City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It didn’t take much of a math whiz to figure out that Bonner-Prendergast’s final home game of the season would be a hot ticket.

Start with the fact that it was Senior Night for the Friars’ eldest members, including Rider-bound forward Ajiri Johnson, who’s been a fan favorite the last two years with his ability to throw down monster dunks and come up with equally impressive blocks on the other end. Then throw on the fact that it was a Friday night in the Catholic League, with Bonner still trying to secure the top overall seed in the league’s playoffs -- and in the way was yet another PCL title contender, Archbishop Carroll.

The factors all added up.

“Probably (by) halftime of the JV game, it was already halfway full,” senior forward Tariq Ingraham noted.

By the time the varsity’s 7 o’clock tipoff game around, the doors were already closed, the Bonner gym at its 800-person capacity, and maybe a few souls extra. And led by a particularly vociferous B-P student section, the Friars’ digs were rocking from start to finish, by which point they were celebrating a 79-72 win that keeps Bonner in the drivers’ seat for the Catholic League’s regular-season championship.

Bonner-Prendergast (18-3, 11-1) is now just a win over Cardinal O’Hara in Sunday’s regular-season finale away from locking down that No. 1 seed over fellow one-loss team Neumann-Goretti, with Roman Catholic just a game behind.

“It really wasn’t a goal for us,” junior guard Isaiah Wong said of earning the top spot in the league’s tournament, “but I feel like, I knew that we were going to be top-three, top-two, top-one, because every game we were going game-by-game, and every time we went game-by-game we kept on winning.”

Wong, one of the frontrunners for PCL Player of the Year, led the way with 29 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals as Bonner won for the fifth straight time following its only league loss, to La Salle on Jan. 24. The Friars, who are playing without usual starting point guard Tyreese Watson (knee injury), also got 18 points, eight rebounds and four blocks from Ingraham, plus 15 points and 12 rebounds from Johnson.

It’s true that exact seeding might matter less in this year’s Catholic League playoffs than ever before, with every team on high alert for an upset in the playoffs and easily six or seven teams with a realistic chance to hoist the trophy.

Getting a top-four slot and thus home game in the quarterfinals is key; after that, it’s anybody’s game at the Palestra once the semifinals hit, and home-court advantage disappears entirely.

“In our league there’s a bunch of teams that can beat each other and they’re every bit as good as we are,” Bonner coach Jack Concannon said. “Carroll and Wood and Roman, we’re all the same. The ball goes your way one night, you win, it goes the other way, you’re not going to win, and that’s just the way it is.”

Indeed, Carroll didn’t go quietly into the crisp Delaware County night.

The Patriots (14-6, 8-3) took a good share of licks, starting with a massive alley-oop by Johnson that set the student section into jet engine territory decibel-wise, followed by an onslaught by Wong, who got 12 points in the first quarter alone.

Bonner’s lead grew to 15 by the midway point of the second quarter, but Carroll narrowed the gap to four at halftime; after it expanded back into double digits in the third quarter, the Patriots got it down to four points on multiple occasions in the fourth quarter.

“This whole season, every team’s tried to come back and we just know what to do,” Wong said. “Just calm it down, make smart plays.”

Ingraham came up big in the fourth quarter with 10 points in the final frame. The 6-9, 240-pound junior is more than just a big body, as he showed with the ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the rack.

“Before the half, I wasn’t doing so well, wasn’t getting the ball where I really wanted it, and then everything started to click,” he said. “Everyone started to get the ball to me, started to be able to get some assists off it, and it just worked out for the rest of the team.”

Carroll was led by a 20-point, six-rebound, four-assist effort from sophomore A.J. Hoggard. Senior guard Justin Anderson added 17 and senior forward Keyon Butler 14 for the Patriots, who finish their season at home against Conwell-Egan on Sunday and then Archbishop Wood on Monday in a make-up game.