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Roman comes back to down La Salle, advance to PCL semis

02/17/2018, 12:45am EST
By Graham Foley

Lynn Greer III (above) and Roman Catholic came from behind to knock off La Salle on Friday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Graham Foley (@graham_foley3)
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Roman Catholic head coach Matt Griffin said he thinks “the best” is brought out of his players when they’re down and their backs are against the wall.

He’s seen it in practice, where he said he regularly runs desperation scenarios with his starting five, including being down 15 points with three minutes left.

He wants to prepare his team to be ready for any scenario and always be able to fight back.

Well, on Friday afternoon, his team did just that.

Despite trailing by 10 points at halftime and 15 points in the third quarter, the Cahillites forced a furious comeback to down La Salle College High School 56-46 in the Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinal at the Community College of Philadelphia.

The Cahillites (17-5, 12-3 Philadelphia Catholic League) will now face St. Joseph’s Prep in the PCL semifinals at the Palestra on Wednesday night.

“In the beginning of the game, my speech was about playing like we’re down 10, but I didn’t want us to actually get down 10,” Griffin said. “But I am so proud of our guys, I thought it was a character win, it showed what we’re really made of.”

Roman Catholic went down 35-21 after two early 3-point shots from La Salle (13-10, 6-8 PCL) to start the third quarter. They followed with a 35-11 run to close out what became a double-digit victory.

Junior guard Seth Lundy led the way with 22 points, 12 coming in the second half, as well as six rebounds (three offensive) and five assists. He was vital in the comeback, shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in the second half.

But his most important role came from his encouragement.

“At halftime, we’re losing by 10 and I’m in the locker room and everybody’s got their heads down and I‘m the only one energetic,” Lundy said. “I’m standing up, jumping around, laughing I kept saying to my players that we were not losing this game.

“When we were down 15 in the third quarter, I told them not to keep their heads down, we’ve been in these situations before, keep going and keep playing,” he added. “I refuse to lose.”

When Roman trailed 42-38 with just more than five minutes to go, Lundy hit a critical 3-pointer and scored a layup off a missed ‘3’ en route to scoring nine of the Cahillites’ next 10 points.


Roman Catholic coach Matt Griffin (above) has led the Cahillites to the Palestra in both of his years. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“He just finds way to help us win, whether it’s big threes or offensive rebounds he’s got a will to win and somehow he helps us to do that,” Griffin said. “And he comes up in big moments, stepping back and hitting threes, getting big rebounds, so he was terrific tonight.”

Part of the reason for Roman’s early deficits came from the struggles of senior shooting guard Allen Betrand and sophomore guard Lynn Greer III. Betrand had just one field goal in the first half, shooting just 1-for-4 from the field. Greer also had just two first half points, coming from a pair of free throws.

But the pair came alive in the second half. Betrand started the third with a massive block and added seven points in the half. His five points in the fourth quarter included an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Greer that made it 54-44 with less than a minute left and sealed the game.

Greer made four of his six attempted field goals in the second half and finished 8-of-14 from the foul line in the game.  He said he  “didn’t have as much energy” as his teammates and credited them for setting the tone in the second half and raising his level of play.

“I feel like we came out pretty slow, but once we went down we came out with a little more energy,” Greer said. “We got a good speech in the locker room at halftime by our coaches, they just told us to keep our heads up, come out harder and more aggressive.”

Despite the deficit, Greer said his team’s confidence never wavered.

“We knew we were going to win this game,” Greer said. “We beat them before, we just played harder. We’re just a more aggressive team than they are.”

La Salle got out to a lead right away with lights out shooting. The Explorers scored nine points in the first four minutes from two 3-point shots by senior guard Matthew McMahon and one from junior point guard Allen Powell.

McMahon hit another three to start the second quarter before junior forward Konrad Kiszka’s flying dunk from the free-throw line made it 21-12 and forced a Roman timeout.

Kiszka finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists. But Powell and McMahon were held scoreless in the second half. As a whole, the Explorers only managed five points in the fourth quarter.

“We lost our poise a little bit,” said head coach Joe Dempsey. “I think their athleticism wore us down a little bit. Obviously there was pressure, we had some turnovers, we struggled to score, we got pushed out to half court a little bit. We had to work too hard offensively and even when we did get stops we gave up five or six offensive rebounds.”

With the loss and a victory by St. Joseph’s Prep over Neumann Goretti, the Explorers were eliminated from state tournament contention and their season came to an end.

“I was proud of our game plan, I was proud of the way we battled,” Dempsey said. “It just snapped and it’s unfortunate.”

For the Cahillites, the victory means a shot at redemption in the PCL.

Last season, Greer injured himself in warmups before Roman’s semifinal game at the Palestra. The Cahillites went on to lose to Neumann-Goretti 67-56. For Greer, this win offers him and his team a second chance.

“It’s unfinished business for me,” Greer said. “A lot of people thought I was faking or whatever happened but I was never that type of guy. I want to play on the biggest stage you can play on. And when I get out there, you’ll see.”


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