City of Basketball Love

Graham Foley (@graham_foley3)
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When St. Joseph’s Prep went to the foul line for two shots with 0.7 seconds left trailing by two, Roman Catholic head coach Matt Griffin was sure the teams were going to play overtime.

With junior guard Allen Betrand, a Division I recruit who led the team in scoring, fouled out of the game, Griffin was focused on creating a plan that would improve the crippled Cahillites’ chances in the extra period.

The first free throw went in, electrifying the nervous St. Joe’s student section stationed directly next to the basket.

The second one, however, rolled around the rim and popped out. Time expired and the raucous, sold out crowd at Philadelphia University’s Gallagher Center erupted as Roman Catholic won a thriller, 56-55 in the Catholic League quarterfinal playoffs.

“I was getting ready for overtime,” Griffin said. “I was just getting ready for overtime and planning how we’re we going to win the game without Allen Betrand. That free throw just went in and out, it was close.”

The Cahillites (15-3, 9-2) will move on with the win to the Catholic League semi-finals at the Palestra for the fourth straight year and first under Griffin. There, they’ll play Neumann-Goretti, their opponent in each of the last two PCL finals.

While the end of the game was not pretty, Griffin was pleased with the team’s ability to grind out a win when it mattered most.

“I think when we face adversity our true character comes out,” Griffin said. “And that’s what we’ve been all year. We’ve just found a way to win all year long.”

Roman Catholic commanded the majority of the game. With 4:53 left in the third quarter, the Cahillites held their largest lead, 40-30.

But St. Joe’s Prep (14-9, 8-6) fought back, ending the quarter on an 11-4 run and getting its passionate supporters on their feet. With 2:37 left in the game, two free throws from junior guard Kyle Thompson gave the Hawks their first lead of the game, 51-50.

Thompson finished with 19 pts, leading all scorers; fellow juniors Ed Croswell (15 points) and Darius Kinnel (10 poins) finished in double figures as well.

With 19 seconds left, Roman had the ball in a tie game. Senior guard Chris Kuhar, with no points off the bench, held onto the ball and drove down the lane, making a go-ahead layup with about five seconds left that gave the Cahillites a 56-54 lead.

On the inbound pass in the midst of wild, divided atmosphere in the stands, an ill-advised Roman foul put St. Joe’s Prep on the line with just 0.7 seconds on the clock where the free throw miss ended the Hawks’ season.

The Cahillites were a bit short-handed in the victory.

Seth Lundy, one of the team’s top performers on both ends of the ball this season, was forced to sit on the bench for much of the game due to foul trouble.

However, Betrand and senior guard J.P Sanders stepped up in his place. Betrand scored 15 pts and hit important free throws down the stretch. Sanders finished with 14 pts and shot 7-of-8 from the field. When the Hawks took the lead late, Sanders said he made sure to keep his teammates motivated.

“As a senior it’s my job to keep my team on the right path,” Sanders said. “When they came back, I just told them to keep fighting and knew we could grind this out. We knew we had a lot of time left and kept our heads up.”

Although an elimination game needs no more motivation, revenge was certainly on the mind of the Cahillites. Last Sunday, St. Joe’s Prep defeated Roman Catholic 73-70 in overtime on Roman’s home court.

“Anytime you lose to a team and you’re fortunate enough to get a second opportunity to play them you’re more motivated,” Griffin said. “You don’t want to end up with the same outcome and don’t want to go home that way.”

The game was also intensely personal to the Cahillites’ head coach. Griffin played in high school under at St. Joe’s Prep under head coach Speedy Morris from 2003-2007. Griffin’s father also played under Morris at Roman. In addition, Griffin spent the last two years as an assistant coach with Morris at St. Joe’s Prep before taking over the Roman program this past offseason.

Griffin hugged each and every St. Joe’s player and coach walking out of the locker room and patted players on the head and saying things like “best of luck”, “keep your head up”, and “I’m proud of you.”

It was certainly something of a bittersweet victory for Griffin, considering Prep’s season is over.

“It’s tough,” Griffin said. “It’s always tough playing against someone you care about, who taught you so much. But ultimately we are extremely excited to get this win. And I’m just so proud of our guys. They really fought fought fought all year long.”

The Cahillites will face Neumann Goretti on Feb. 22 at 6:30 pm in the Catholic League semi-finals at the University of Pennsylvania’s historic Palestra. They will be defending their last two PCL championships but without Penn State freshmen Tony Carr or Lamar Stevens to lead the way.

This group will have to figure out how to win there by itself.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Griffin said. “That’s what we work for all year, we say ‘we want to get to the Palestra.’ It’s more not for me, it’s more for the guys. I’m just happy for them, for their sake that they get to play in arguably the best basketball atmosphere.”

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In other Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinal action:

Archbishop Wood 65, Bonner-Prendergast 43

Collin Gillespie scored 21 points including 11 in the second half to go along with six assists to lift the Vikings over the Friars. The Vikings took a 31-20 lead into the locker room at halftime and rolled to their first PCL semifinal appearance since 2005. Junior center Seth Pinkney added 10 points, senior guard Matt Cerutti had four points, seven rebounds and four assists, and junior combo guard Tyree Pickron had eight points and six boards.

Archbishop Ryan 68, Father Judge 55

Click here for game coverage

Neumann-Goretti 73, Archbishop Carroll 55

Recap coming soon