City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Archbishop Ryan doesn’t have a typical star.

No go-to Division I committed scorer to light up the scoreboard on a game-to-game basis like so much of the rest of the Catholic League. No near seven-footer to dominate on the defensive end.

But what the Raiders do have is Amin Bryant, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, who does a little bit of everything to help his team win.

“He’s a team-first kid that just wants to win,” Ryan coach Joe Zeglinski said. “He’s a really competitive kid, and you can see it on the court. It kind of raises the competitiveness of the rest of the team.”

In a 58-56 road win against West Catholic on Monday night, Bryant fit the description. He scored 11 points, tallied five assists, grabbed eight rebounds and added four steals and four blocks. By the end of the first quarter, he had at least one of each.

Bryant seemed to be involved in every play on both ends of the floor, leading a group still figuring out how to close out games. When West Catholic guard Imere Harris, who scored 15 points, knocked down a three to cut Ryan’s 12-point advantage to two with a 12-2 run, Bryant responded with a layup to put the Raiders up by two possessions with 2:35 left.

Missed free throws by Ryan and a late three by West Catholic’s Isaac Brito gave the Burrs a chance to send the game into overtime, but a Burrs heave at the buzzer fell well short of the rim. Bryant’s free throw with 10.2 seconds left, which put the Raiders up 57-53, ended up being the winning basket.

“He’s our glue guy,” Zeglinski said. “He’s almost a triple-double, close to it. He’s that type of player. He really calms us down if they're pressuring us. He can really handle pressure with how big he is and strong he is. Defensively, he’s talking the whole game, he’s in help. He’s our leader out there on the court.”

Through Archbishop Ryan’s (8-6, 3-2 PCL) first five games of Philadelphia Catholic League play, Bryant has led the Raiders in scoring just once, when he scored nine points in a loss to St. Joe’s Prep.

Junior guard Colin Reed has been Ryan’s top scorer three times, all 20-point efforts. On Friday, the hot hand was freshman forward Taleeq Robbins.

Robbins scored a game-high 16 points, knocking down three 3-point shots and also using the pump fake to get to the basket. Reed scored 10 points and juniors Jaquill Stone and Mekhi Lang each added nine points. All four had more points than Bryant at halftime, who had just three points after the game’s first 16 minutes.

“I go into games just thinking about how to get my teammates involved,” Bryant said. “My points will come when my team is hot. The lane will open up, I’ll get fouled. I’m more of defensive player and like a facilitator, passing the ball. That’s what I like to do.”

Outside of Robbins, the Raiders aren’t young—they started four juniors and had four seniors come off the bench on Monday. However, they are inexperienced after losing four key players from last year’s PCL semi final squad.

The Raiders went 1-2 last week after beating Cardinal O’hara in their league opener.

After a loss to St. Joe’s Prep on Monday, they picked up a 78-74 win against Archbishop Wood on Wednesday, but followed the victory over the PCL’s reigning champs with a loss to Bishop McDevitt on Friday.

Bryant said Zeglinski had the team fired up in practice after the defeat. Monday’s win against West Catholic pushed the Raiders back above .500 in Catholic League play, where they hope to stay.

“McDevitt we came out flat,” Bryant said. “We were coming off the Wood win, so we were thinking we were better than we were. We had to come back to reality in this game right here.”

“That’s what I was looking for, to see how we respond to some of that adversity after a big win at Wood and a down game against McDevitt, when McDevitt played really well,” Zeglinski said. “Friday, Monday games, you’re right back at it, so you have to have amnesia, and I think we did a good job with that.”