City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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With good reason, Martin Luther King head coach Sean Colson had quite a bit to complain about after his team played Bishop Shanahan in the opening round of the PIAA Class 5A state playoffs.

His team made just two field goals in the first half alone, missing a dozen of its 3-point attempts. Junior guard Denelle Holly forgot his warm-up sweatsuit, a minor infraction that cost the usual starter his spot in the lineup.

There were 15 turnovers. A dozen missed foul shots. Some rather questionable officiating decisions that affected both teams.

But at the end of the day, the scoreboard read as follows: King 43, Shanahan 33.

“It wasn’t going well, it was slow, they uglied the game up and we fought through that and got not a great win, but a good win,” Colson said. “Any win in the states is a good win.”

That’s certainly true for a fifth-year coach who had seen his Cougars squads pick up wins in the state bracket in each of his first three seasons, making it to the Class AAAA championship game in 2015, before bowing out in the first round to Emmaus last spring.

WIth an almost entirely new cast of characters contributing, King is headed to the second round to play District 2 champs Abington Heights, who dispatched World Communications Charter by 18 on Friday night.

It sure wasn’t pretty.

In a South Philadelphia gym devoid of any student sections -- or any student presence to speak of, from either side -- the energy level on the court struggled to live up to state playoff expectations, at least early on.

The teams combined to make a grand total of six shots in the first half (on 45 attempts), at which point King (21-9) held all of a 10-9 lead. They were a combined 0-for-20 on 3-point attempts.

Colson’s squad was coming off a tough two games, losing 53-49 to Imhotep in the Public League championship and then getting blown out 87-51 by Archbishop Wood in the District 12 5A title matchup.

“I think they’re still down from Imhotep,” Colson said. “I thought we had some good practice this week, we thought this was a big chance for us to win that game and now it’s about getting guys to believe in the states. I know it’s hard, but put (Imhotep) behind them and let’s make a state run.”

Of course it didn’t help that the team’s starting point guard, Holly, wasn’t on the floor to begin the game; he got in midway through the first, but missed his first three shots and only had four points at the break.

“We practice all week with Denelle Holly doing different things that I wanted to put in, he’s our point guard and then he forgets something,” Colson lamented. “He’s a really good kid, but a rule’s a rule, he broke a team rule, so now we’ve got to scrap that in the beginning of the game and do something else.”

The scoring opened up somewhat in the third quarter, with King hitting its first three shots of the period, including a Qadir Burgess triple, to go up as many as 10. Shanahan ended the quarter on a 7-0 run, however, setting the stage for a tense fourth quarter.

Holly came up big late, knocking down eight foul shots on 11 attempts in the fourth quarter to help King seal the win.

Also stepping up in the second half was senior forward Elijah Kiah-El, who had all 10 of his points after the intermission. The 6-7 forward also had 14 rebounds.

His back-to-back buckets with under three minutes left on the clock came after Shanahan had cut the lead down to four, doubling it back to 36-28 with 1:18 left to all but seal the deal.

“Coming out of halftime, I didn’t have a really good first half so I just had to pick it up and get my team to pick it up,” he said.

Low-scoring affairs have become common for Bishop Shanahan. The fourth seed out of District 1, Shanahan trailed 11-10 at halftime of its district semifinal loss to Upper Merion; in the Ches-Mont final, they kept it to a 33-33 game in regulation before Coatesville won 43-37 in overtime.

“We’ve really struggled on offense the last couple of weeks, as playoff basketball comes around everybody game plans for you a lot better,” Eagles coach Ken Doyle said. “So we really struggled on offense getting good shots, good looks, things we wanted.”

For the game, Shanahan finished 12-of-51 from the floor, including 1-of-18 from 3-point range.

No single Eagles player scored more than the seven contributed by senior reserve Brendan Dearing and junior forward Kevin Dodds, who also had eight rebounds but was somewhat limited due to foul issues.

Doyle returns Dodds plus fellow starters Thomas Ford (6 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists) and point guard David Angelo (5 points), as well as two of his three top reserves, so he’s hopeful that Shanahan (19-10) will continue to progress from here.

