skip navigation

Carroll tops Cheltenham in battle of inexperienced teams

12/16/2016, 12:30am EST
By Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)

Rich Flanagan (@RichFlanagan33)
--

Cheltenham’s John Timms has a lot to replace from last year and knows his young team will have its share of growing pains throughout the year. Archbishop Carroll’s Paul Romanczuk also has a lot to replace but is doing it more so by installing several new faces into his lineup.

After having guys like Philadelphia Catholic League MVP Ryan Daly (Delaware), Josh Sharkey (Samford) and Josh Rigsby (Holy Family) to go to in the clutch last season, Romanczuk does not yet have a grasp on who will be called upon to make things happen at the end of games. Cheltenham had Justin Sutton (Elizabethtown) and Khalil White (Penn State-Harrisburg) to consistently go to last season, and senior forward Trevonn Pitts is the lone returning starter on this year’s team.

Both head coaches had questions their teams were going to have to answer and they may have had a couple of them answered in their matchup on Thursday night.

Behind Justin Anderson’s 16 points and A.J. Hoggard’s 13, Romanczuk’s Patriots bested Timms’ Panthers 71-66 in a fast paced matchup.

Anderson, a 6-3 junior transfer from Academy of New Church, scored the first basket of the second half on a three and had eleven of his 16 points after halftime. Hoggard, a 6-3 freshman guard, also stepped up after intermission scoring eight of 13 in fourth quarter alone to go along with three rebounds and two assists.

Romanczuk is still working to find out where players fit in this lineup and how to take advantage of their skillset but Anderson and Hoggard’s play gives him a good feeling moving forward.

“We have a lot of new faces and the beauty of that is we’ve had a different player step up in every game for us,” Romanczuk said. “I think it’s going to be a balanced effort but I think, yes, A.J. made big plays at the end, as did as Justin.”

Anderson routinely made plays to pace the Patriots whether it was a bucket to stop a Cheltenham run or an assist like he had on one of senior Colin Daly’s three 3-pointers. The junior relishes the opportunity to be called upon when his new team needs to answer their opponent.

“When we’re down or the momentum swings, I can get a bucket and make the momentum come back [our way,]” Anderson said.

On the Panthers side, Timms is working with several players who have very little varsity experience. Point guard Ahmad Bickley played “very minimal” last year, Timms said. Guard Jack Clark was “also minimal in the rotation,” and wing Rodney Carson was “not in the rotation at all.”

Bickley finished tied for the team-high with 16 points, Clark added 15 including ten in the first half and Carson has been playing meaningful minutes as the Panthers’ sixth man. Timms felt their matchup with Archbishop Carroll was a performance they needed to show the program will not take a step back but maintain the momentum it built with last season’s success.

“When you take pride in rebuilding the program, you don’t necessarily have to rebuild your team. Our goal was to make sure those guys that didn’t play varsity minutes last year were ready when they got the opportunity,” Timms said “This year, we don’t know because they’re young but from all accounts they appear ready.”

The Patriots got off to an inauspicious start recording three fouls in the first seventeen seconds of the game with starting forward Devon Ferrero picking up two of them. The Patriots shook off the early foul difficulties but Bickley nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 15-14 lead after the first quarter.

Cheltenham took a 29-27 lead into the locker room at halftime and both teams came out with much more intensity in the second. Daly hit all three of his shots from deep in the third quarter to push the Patriots advantage to six. The fourth quarter was when both coaches really discovered what their teams can do.

Ferrero recovered from his early foul trouble by poking the ball away from Pitts for a steal then took it all the way for an and-one at the other end, giving Archbishop Carroll a 63-56 with 1:45 left to play. Hoggard scored on a coast-to-coast layup that gave the Patriots their largest lead of the game at 68-59.

Archbishop Carroll (3-1) looked to be pulling away with its nine-point lead but Cheltenham (2-1) stormed back. Timms implored his team on the sideline saying “This is a long season. When it’s a good team, you can’t forfeit possessions.” His team certainly made the most of theirs in the final minute and a half.

Bickley knocked down two free throws to cut the lead to seven then Carson recorded on a steal and found Clark for a layup. On the ensuing possession, a technical foul was assessed to the Patriots’ bench and guard Tim Spencer hit one out of two to make it 68-65 with 28.4 seconds remaining.  Spencer (16 points including four three-pointers) and Pitts (15) joined Bickley and Clark in double figures for the Panthers in a game Timms felt showed the poise and confidence his team will need to sustain against teams like Archbishop Carroll.

“For me, it was a measuring stick to see what type of team we have and see if they’re going to exercise that resilience or fold to the pressure,” Timms said. “If we earn that, we’re going to fight all the way through regardless of the level of competition.”

The Panthers comeback was halted after Khari Williams (11 points) got loose on an inbound play and took the ball the length of the court giving the Patriots the lead for good.

The Patriots had their difficulties with some questionable shot selection and some erratic play (Hoggard had four turnovers), but Romanczuk’s felt his team’s win was more about their ability to make plays late in the game when it mattered most, particularly only four games into the year.

“Out of our first four games, we’ve had three really tight ones and we’ve made plays at the end of the game in two of the three to come out on top,” Romanczuk said. “You want to be battletested, go on the road in an environment like this and play a tough, aggressive team like this to see if you can come away with a win and grow from it.”


Recruiting News:

HS Coverage:

Tag(s): Home  Old HS  Contributors  Rich Flanagan  Boys HS  Catholic League (B)  Archbishop Carroll  Suburban One (B)  SOL Liberty (B)  Cheltenham