Fitzgerald basketball coach Vito Jordan made a midnight phone call before his Spartans’ regular season finale and senior night.

“I called Quenten Graham, No. 1, and another sophomore in Joe Jones, and I’m talking to them, just telling them, like, man, you gotta hope you guys learn it. “

Jordan hopes his younger classes have been watching the work done by Fitzgerald seniors Lydell Sewell, Demontae Edwards, Robert Williams and Cyrus Mpeba, a group he described as one that’s full of “complete work ethic and leadership.”

On Tuesday’s senior night celebration, Mpeba scored 24 points and Sewell scored 10 in their final game inside their Warren gymnasium, leading Fitzgerald (20-2) to a 62-40 win over Romeo.

The win was their 20th — a new school regular season record — and clinched an unbeaten Macomb Area Conference White slate.

“This is 20 wins,” Jordan said. “And I’m not saying this in a negative way, but I don’t think that this is like 20 win talent completely across the board. We not walking around with a bunch of high majors or anything but man, them dudes leadership — their work ethic and who they are as people has been the complete turnaround.”

Mpeba, the headliner of Fitzgerald’s senior class and team as a whole, made three 3-pointers in the first quarter as part of a 15-point period to get the Spartans up 22-14 after one. But Romeo out-scored Fitz in the second quarter, 13-12, to stay within seven points going into halftime.

With Fitzgerald’s identity being one of a defensive group, allowing 27 points in the first half was not good enough despite having 34 themselves.

“We’re trying to hang our hat (on) when we get some stops, we just got to string them together three or four possessions, three or four times when we get three or four stops in a row,” Jordan said.

“So we was able to do that in the third quarter.”

Romeo made one basket in the third quarter and three in the fourth as the Spartans pressed on the gas — Graham, one of the players tabbed as a future leader by Jordan — scored seven points in the third, half of his second-best 14 points for the team.

“We were trying to control the tempo,” said Romeo head coach Marvin Cushingberry. “We weren’t going to get in and run with them. As long as we play by tempo, we can’t get in a track meet. When you get in track meet, it’s over, you know, because they got too many athletes. We were playing more disciplined, and they got us out of our mojo. So that was the big difference in that.”

Mpeba said after the game that playing in his final game in his home gym was bittersweet.

“We grew a lot,” Mpeba said. “We, this group specifically, put in a lot of work from the summer to now. And, you know, each and every day we were working towards our growth. So we grew a lot since the summer, just working really hard and staying together as a team.

“It’s a lot of emotions, you know, like a bittersweet feeling. I’ve been (here since) my freshman year, on varsity since I was a freshman, so this being my last game, it’s a bittersweet feeling. I wish I could still keep playing, but I can’t. All good things must come to an end.”

Fitzgerald’s work is just getting started — while every team wants to be playing their best ball at the end of the regular season, the Spartans might need to find a level above that in order to make it out of their ultra-competitive district in next week’s district playoffs.

They’ll first have to deal with Detroit Renaissance (14-7), the reigning, undefeated Detroit Public School League champions who are owners of the last two Mr. PSL winners in Detroit Mercy signee Lance Stone and junior Jordan Sigmon.

Then, if they can beat the Phoenix on their own floor, they’ll have to turn around two days later to presumably take on U of D-Jesuit (18-3), widely considered as one of if not the best team in Michigan.

“I can say this, I think rebounding, I think toughness and defense travels,” Jordan said. “So if we could catch one of them not shooting the ball as well as they usually do, then we’ll be alright. I think we’ll be right there. I firmly believe that.”

Rebounding, toughness and defense have been Fitzgerald’s strengths all season — and the senior class is a big reason for that.

It comes with their confidence, and confidence comes with their strengths.

“I feel like, with our group, we can go against anybody in the state,” Mpeba said. “You know, we definitely are in a tough district, but we put in a lot of work to be prepared.”

Romeo fell to 9-11 with the loss and has one more regular season game at Royal Oak on Thursday night. Their district opener is against Eisenhower, with whom they split the regular season series with two thrillers.

“That’s a wide-open district,” Cushingberry said.