City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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La Salle College HS head coach Joe Dempsey and his Explorers don’t hide the fact that they’re very much aware of what’s going on in the rest of the Catholic League. The first two weeks of league play have seen more than a couple surprising results, both in terms of upsets and close calls, which already have scrambled any predicted order one could have had before the season started.

So they headed to Cardinal O’Hara on Monday evening for their first away game in league play well aware of just how up-for-grabs the PCL is this season, making every regular-season game even more crucial in the race to get home-court advantage in the league’s quarterfinals come February.

And after a flat start had La Salle looking like it might fall right back into the pack, the Explorers found their defensive energy and rallied for a 51-48 win over the Lions.

“Coming in and getting a game like that is just huge for us,” junior forward Zach Crisler said. “Especially in the league standings, because teams are dropping games left and right.”

Only two teams have made it through their first four league games unscathed: Neumann-Goretti and Bonner-Prendergast. Neumann had to survive an overtime clash with upstart Father Judge this past weekend just to get there; Bonner needed a last-second dunk to beat St. Joe’s Prep by two points.

More than half of the league’s 14 teams -- eight, to be exact -- have suffered at least two losses already. That includes defending champ Archbishop Wood, which has already dropped home games to Bonner and Archbishop Ryan. Ryan then suffered a surprising home loss of its own, to Bishop McDevitt, which only won one league game a year ago.

La Salle is one of four one-loss teams, along with Prep, La Salle, Carroll and Roman, all of whom boast numerous Division I prospects and a strong tradition of winning. But if they weren’t 100 percent aware beforehand of how little that matters on a nightly basis in the PCL, they are now.

“I said to the guys, ‘fellas, if Ryan can beat Wood on their home court, and Judge can take Neumann to overtime, who are we?” La Salle coach Joe Dempsey said. “We’re nobody.”

O’Hara, which went 0-13 in PCL play last season, already has one league win (over Conwell-Egan) and is clearly a much stronger team this year under second-year head coach Jason Harrigan.

That was evident when the Lions jumped out to an 11-0 lead on the Explorers and were in control the whole first period, with senior point guard Antwuan “Booty” Butler leading the way. The Austin Peay commit was 3-for-3 from 3-point range in the first quarter, which ended with him deflecting a pass and hurling in an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer to put O’Hara up 20-10.

The Lions (5-4, 1-2) were 7-of-9 from 3-point range in the first half, which ended with them up 32-27.

But the Explorers’ coaches made some adjustments to their ball screen defense and focused on Butler and sophomore Jordan Hall, who made three 3-pointers and had 11 points in the first half, holding O’Hara to just two 3-point attempts the entire second half.

La Salle’s Matt McMahon finally tied it early in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer to make it 40-40, and a Crisler layup shortly after gave the Explorers their first lead of the game. O’Hara re-took a one-point lead on a Butler bucket, but Crisler gave it back to La Salle for good on a power move on the baseline with 1:50 to play.

Senior guard Sean Simon sealed the win, going 5-for-6 from the foul line in the game’s closing minute.

“That first quarter was rough, the first three minutes we just came out flat,” Simon said. “But we came together, said ‘no more’...it’s just nice getting a win on the road.”

Simon and Crisler both finished with 11 points; junior guard Allen Powell led La Salle with 13 points, including six of his team’s eight in a low-scoring third quarter.

The Explorers also got strong efforts from two juniors who are both new to the team this year. Forward Kahlil Diarrah, starting in place of Konrad Kiszka as the latter recovers from an injury -- Kiszka still played a good number of minutes off the bench -- contributed four points, four rebounds and two steals but altered a good number of shots inside and kept several more rebounds alive. Titus Beard, a guard, came off the bench to hit his only shot, a 3-pointer, but more importantly dish out five assists and grab two rebounds.

“Their energy has been tremendous, they’ve definitely stepped up in their roles,” said Crisler, a 6-9 forward and Division I prospect with offers from Lehigh, Tulane, Columbia, TCU and more. “Khalil stepped up and started, he was great on the offensive glass, Titus came in and he was a really strong ball-handler for us.”

La Salle returns home for its next two games, against Archbishop Wood (Jan. 19) and Neumann-Goretti (Jan. 22). But five of its final seven are on the road, including trips to Bonner (Jan. 24), Roman (Jan. 29) and St. Joe’s Prep (Feb. 2), three other title contenders with combined records of 9-2 in league play thus far.

The Explorers know they can’t survive many more slow starts.

“The first three minutes of the start of the game and the start of the second half are huge for us,” Crisler said. “The better teams will be able to stomp on us at that point and they won’t let us back in the game. We have to stop the bleeding quicker, or throw the first punch.”