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Neumann-Goretti handles atmosphere, Roman Catholic

01/12/2017, 1:15am EST
By Tim Merrick

Quade Green (above) and Neumann-Goretti topped Roman Catholic in a rematch of the last three PCL title games. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Tim Merrick (@temerrick)
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Quade Green sat amongst a small group of people outside the Neumann-Goretti locker room at Holy Family University, unraveling the tape from his ankles. As he did, a voice joked, “You might want to check for holes in those socks.”

The group laughed. Green smiled. After the game he had just played, it was a pretty good suggestion.

The 6-foot senior point guard led the Saints to an impressive win over Roman Catholic on Thursday night, 87-53, in a matchup of two of the three remaining unbeatens in the Catholic League. Green led all players with 23 points, adding 13 assists and four steals to his statline.

“It was Roman vs. Neumann, another epic show,” Green said. “We all had to put on a show. As a group, we played well.”

A rematch of the last three Catholic League finals garnered immense hype. Both teams fans traveled well to the Northeast Philadelphia campus. A packed gymnasium included Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who was on hand to watch Green, a Wildcat commit.

 

“I was talking to [Roman coach] Matt [Griffin] before the game,” Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale said. “I said, ‘Welcome to your first Neumann-Roman game.’ All that goes along with it. Usually, the kids do a good job and it’s a good game. It’s worth the price of admission.”

Along with Green, four other Saints finished in double figures. Senior forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree scored 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and three blocks. Junior guard Noah Warren added 15, going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Junior forward Marcus Littles and sophomore guard Christian Ings each tallied 10.

From the tip, it was Neumann-Goretti who was able to match the environment’s intensity. The Saints’ pressure was too much for the Cahillites to handle early on.

Four minutes into the game, Cosby-Roundtree followed up a missed layup with dunk to push the lead to 15-5. Following an 11-2 Neumann-Goretti run to start the second quarter, the 6-8 Villanova commit blocked a three point shot, ran the floor, and slammed home 2 more of his 18 points on the night.

Just before the half, Roman Catholic looked to fight back behind Lynn Greer III. The freshman guard pulled off a smooth crossover to get past Green before finishing a tough layup at the rim. The next trip down the floor, he got the bucket again, but was fouled. His two foul shots cut the deficit to 10. However, just before the half, Noah Warren’s layup just before the buzzer pushed the margin to 15.

Down 44-29, Roman Catholic coach Matt Griffin was optimistic in the locker room.

“We gave up 44 points in the first half and that’s entirely too much,” said Griffin. “The mindset was to come in with energy and chip away from the lead, stick to the gameplan, don’t lose poise and composure because we’re down. We talked about it and we came out, they got an early basket and we didn’t respond the way I know we’re capable of.”

The second half featured much of the same from the Saints. They continued to use their height advantage in Cosby-Roundtree and Marcus Littles to push the ball inside. Roman Catholic attempted to find a response in Allen Betrand, who continued to drive to the basket. However, Betrand, who finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds, couldn’t light a spark in the Cahillites attack.

After going 3-of-11 shooting over the course of the first three quarters, Green finally found the stroke that has brought people from far and wide to watch him play. He put on a show that included 14 straight points, including two 3-pointers.

“I was just shooting my regular shots, like I do in practice,” Green said. “I knew I was coming out, I knew Carl [Arrigale]  was going to take me out. Honestly, I was gunning it a little bit. But, I was making shots, though.”

The win came after a weekend in which the Saints learned a lot about themselves following a 26-point loss to Wheeler (Ga.) in West Virginia.

“We just came off a terrible game last weekend where we didn’t play well,” Arrigale said. “We practiced on Sunday. We kind of had to rediscover ourselves. We talked about what we want to be and where we want to go. We came out and played real well on Monday [against Father Judge] and then came out and played well tonight. Hopefully, we’re trending upward.”

In order for the team to be moving in the right direction, Neumann-Goretti will need to rely heavily on both Green and Cosby-Roundtree, as well as players like Warren and Ings. For Green, he’s using his senior status to guide the rest of the team.

“Lately, I think I’ve been doing a bad job of leading,” Green said. “Now, hopefully, we can get back straight toward a winning record. Losing is very tough for anybody. We’ve been working hard our whole lives, really. Everybody has been waiting for their spot.”

Roman Catholic falls to 11-2 overall and 3-1 in the league. The Cahillites will host Lansdale Catholic on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Saints, meanwhile, move to 7-5 overall and 4-0 in the league and remain one of two unbeatens left in the league, along with Bonner-Prendergast.

Neumann-Goretti will take on the Friars on January 29. In the meantime, Coach Arrigale knows that your record in January can be vastly different than your record at the end of February.

“It’s a long way to go, yet,” Arrigale said. “A lot of good teams already have two losses because they played against each other already. This thing is going to move up and down and all over the place. We’ve been talking about, the last couple of weeks, getting that arrow trending upwards. Hopefully, we’re moving in that direction.”

“Just taking it one game at a time,” Green said. “Every game counts for us. Everybody’s coming for us. We can’t lose. If we do lose, we can’t lose twice.”


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