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Wood looks to support from 2017 class to rally past Conwell-Egan

01/14/2018, 7:00pm EST
By Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)

Andrew Funk (above) and Archbishop Wood have had a shaky start to Catholic League play. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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When talking with players and coaches about Archbishop Wood’s 2016-17 season, it’s still fresh in their minds what the program accomplished: the school’s first Philadelphia Catholic League title as well as PIAA Class 5A state crown.

In Sunday’s game against Conwell-Egan, two members of that Vikings team were courtside in last year’s PCL MVP Collin Gillespie (Villanova) and Keith Otto (Moravian). All that was missing was Matt Cerutti, now at Lock Haven, but having two core players from that group present was necessary for this year’s Archbishop Wood squad.

The Vikings came into the matchup against the Eagles having lost two straight PCL games after only dropping one all of last season. Following a tough nonleague slate, starting off with two league losses was not the way head coach John Mosco had foreseen things playing out.

He saw Gillespie and Otto’s presence necessary to help turn things around.

“Everybody thinks we’re experienced coming back with four seniors but our experience was right here to talk to them after the game in Collin and Keith,” Mosco said. “[Matt] Cerutti wasn’t here today but they all told the team 'you need to take pride in what we’ve built here.'”

That pride was certainly on display as the Vikings overcame a halftime deficit on their home court to upend Conwell-Egan 78-65 behind 25 points from Bucknell commit Andrew Funk and five 3-pointers from guard Andrew Lafond.

The Eagles came out hot, scoring 19 points in the opening quarter and Wood’s defensive rotation was slow. Seniors Patrick Robinson, who had 16 points in the first half, and Eric Esposito, who had 11 first-half points, led the way.

Esposito hit one of his three three-pointers to push the Eagles to their largest lead of the game at 30-21 with 5:45 left in the second quarter. Robinson hit a runner in the lane just before halftime to give Conwell-Egan (3-7, 0-5 PCL) a three-point edge heading into halftime.

Two of the primary reason the Vikings were able to keep things close in the opening half was the play of Funk, who scored 14 of his 25 in the first two quarters as the team needed to make up for the loss of Tyree Pickron. Pickron was out after suffering a left shoulder injury in Wednesday’s loss to Archbishop Ryan.

Lafond provided a spark, knocking down four of his five treys in that first half and he expressed how the team was frustrated with how the PCL slate had started out.

“We were all really angry. We didn’t think that we should’ve lost to [Archbishop] Ryan,” Lafond said. “We came out mad. We played well in the first half against Bonner but let that game go. We needed to come out here and get a win.”

Mosco saw Lafond’s play as one of the positives from a dismal first half.

“He’s been a great kid at practice every day for four years,” Mosco said. “He’s a program kid and I thought he was really good for us all year. Our non-league schedule was tough but once we got into the Catholic League we tried to find a spot for him. We were struggling against their 2-3 defense then I put him in and he kept us in the game in the first half.”

The Vikings came out revitalized in the third quarter, outscoring the opposition 22-6. Funk got things started with a floater in the lane followed a layup from freshman guard Rahsool Diggins (16 points, seven rebounds). Funk added another basket and senior center Seth Pinkney (seven boards, four blocks) scored two of his six points on a putback dunk to push the lead to 47-40. From there, the rout was on as Archbishop Wood (5-6, 2-2) scored 14 consecutive points before Esposito’s trey just before the end of the quarter put the score at 61-46.

Lafond played sparingly in the second half but his final three-pointer put the finishing touches on a victory the Vikings desperately needed. On a team with multiple players who can create their own offense, Lafond is a one of the players who feeds off of Mosco’s drive-and-kick offense and he understands he has a defined role on this team.

“That’s always been my role. I’m always the shooter,” Lafond said. “The team drives in and kicks it out so if I’m open I’ll shoot it. If it goes in, [great] but if not I’ll sprint back on defense. That’s just my job.”

Despite a difficult start to the league portion of the schedule, Mosco believes what he along with the 2017 class shared to this year’s team was a wakeup call and he’s hoping they now understand what it takes to play as defending PCL champion.

“Our kids are starting to realize we have a target on our chest,” Mosco said. “It’s easy to climb the mountain but that’s why you have to give Roman Catholic and Neumann-Goretti so much credit for staying there. They’re taking everybody’s best shot every, single night.”


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