City of Basketball Love

Dan Newhart (@danny_newhart) &
Jon Bodack (@jbodack92)
--

Archbishop Carroll senior forward Ryan Daly wants the rest of the Philadelphia Catholic League to know that the Patriots are a legitimate contender for the league title at the conclusion of the season.

Following Carroll’s 79-48 win over Catholic League opponent Archbishop Ryan Wednesday night, his team is making its case.

Daly and fellow senior guard Josh Sharkey led a balanced Patriot scoring attack, Daly finishing with 19 points and six rebounds while Sharkey contributed 18 points and three boards. Senior big man Miks Antoms also had 10 points and four rebounds, while junior Jesse McPherson also chipped in 10 points.

For Ryan, junior Izaiah Brockington led the way with 18 points, 13 of which came during a first half in which Ryan scored only 21 points total.

“We’re a force to be reckoned with,” Daly said of his team afterward. “I think we have  a lot of weapons this year. Me and Josh [Sharkey] and John [Rigsby] have been carrying the load a little bit up to this point. Tonight we had contributions from Miks [Antoms] who had 10, Jesse [McPherson] had 10, Alex House had a big three. We have a lot of offensive weapons; if they key on one person then we have another guy that can score.”

Carroll (13-1, 5-0 PCL) came into the game fresh off a 64-51 win Sunday against traditional PCL powerhouse Roman Catholic. Its goal in this one of course was to avoid a ‘letdown’ loss of sorts after such a big win for the school.

The Patriots ensured that would not happen from the get-go, jumping out to a 25-8 advantage after the opening minutes of play. Daly and Sharkey combined for 18 of Carroll’s first 25 points, setting the tone for what would end up being a dominating performance from start to finish.

“Me and Josh [Sharkey] come out and we try to jump on teams early in the game and then go from there,” Daly said. “We knew that we couldn’t have any let-down; any time you beat a team like Roman, they’re a heavyweight and one of the better teams in the area so we knew that win would put a target on our backs.”

Momentum for Ryan was hard to come by in this one. The team fell behind by double-digits early, and Brockington was the only player getting into the paint for Ryan to start the game, leaving perimeter shooters open but ultimately unable to capitalize.

The team did make a short run before halftime, going on a 9-2 spurt shortly after the 4:00 minute mark of the second quarter to cut the lead to 37-21. However, a Carroll layup from sophomore Devon Ferrero pushed the lead back to 39-21.

“Those guys were kinda just watching Isiah drive, and those guys were getting open looks but we shot 4-24 from three that doesn’t help,” Ryan coach Joe Zeglinski said after the game. ”We’ve got to mix it up; the other guys need to try to get to the paint. We talked about getting paint touches and we didn’t get any of those with any other guy besides Izaiah."

Ryan entered the contest hot, coming off a somewhat surprising win against Archbishop Wood, which had been considered one of the top programs in the early part of the season. The loss to Carroll dropped the Raiders to 10-4 overall, 3-2 PCL.

“Coming off a game like Wood we have to get over that quicker and move on to the next game.” Zeglinksi said. “ I think we were looking back a little bit, and obviously we weren’t ready to go from the start, down 17 the first quarter giving up 25 points.”

Rigsby kept momentum going in favor of Carroll in the third quarter, hitting a flurry of mid range jumpers along with a three ball en route to scoring nine of the team’s first 11 points to inflate the lead to over 20 points early in the second half.

Carroll head coach Paul Romanczuk praised his team’s poise, maturity and business-like approach to this season after the game. He also is confident that when teams key in on Sharkey and Daly there are other members of the team ready to step up and contribute.

“Well, you know what I think [this win] says that we’re focused,” Romanczuk said.  “I think it says that we’re mature, in that this very well couldve been a  game where coming off a win against Roman we could lose focus, against a really good team in Ryan who has been playing really well. So I think it says a lot about our leadership, our focus and our maturity.”

“It just means we’re more than just a couple, two or three guys,” Romanczuk added. “Each guy is feeling more and more comfortable in their role which is nice to see as the season goes along.”