and Wilhelmi added two.

Both of Dakota’s best quarters on Monday were in the second half, scoring 19 and 17 points in the third and fourth quarters, respectively. But with the slow start, however much energy they expended to climb out of the gap quickly was spent.

“We exerted a lot of energy to actually play well in the second half, to get back and tie the game up, and then they (Country Day) ended up shooting the ball better,” Tocco said. “We didn’t knock down some shots. And credit them, they played hard, and especially in the first half.

“Our defense was not there in the first quarter at all. There was no intensity on defense, and that hurt us all throughout the entire game.”

Arnez Sanders led all scorers with 20 points, including 12 in the second half. Brayden Lee was next-best with 14. Tovin Williams added nine points, Benji Jackson scored eight and Keylon Jackson contributed three.

Dakota now gears up for their Macomb Area Conference Red slate, which begins on Tuesday, Jan. 7 against archrival Chippewa Valley — who also had a strong December slate (9-1).