City of Basketball Love

Ethan Miller (@ByEthanMiller)
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A highly-anticipated match-up between Roman Catholic and Neumann-Goretti on Wednesday night is two things at once.

On one hand, it’s a clash between the two premier programs in the Catholic League, two defending state champions with easily a dozen future Division I ballplayers between the two rosters, including several bound for high-major programs already. In terms of anticipation, this is about as big as it gets for a regular-season game.

But then again...it’s only January, with six weeks to go until the high school playoffs even begin. This is only the third league game for both the Cahillites and Saints, with plenty of good teams remaining on the schedule.

“Whether we win or they win, we’ve both got games on Friday and we’ve got to move on with the season,” said Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale. “It’s not an elimination game.”

The battle between PIAA AAAA defending champion Roman Catholic and PIAA AAA defending champion Neumann-Goretti is making a lot of noise, as both teams are ranked No. 1 in the latest CoBL PIAA state rankings.

Last year at this time (Jan. 7), Neumann-Goretti fell to Roman Catholic 71-68. Similar to this season, the Saints and Cahillite were both No. 1 overall with highly skilled talent on both sides of the court.

Although the Cahillites got the best of the Saints last season, going 2-0 in the match-up after defeating the Saints again in the Catholic League championship, this season is a whole different story as both teams have much-improved players from a year ago.

“We lost both games last year because we were smaller and they were bigger on the glass, so we were right there both of those games,” Arrigale said “We know we’ve got to be a little tougher, we’ve got to be better on defense better than we have been so far this year.”

Notable Players

Roman Catholic (8-1,1-0 Catholic League) features a three-headed monster of Penn State commitments: 6-foot-7 small forward senior Lamar Stevens is having an impressive start to the season averaging a team high of 17.4 ppg; 6-foot-4 point guard senior Tony Carr is averaging 13.5 ppg after coming off a 17 point performance against Conwell-Egan Monday night; 6-foot-3 shooting guard senior Nazeer Bostick is averaging 11.2 ppg while showing a huge presence on the defensive side of the ball.

“It’s going to be a fun game, it’ll be good for us,” said Stevens, playing his first and only season at the school. “There is going to be a lot of energy, they’ll challenge us to play our best game, and it’s going to give us a chance to excel in the best environment.”

The Cahillites have more than just the Nittany Lion commits, including 6-foot-3 junior guard D’Andre Vilmar who is averaging 7.0 ppg, and their big piece in the paint 6-foot-8 senior forward Paul Newman who is only averaging 4.0 ppg but is highly recognized for his fantastic defensive play and experience. Coming off the bench for the Cahillites is 6-0 junior guard Dakquan Davis and 6-foot-6 freshman forward Mikeal Jones.  

“Everyone is buying into coach’s main goal,” Stevens said. “Everyone is getting better while we are just preparing to be our best for the post-season right now.”

Neumann-Goretti (6-2, 2-0 Catholic League) features 6-foot-3 senior shooting guard and Towson commit Zane Martin who is averaging 15.5 ppg, coming off a 21-point night against Cardinal O’Hara. The backcourt also includes nationally ranked 6-foot-1 junior point guard Quade Green who is averaging a respected 14.5 ppg, but is known for creating plays for is teammates. Another high-level recruit, 6-foot-8 power forward junior Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree is averaging 13 ppg while giving the Saints a serious presence down low. 6-foot-2 shooting guard Rasheed Browne is having himself a solid senior season averaging 10.8 ppg. Senior starting point guard Vaughn Covington is averaging 7.2 ppg while helping give the Saints some more experience in the backcourt.

Notable Wins

Both teams finally have an opportunity to play against some Philadelphia teams as they’ve been traveling around the country competing in highly competitive nationally ranked tournaments.

It has been an extremely busy month of December for Roman Catholic (8-1,1-0 Catholic League) as they traveled to Washington D.C on the 11th, beating Coolidge HS 90-41. Following the game the team traveled to Olney, Maryland where they played Our Lady of Good Counsel on the 12th defeating them 72-60, then coming back the next day to play against DMV-area powerhouse Gonzaga College High School where they beat them 77-72 in overtime.

The following week the Cahillites traveled to South Carolina to play in the Chick-fil-a classic where they received their one and only loss of the season to Oldsmar Christian from Oldsmar Florida. The Cahillites finished 2-1 in the nationally exposed showcase then traveled back to Washington D.C to finish off their non-league schedule against the Maret School coming out with a 67-51 victory.

Roman Catholic gathered their first Catholic League victory over Conwell-Egan (7-3, 0-1 Catholic League) Monday night 49-40 in a sloppy game overall.

Similar situation for Neumann-Goretti (6-2, 2-0 Catholic League), as they also played a very competitive non-league schedule.

The Saints began their season in Delaware with a defeat over Dover High School 74-52. A week later the Saints beat local teams Math Civics & Sciences and Bishop McDevitt by a solid margin.

The Saints then went on a road trip to Laurel Maryland where they took on St. Vincent Pallotti beating them 76-57, following defeating Paul VI of Virginia in the Slam Dunk to the Beach Classic. The biggest notable win for the Saints was over Hudson Catholic of New Jersey, 82-73 in a Scholastic Play-By-Play Classic game. Finishing the non-league schedule was a close loss to Gonzaga, 71-70 in Washington D.C.

Neumann-Goretti collected their first Catholic League win over Cardinal O’Hara (3-4, 0-1 Catholic League) 76-36.