City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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To get past a tough Carlisle opponent in overtime, La Salle head coach Joe Dempsey just needed to see his team win the extra session’s tipoff.

After his Explorers had spent the entire game climbing their way out of an early double-digit deficit, tying it up in the final 15 seconds of regulation on a Sean Simon 3-pointer, he knew that one more thing going his team’s way could be the beginning of the end for the Thundering Herd.

And the tip couldn’t have gone any better: sophomore Zach Crisler tapped the ball right to senior Jarrod Stukes, who zoomed right towards the basket, absorbing contact on the way up and laying the ball through.

“We wanted to get the tap because I think that 3 really broke their back, because it had been such a hard-fought game up until that point,” Dempsey said. “We get the tap, Jarrod goes in for an and-one and that really sent us downhill.”

That was indeed the spark the Explorers needed to win the extra session and the game, finishing off the comeback with a 73-66 win over the Thundering Herd in the fourth of six games at Widener University on Thursday afternoon as part of the Pete & Jameer Nelson Classic.

It was a high-level affair between two programs that expect to be competing at a state-tournament quality level. Carlisle, ranked No. 7 in the PIAA’s 6A classification in Mike Bullock’s latest rankings, made it to the state quarterfinals a year ago; La Salle is two years removed from the same finish, and made the Class AAAA state championship game in 2014.

Simon was the hero from the 3-point arc yet again, as the junior was exactly one week removed from hitting a buzzer-beating triple to lift the Explorers (5-3) past North Penn.

This one was on a second chance; the 6-3 guard missed a triple from right in front of his bench with his team down 55-52 with under 25 seconds to play, but a Crisler offensive rebound put the ball back in Stukes’ hands at the top of the key. Two dribbles into the lane were enough to draw in Simon’s defender, and the sharpshooter didn’t need to be told what to do.

“We practice every day [that] if someone drives, you come up the lane,” he said. “So I came up the lane, he passed me the ball, I just shot it and it went in.

“I knew it was good as soon as it left my hand, though,” he added.

Carlisle head coach Andre Alexander was dismayed that Simon was ever in position to play hero. His Thundering Herd (6-2) stormed out to a 17-7 lead in the first quarter, and though things slowed down considerably in the second quarter, still held a 25-18 lead at halftime.

Despite the best efforts of senior DeShawn Millington, who had 19 of his game-high 24 points in regulation -- he also added seven assists, four rebounds and three steals -- Carlisle slowly lost control of the tempo, allowing La Salle to close the gap to three by the end of the third.

The Explorers briefly took the lead, 49-48 late in the fourth, though Carlisle scored five of the next six points to set up Simon’s clutch triple.

“At the end of the day, we need to get this win, we need to close them out in regulation, we can’t let that game get to overtime,” Alexander said. “It’s something we have to do with seniors and juniors on our team, that’s a younger team, we’ve got to be the ones that are playing with poise there at the end of the fourth quarter, we didn’t do that.”

After Stukes (14 points) got the extra session started with his 3-point play, sophomore Konrad Kiszka followed with a powerful driving baseline dunk to make it a five-point advantage.

That was the exclamation point on the evening for the 6-5 wing, who later added two foul shots to help his team hold the lead throughout the period; Kiszka finished tied with Simon for a team-high 19 points, adding eight rebounds and two steals. He also had another highlight-reel dunk in the second quarter, and shot 6-for-9 from the floor, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

There’s a reason Niagara offered before his sophomore year began, after all.

“I think with a lot of young guys, you think your graph is going to continue to go straight up, and I told him it’s like the stock market, some days you’re going to have setbacks,” Dempsey said. “He’s had a couple of games where he struggled, but today he was so confident and I think that first 3 got him going...if he can get to the basket like that, we’re going to be a better team, that’s for sure.”

La Salle's other terrific sophomore, the 6-8 Crisler, finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, including that crucial one to set up Simon's game-tying shot. He battled tough against Carlisle senior Ethan Houston, though Houston finished with 16 points and five boards.

The win was the third in a row for La Salle, which only has St. Elizabeth (Del.) remaining on the schedule tomorrow before Catholic League play begins with a trip to Lansdale Catholic on Jan. 3; a visit from unbeaten Bonner-Prendergast looms three days later.

With two sophomores in the starting lineup and two others playing significant minutes off the bench, Dempsey hopes that a difficult early-season schedule -- the Explorers lost to Math, Civics & Sciences and Mastery North, two state championship participants from a year ago, as well as District 2 powerhouse Abington Heights, all by single digits -- has prepared his team for the gauntlet ahead.

“It’s taken a while,” he said. “We’re playing four or five people that have never even really sniffed varsity before ... Carlisle seems to have a big name and I’m very proud of our program, so hopefully this will show people that we’re back headed in the right direction.”

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Delaney’s effort not enough as Episcopal falls to Atlantic City

In another game without their top player, 6-foot-7 forward and Navy commit Nick Alikakos, Episcopal Academy couldn’t quite get by a talented Atlantic City squad, losing 55-51 in the third of six games at Widener.

The Churchmen, who were led by senior Connor Delaney’s game-high 23 points, got off to a slow start, and it ended up hurting them in the long run, despite the fact that they were able to take a one-point lead in the game’s waning minute.

“It was definitely just our first quarter and mostly our first half, just coming out sluggish,” Delaney said, whose team recently fell to Archbishop Ryan, 44-34. “We let them get up to a 17-8 lead at the end of the first, we’ve just got to come out playing harder than we did today.”

Without Alikakos, Delaney’s job as a leader increases with his fellow senior off the floor. The Churchmen hope to have Alikakos back within the next few weeks.

“(My role) increase not particularly in terms of scoring, just of making smarter plays,” he said. “Nick does a great job scoring, rebounding, making good passes but also being a vocal leader on the court, and with him on the bench, I think my role is just to continue to keep these guys up, lead by example.”

Now, with the all-important Inter-Ac season coming up, Episcopal still has a wealth of optimism as they looked to overtake four-time defending conference champion Germantown Academy.

Having dropped their conference opener last year against the Penn Charter team they’ll open with on Jan. 6 at Philadelphia University, the Churchmen recognize they won’t want to get off to the kind of start they had against Atlantic City.

“We still expect to go out there and compete in every game,” Delaney said. “We try not to look ahead to games, but the first one at Phila U we have to get out to a good start against Penn Charter. They got us last year, we just have to make sure we get off on the right track because that will build momentum, even if Nick’s not back.”