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Prep flexes muscle in dominant win over rival La Salle

02/03/2018, 2:30am EST
By Josh Verlin

Darius Kinnel (above) and St. Joe's Prep put together their most impressive outing of the season on Friday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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St. Joe’s Prep needs to be playing its best basketball down the stretch. And not just for the obvious reasons, with the Catholic League playoffs just around the corner and every game as meaningful as could be in the tightest race in recent memory. It’s because if the Hawks aren’t in tip-top shape, a promising season could very well end in disaster.

The Prep’s final four league games are a gauntlet, indeed: Friday afternoon’s game against La Salle College HS began a closing run that also includes defending league champ Archbishop Wood, longtime powerhouse Neumann-Goretti and then Roman Catholic, yet another serious contender for the championship.

So Prep coach and recent inductee into the 1,000-win club Speedy Morris couldn’t be much happier with what he witnessed at Kelly Fieldhouse on Friday, as his Hawks put down their best effort of the season in an 88-53 win over the Explorers.

“We just played really well, everything we did was good,” the 2017 Morgan Wooten Award winner said. “(La Salle is) a really good team, [and] we played our best game of the year.”

“We just came out super-hyped because it’s a rivalry game,” senior guard Kyle Thompson said. “it’s also a 6A game so it’s going to play a part for states and we just came out super pumped and we were ready to take care of business, and we did.”

The Hawks (15-4, 7-3) were in control the entire way against the Explorers (12-7, 5-5), jumping out to a seven-point lead after one quarter and they were up a dozen at halftime. But it was in the third quarter that the Prep really put its foot down, expanding the lead to over 20 on multiple occasions.

After scoring just 26 points in the first half, Prep scored a total of 62 in the second against its archrival. La Salle couldn’t do anything to slow down the Hawks, who fired up a strong section of Eagles-jersey-wearing Prep students early on and gave them plenty to cheer about all afternoon long.

“I think we really just came out and had fun today,” senior guard Darius Kinnel said. “If anything, this is probably my most special La Salle game because of how much fun we had.”

Kinnel (22 points/7 rebounds) and his classmate Thompson (23 points) both played as senior guards should, as the pair of three-year starters were both clicking all game long. The two shot a combined 14-of-18 overall and a perfect 15-of-15 from the foul stripe, pacing all five St. Joe’s Prep starters to finish in double figures.

Senior forward Ed Croswell had 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks, out-playing La Salle HS junior Zach Crisler (10 points, 2 rebounds) in the process. Junior wing Gabe Arizin had four 3-pointers to get him to 13 points, and sophomore guard Trevor Wall added 10.

Of Prep’s three league losses, only one -- a two-point defeat at Bonner-Prendie on Jan. 14 -- has come with the team at full strength. The other two, losses to Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara, came with Croswell out due to an injury. Now that the La Salle University-bound 6-6 forward is back in the post, the Hawks once again look like a true contender for the PCL crown.

““Not to make excuses for ourselves,” Thompson said, “but everybody’s like ‘if we had Ed, we definitely would have won those games.’”

The Explorers, who have an easier closing slate against West Catholic, Father Judge and Archbishop Ryan, were paced by 14 points from junior guard Allen Powell; Crisler and fellow junior forward Konrad Kiszka had 10 apiece.

Now comes the rest of the brutal closing stretch for Prep, but Kinnel and his teammates are confident.

Two years ago, Prep lost seven of its final eight games of the season, including a PCL quarterfinal loss to Roman Catholic. Last season, they were 2-2 against the same closing four teams as this year, beating Roman and La Salle in the regular season but then again losing to Roman in the playoffs.

Kinnel, Thompson and Croswell won’t get another chance to finish strong, or to play in the Palestra for the PCL semifinals or championship -- which, if they get there, would also likely mean a berth in the PIAA Class 6A tournament for the first time since 2013.

“Coming into this stretch, we all preached this is it, we need to play hard, we need to take care of business because this is our last chance to do it,” Kinnel said. “This is the first of our four toughest games of the season, so I think really we just came to step up to the challenge and played really well.”


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