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Archbishop Wood shows depth in rout of Roman

02/11/2017, 12:45am EST
By Rich Flanagan

Matt Cerruti (above, last week) and Wood showed their depth vs. Roman on Friday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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John Mosco has seen his share of teams with a plethora of depth and talent.

While an assistant at Neumann-Goretti for seventeen seasons, the Archbishop Wood head coach helped oversee a team which boasted Tony Chennault, Danny and Derrick Stewart, Tyreek Duren, Mustafaa Jones and Lamin Fulton, all of whom went on to play at the collegiate level.  

He’s learned how to mix talent with culture to create a cohesive unit capable of consistently winning big games while competing for both Philadelphia Catholic League and state titles. Mosco has developed a strong program at the helm of the Vikings and his team, while perhaps not as explosive as that 2009-10 Neumann-Goretti squad, has continually showcased its depth on several occasions this season.

That continued on Friday night.

Behind Collin Gillespie’s 28 points and eight rebounds and the contributions of wings Tyree Pickron (15 points) and Matt Cerruti (17), the Vikings led by double-digits for three quarters and rolled to an 83-60 victory over Roman Catholic at Bensalem High School.

It was Archbishop Wood’s second win against a defending state champion from its own league this season -- the other, a victory over the Saints on Jan. 26 -- and its twelfth victory in a row overall.

Mosco has seen a real change in his team’s demeanor and focus from last year and feels toughness was instilled in them.

“Coming from Neumann-Goretti, we’ve had some mature teams with Collin as a leader as well as Matt. Tyree has been a starter for three years,” Mosco said. “We’ve got some guys who now play a lot of minutes compared to last year when [Army freshman] Tommy Funk played the majority of the minutes and no one played all that much. We were young and [consistently] in close games, so I think it paid off playing a tough schedule last year.”

From the outset, it was evident Roman could not handle the number of multifaceted players the Vikings presented. The Cahillites only lead came after Lynn Greer III scored the opening basket of the game but Gillespie’s and-one finish on the ensuing possession put an end to that.

Andrew Funk, Tommy's younger brother, hasn't needed to display the scoring ability his sibling did, but he's an even more impressive defender, playing stingy defense against Roman’s Dakquan Davis, who had six points on 3-9 from the field, and Kuhar (no points).  

While he has scored in double figures in five PCL contests, Andrew is player Mosco likes to have because of his toughness and willingness to do the little things to help the team win. The same goes for senior Keith Otto.

Otto nailed the Vikings first 3-pointer of the game on a kickout from Gillespie. For a guy who has scored eight points or less in seven straight games, Otto takes what he can get on offense and playing in an offense with skilled-yet-unselfish players like Gillespie gives him the chance to make timely plays at crucial points in the game.

Roman was able to limit Wood center Seth Pinkney as the 6-11 junior picked up two fouls early and had to sit with 2:32 left to play in the first quarter. When Pinkney went out with foul trouble, backup forward Karrington Wallace came in and provided a spark with six points and five rebounds, giving the Vikings a presence in the paint that Roman was hoping to exploit.

Wallace’s offensive spark was not his biggest contribution as he limited sophomore forward Seth Lundy to just one basket. Karrington's biggest offensive output on the season came against Conwell-Egan on Jan. 16 when he had 11 points, his only double-digit scoring game, but his role is controlling the glass when Pinkney has been in foul trouble.

Cerruti and Pickron carried Archbishop Wood in the first half as Gillespie only tallied seven before the break, and have consistently shown to be strong complements to the point guard.

Pickron, who holds offers from Stony Brook and Drexel, scored seven straight points 58 seconds into the second quarter to push the lead to 27-12. Cerruti scored 13 out of 17 points before intermission and his second shot from the behind the arc extended the Vikings lead to their biggest of the half at 38-19 with 2:12 remaining.

Cerruti, who has scored in double figures in every PCL game besides the league opener to Father Judge,  has noticed the change in the team and their belief that any player can break out for a big performance on any night.

“It’s easy with our guys. No one forces anything. Say it’s either myself, Colin or Ty have an off night, we know someone else can get hot,” Cerruti said. “There’s also Andrew, Keith or Seth. We just feed them the ball, but we don’t force it and take what we can get.”

In the second half, Pickron and Cerruti turned the game over to Gillespie, who scored 21 in the second half alone, giving him his seventh consecutive game with at least 20 points.

Roman (18-3, 10-2 PCL) looked to be crawling back into after Greer (team leading 17 points) converted an and-one then forward Allen Betrand blocked Pickron, which ricocheted off the backboard to JP Sanders for a layup to cut the deficit to 46-32 midway through the third quarter but they were never able to cut the deficit under ten.

Later, Gillespie found Otto in transition for a layup, which pushed Archbishop Wood’s (18-3, 11-1) lead to 73-48 with 3:43 left, and the Villanova commit took note of the team’s depth has opened up more options offensively as the season has gone on.

“When we get up early and share the ball, we played really well together,” Gillespie said. “Ty and Matt started off the game really well. That opens things up for Seth as well as [others] to kick and drive. Once they get going early, teams focus more on them.”

The Vikings now find themselves in a tie with Neumann-Goretti for the top seed in the PCL playoffs with one game left to play. Wood plays Lansdale Catholic on Sunday and already owns the tiebreaker over the Saints.


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