City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
--

In the first three seasons for Gwynedd Mercy’s current seniors, their seasons ended the same way – with a loss in the CSAC semifinals.

And the latest one has stuck on their minds since this time last year.

“They’ve been talking about this week since last year’s loss, pretty much 12 months,” said Griffins head coach John Baron. “They’ve talked about getting back here and changing the outcome from what it’s been the last few years.”

Those seniors and the rest of Gwynedd Mercy’s team will have a chance to reach the program’s first CSAC championship game since 2011 on Wednesday night in the conference’s semifinals. The top-seeded Griffins, who went 17-1 in conference play, will host No. 4 Rosemont at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, No. 2 Neumann will host third-seeded Cabrini (7 p.m.) in the other semifinal with the two winners set to square off Saturday afternoon.

It’s been a bit of a title drought for Baron’s Griffins, who have not won the Colonial States Athletic Conference championship since the 2008-09 campaign. They also have not been to the NCAA Tournament since receiving an at-large bid five seasons ago, but all that could change with two wins in the next four days.

Gwynedd Mercy went 19-6 during the regular season, losing just one conference game – an 88-77 loss to Neumann on Feb. 3 that was the team’s only defeat since the calendar flipped to 2016. Still, Baron thinks his team can compete at a higher level.

“Quite honestly I don’t think we’re playing our best yet. I’m hoping it will start this week,” he said. “We’ve been down in some of our recent games and we’ve had to hunker down and focus and we’ve been winning in the end. But I always look at it as it doesn’t matter what you do during the regular season, the playoffs are a new season and Neumann is very good, Cabrini is very good and Rosemont can beat anybody.”

Baron, whom CoBL profiled last month, was named the CSAC Coach of the Year on Monday, the second such award of his career. The 14th-year coach noted he thought it should be named the “coaching staff of the season award” especially this season. The Griffins also touted two first-team all-conference players in seniors Darnell Artis and Julian Hayden.

But in the semis they’ll be going up against Rosemont and CSAC Player of the Year, Marcus Thomas. A Del-Val Charter grad, Thomas averaged 21.6 points and 4.6 assists per game, and his win snapped a streak of six consecutive seasons that the award went to a player from Cabrini.

While Neumann did not have the player of coach of the year, the team has one title nobody else has: Defending champ.

The Knights won their first CSAC title last season, ending Cabrini’s five-year run atop the league with a 93-92 overtime win. Neumann will host the Cavaliers in a championship rematch on Wednesday night.

Neumann, which is led by first-team CSAC selection DeShawn Lowman and second-teamer James Butler, split its season series with Cabrini. And the team has just one loss in its last 11 games, which came to the Cavaliers last Wednesday.

The Knights do have that championship run experience, though, and coach Jim Rullo is hoping that pays off this week.

“I don’t think we can simulate that at practice, that pressure-packed environment, especially on the road,” Rullo said. “It’s something they can draw upon, but at the same time, it does not guarantee any future success by any stretch. You still have to come with that focus, and if we do that, we’ll be in most games that we play.”

First-round recaps

No. 4 Rosemont 81, No. 5 Centenary 72

The Ravens outscored Centenary, 49-35, in the second half to overcome a five-point halftime deficit. Clayton Wolfe scored a team-best 25 points and Thomas added 21, as the duo both went 11-for-13 from the foul line. The Ravens shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half, and hit five of their 12 3-point attempts in the final 20 minutes. Rashaan Spencer had 23 points for Centenary.

No. 3 Cabrini 90, No. 6 Immaculata 70

Cabrini cruised to a quarterfinal win, jumping out to an 18-point lead by halftime. Tyheim Monroe turned in a monster double-double with 18 points and 19 rebounds. Jair Green also had 18 points for the Cavaliers, who shot 50 percent from the floor. Roy Ferrell Jr. had 16 points and 10 boards for Immaculata.