City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)

HERSHEY — Throughout the last few rounds of the PIAA’s Class AAAA basketball championships, Allderdice’s Buddy Valinsky talked candidly about having plenty of pieces to work with whenever his potent Dragons strolled on to the floor.

And, on most nights, having more pieces than the guys in the other uniforms that were parked just a few feet away on the opposite bench.

That, however, was not the case Saturday night.

Not with Roman Catholic in the house and aiming squarely for a repeat.

Despite falling into an early, double-digit deficit against an Allderdice side that was full of pep and chasing the same dream, Chris McNesby’s remarkably calm Cahillites merely stayed the course and rallied for a 73-62 victory that reaped the perennial Philadelphia hammers their second consecutive PIAA Class AAAA championship.

Lamar Stevens poured in 27 points — the erstwhile Haverford School star was the one Roman starter that wasn’t part of state title No. 1 — while Nazeer Bostick chipped in 15 and Tony Carr tacked on 13 as McNesby’s no-panic Cahillites (27-4) stretched their season-ending winning streak to 10 games by completing the repeat run.

Remarkably, Roman was down 10-0 before digging in.

James Jackson rang up 21 points and Ramon Creighton finished with 19 for the Pittsburgh City League champs, which had their 24-game win streak halted.

“I told our guys, ‘The game started at 8:00, not 8:30.’” McNesby joked. “By the time we got going, they had a 10-0 lead, it was a little tough.

“But with Tony Carr, he settles it down and makes it much easier,” McNesby added. “You’re down 10-0 and you’re not that concerned, you just gotta get a bucket and keep battling. Our guys are battle-tested, so we’re used to that.”

Once the powerfully built Stevens began to chisel away underneath at Allderdice’s compact 3-2 zone defense — a ploy that soon had several Dragons battling foul difficulties — Roman started chipping away at its early deficit.

Having Dakquan Davis pop off the bench and knock down a pair of first-half 3-pointers — one late in the opening quarter and the other in the opening moments of the second — pepped up a Roman side that couldn’t get anything to drop from the perimeter.

“[Stevens] definitely imposed his physicality down low from the start,” said Carr, who led the Cahillites with eight rebounds.

“We made that a focal point in the locker room and he just went out and did it.”

As for Davis …

“That’s just the uniqueness of this team, man,” Carr continued. “We’re so deep. We’re eight or nine deep and everybody just chips in at different points in time.

“And Dakquan coming off the bench and making two threes is a true testament of his hard work and staying the course all season.”

Once Roman started connecting at the offensive end — either in the flow or at the free-throw line — that limited Allderdice’s ability to leak out consistently and use a quick outlet to create easy buckets with its devastating transition attack.

Roman’s 22-9 edge on the glass — the Cahillites outboarded Allderdice 38-25 — before the break also was significant.

“Early I was like, ‘Wow, we’re up 7-0,’” Valinsky recalled. “But even when we were playing well, we were still only up four. We didn’t increase it. We didn’t get many transition baskets, because when you don’t rebound it’s hard to get out.”

And when Creighton canned two freebies with 4:42 left in the half, Allderdice was sitting on a 24-18 lead. Nearly three minutes later, thanks to a 11-0 salvo highlighted by a pair of Stevens hoops and three Carr freebies, Roman was up 29-24.

Although Allderdice closed to within one on a Jahi Ogbonna layup in the final minute, Carr’s floater splashed down just before the horn, sending the Cahillites into the locker room holding a 33-30 advantage and plenty of momentum.

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