City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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With his Archbishop Wood squad holding onto a four point lead against Archbishop Carroll and the final 30 seconds ticking away, Seth Pinkney knew it was his time to step up.

And so with Carroll’s A.J. Hoggard headed towards the hoop, Pinkney did what he does best: extend a long arm above his lanky 6-foot-10 frame and send the Carroll freshman’s shot heading back the other way.

“Somebody in the crowd told me to get another block so I just went up and got it,” he said. “Some more energy to give off to the team to get the win at the end.”

For good measure, Pinkney added another rejection with 10 seconds to play, helping Wood seal off a 76-68 win over Carroll at Holy Family University on Sunday.

Those were the eighth and ninth blocks of the game for the Viking junior center, who’s emerged this year as an imposing defensive presence for his team.

With Pinkney patrolling the paint, Wood (8-3, 2-1) has a Division I big man for the first time since Fran Dougherty (Penn) graduated in 2011, and it’s made an already-confident bunch quite self-assured on the defensive end of the floor.

“It’s huge for us, because it allows us to get into people on the defensive end, as guards,” senior Collin Gillespie said. “Just knowing he’s behind us, it’s a relief for us that he can block every shot that’s going up.”

It’s been a long time coming for Pinkney, who arrived at Wood two years ago as a promising-but-raw 6-8 freshman. He showed flashes of potential during offseason events during the previous two summers, but it hasn’t been until this season that he’s really made an impact on the varsity level.

“The way he was as a freshman to now, it’s giant steps,” Wood head coach John Mosco said. “He couldn’t even do the Mikan drill. He was just big and raw and he worked his tail off to get better.”

Pinkney said his goal in every game this year is “10, 10 and 10” -- 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 blocks. He only reeled in two rebounds against Carroll to go along with seven points, but his teammates made sure to pick up the slack on the boards; junior guard Tyree Pickron grabbed seven rebounds to lead all players.

Gillespie, arguably the area’s breakout star this year, continued his terrific senior campaign with 28 points, six assists and three rebounds, going 9-for-12 from the floor and 4-for-7 from 3-point range.

As usual, he had plenty of help: Pickron had 16, fellow junior Andrew Funk added in 12 and senior guard Matt Cerruti had 11, all in the second half.

College coaches have flocked to Wood games this season for Gillespie, Pinkney, Pickron and Funk, and this one was no exception. Drexel, Delaware and Hofstra had their head coaches in attendance; St. Joe’s, Penn and George Mason sent assistants.

Wood shot 27-for-49 (55.0 percent) for the game, including 10-for-25 (40 percent) from 3-point range and 12-for-14 (85.7 percent) from the foul stripe. Carroll was 24-of-56 (42.8 percent) overall, 6-of-19 (31.5 percent) from deep and 14-of-17 (82.3 percent) from the line.

Junior guard Justin Anderson led three Carroll (8-3, 1-2) players in double figures with 17 points. Hoggard had 15 and senior Colin Daly 12.

The game, which was originally scheduled to be played at Wood, had to be moved to Holy Family due to a partial wall collapse inside the Vikings’ gym.

“We’ve practiced here plenty of times before, we’re comfortable with the floor and the gym,” Gillespie said. “But wherever we play, we’re going to play with the same intensity and energy every night.”

Everyone in attendance was treated to a high-level affair. It was closely-contested the whole way, with a one-point Carroll advantage at halftime swinging to a six-point Wood lead after three.

Wood’s advantage was seven with under three minutes to play when Hoggard, Carroll’s outstanding freshman guard, knocked down a left-wing 3-pointer and followed that up with a layup to bring his team back within two.

But Pickron answered with a driving left-handed layup to restore the lead to four, and the teams traded a pair of foul shots each before the first of Pinkney’s two big blocks. Funk made it a six-point lead with two foul shots of his own, and a steal-and-layup immediately after by Gillespie made it eight before Pinkney’s ninth and final block ended it.

After an eye-opening loss to Father Judge to open Catholic League play earlier in the week, Wood has bounced back nicely with wins over a previously-undefeated Archbishop Ryan and now a Carroll squad that made it to the Palestra last year and is looking to make it back.

“It was a learning lesson from Tuesday night and then this was a big state game because they’re in 5A,” Gillespie said. “So we had to come in and play with the same intensity that we did Friday night and we’re just going to look to move in the right direction going forward.”

Wood has another tough game against a school in the PIAA 5A classification on Friday, traveling to play a Bonner-Prendergast squad that’s currently 3-0 in league play. Carroll hosts La Salle (7-4, 1-1) that same night, with both games slated for 7:00 PM tipoffs.