“As I told the kids when we left, just to make sure we get better and not being satisfied with what we did this year,” he said. “In order to get to the next level, we need to work and improve.”

~~~

Class 3A First Round: Neumann-Goretti vs. York Catholic

York Catholic gave the three-time defending state champions a good scare early, leading by five after one quarter and threatening to shock the bracket on the first day of the tournament.

But the Irish didn’t have an answer for the Saints’ Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree.

The 6-foot-8, 215-pound senior forward was dominant, helping Neumann-Goretti break things open in the second quarter and run away to a 71-48 win.

Neumann-Goretti’s Villanova commit finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds, while junior guard Noah Warren chipped in 15 for the Saints (20-7). Kentucky-bound point guard Quade Green had an off night from the floor (2-9 FG, 7 points) but added nine assists and three rebounds.

“I felt like today was my day for the game, but it could be anybody’s day,” Cosby-Roundtree said. “The next day it could be Mike, it could be Quade, I was just trying to give us something so we wouldn’t lose the game.”

It was 13-8 York Catholic through the first eight minutes before Cosby-Roundtree went off for 12 points in the second quarter alone, as Neumann-Goretti flipped the script and led 31-16 at the half.

The Irish (23-3) put up a good fight in the third quarter, as Torrey Thomas (team-high 14 points) hit four 3-pointers to help his team close the gap to as few as eight before Neumann-Goretti put things away with an 11-1 run to open the fourth quarter and continued to expand the lead down the stretch.

In the next round, they’ll play District 2 champ Holy Redeemer, which dispatched Philly’s World Communications Charter on Friday night. That’s the second in what Neumann-Goretti hopes is a five-game run to the program’s seventh state championship in the last eight years.

Friday night was just number one.

“It’s just a stepping stone, preparing us for the next few games to get ready for the big game, the championship game at Hershey,” Cosby-Roundtree said.

~~~

CLASS 5A
FIRST ROUND
Friday, March 10
Hershey 51, Penncrest 42
Chester 72, Milton Hershey 53
Abington Heights 67, Lampeter-Strasburg 48
Martin Luther King 43, Bishop Shanahan 33
Mechanicsburg 49, Springfield-Delco 45
Archbishop Wood 92, New Oxford 62
East Stroudsburg North 58, Manheim Central 55
Spring Grove 49, West Scranton 48
Northeastern York 78, Wissahickon 66
Upper Merion 62, Greencastle-Antrim 46
Archbishop Carroll 61, Great Valley 48
Palmyra 58, Pottsville 43
Mars 85, Hampton 81
Erie Cathedral Prep 55, Central Mountain 46
Franklin Regional 52, Moon 51
Meadville 55, Chartiers Valley 45

SECOND ROUND
Tuesday, March 14
Sites and times, TBA
Hershey (3-10, 14-13) vs. Chester (1-5, 21-6)
Abington Heights (2-1, 23-3) vs. Martin Luther King (12-2, 21-9)
Mechanicsburg (3-2, 23-6) vs. Archbishop Wood (12-1, 24-3)
East Stroudsburg North (11-1, 18-10) vs. Spring Grove (3-4, 21-8)
Northeastern York (3-1, 28-2) vs. Upper Merion (1-2, 17-11)
Archbishop Carroll (12-3, 19-8) vs. Palmyra (3-6, 22-5)
Mars (7-4, 16-9) vs. Erie Cathedral Prep (10-2, 14-12)
Franklin Regional (7-5, 14-11) vs. Meadville (10-1, 23-1)

~~~

CLASS 3A
FIRST ROUND
Friday, March 10
Neumann-Goretti 71, York Catholic 48
Wilkes-Barre Holy Redeemer 64, World Communications Charter 42
Lancaster Mennonite 93, Philadelphia West Catholic 72
Hughesville 66, Notre Dame-Green Pond 56
Valley Forge Military Academy 67, Parkway Center City 61
Southern Columbia-Mid Valley, ppd
Delaware Valley Charter 63, Loyalsock Twp. 39
Camp Hill Trinity 75, Strawberry Mansion 47
Central Cambria 90, Columbia 76
Riverside 50, Pittsburgh Westinghouse 39
Shady Side Academy 48, Fairview 47
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic 68, Bellwood-Antis 51
Erie First Christian 57, Karns City 48
Washington 52, Richland 45
Lincoln Park Charter 70, Juniata 39
Greenville 47, Seton-LaSalle 41

FIRST ROUND
Saturday, March 11
Southern Columbia (4-2, 15-10) vs. Mid Valley (2-2, 23-3) at Shamokin HS, 1

SECOND ROUND
Tuesday, March 14
Sites and times, TBA
Neumann-Goretti (12-1, 20-7) vs. Wilkes-Barre Holy Redeemer (2-1, 18-8)
Lancaster Mennonite (3-2, 24-4) vs. Hughesville (4-1, 17-9)
Valley Forge Military Academy (1-1, 25-4) vs. Southern Columbia-Mid Valley winner
Delaware Valley Charter (12-2, 21-7) vs. Camp Hill Trinity (3-1, 23-3)
Central Cambria (6-1, 21-6) vs. or Riverside (7-5, 17-8)
Shady Side Academy (7-4, 19-7) vs. Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic (7-1, 22-5)
Erie First Christian (10-3, 17-9) vs. Washington (7-3, 21-5)
Lincoln Park Charter (7-2, 22-5) vs. Greenville (10-1, 24-2)