City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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When the final buzzer sounded in Archbishop Wood’s gym on Sunday afternoon, Archbishop Ryan players had a forceful celebration at the center of the court. It’s still early in Philadelphia Catholic League schedule, but this win certainly felt like more than just one regular season victory.

It was more of a statement.

Ryan rallied in the fourth quarter for a 62-59 against Wood. It makes the Raiders 3-1 in the PCL and was the biggest win of the season for first-year coach Joe Zeglinski. Meanwhile, it’s the second consecutive loss for the Vikings, who started the week ranked third in the state but are now 2-2 in the PCL.

“They haven’t won against Wood in four years. So for some of the seniors, this win was really for them,” Zeglinkski said. “Of course, it’s just one game. But it’s a program win. People might start talking about us a little bit.”

Wood held the lead for the first three quarters, but was never to get much separation between itself and Ryan. The final eight minutes turned into a back-and-forth battle.

Izaiah Brockington, who led the Raiders with 17 points, scored one of his most vital buckets on the first possession of the fourth quarter. With Ryan down, 42-39, Brockington drove off a screen and scored while getting fouled. He converted the free throw, and the game had its first tie since the first quarter.

“We had him coming off a few screens and he’s so good in the lane and adjusting when he gets there,” Zeglinkski said of Brockington, a 6-foot-4 junior. “That’s what he did. I think he side-stepped one defender and then got hit, and it was a great finish. We’ve been seeing that all year from Izaiah.”

While Brockington tied the game right away in the last quarter, Ryan would not take its first lead until there were less than three minutes on the clock. That’s when Latvian-born Matiss Kulackovskis hit a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Raiders up 52-51. It was one of a few big plays the junior would make during the final few minutes.

Ryan would go up by as many as four points with under a minute left, but Wood stayed in it. In fact, the Vikings had a chance to take the lead with less than 30 seconds left as Tyree Pickron, who led the team with 16 points, found himself open beyond the arc – at least he thought he was open.

Kulackovskis, who finished with 11 points and hit three 3-pointers, leaped toward Pickron and swatted away his potential go-ahead triple. Kilackovskis then secured the ball, got fouled and made his pair of free throws to put Ryan back up by two scores.

“He got the ball, and I could tell he was going to shoot it. So I just went for the block. I was (surprised I blocked it),” he said. “…I personally live for these moments. When I was overseas, I used to be the player, at the end of games, who would go get the ball. It’s something I was used to.”

It still wasn’t over after Kulackovskis big plays, however. Tommy Funk, who returned after missing Wood’s last two games with an illness, drilled a 3-pointer to cut Ryan’s lead to one with less than 10 seconds left.

Chris Kuhar hit two free throws to put Ryan back up, 62-59, and Funk’s attempt at the buzzer couldn’t find the net, which sent the Ryan bench into a frenzy. Funk had 13 points in his return (seven in the fourth quarter) and Collin Gillespie added 10 for Wood, but it was not enough.

Ryan also got doubled-digit scoring performances from Freddie Killian (14 points) and Austin Chabot (12 points). The Raiders outscored Wood, 23-17, in that decisive fourth quarter and Zeglinski credited his bunch with being poised in the moment.

“I was telling them to take deep breaths,” the coach said. “We haven’t been in many situations like that this year. They handled it great. Turnovers have killed us all season, but we protected the ball in the last few minutes when it really counted.”

Those deep breaths turned into jubilant screams afterward, as the Raiders won their third straight – doing so against a talented rival in a game that was chippy at times.

“This was a big time win, a big time game,” Zeglinski said. “…We really wanted it, and it showed.”