skip navigation

Betrand propels Roman back into PCL title game with win over Prep

02/22/2018, 12:15am EST
By Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)

Allen Betrand (above) led Roman Catholic with 20 points in the win against St. Joe's Prep. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)

--

Matt Griffin and Allen Betrand have gone through the highs and lows together since starting their careers at Roman Catholic.

Griffin began his first year as head coach of the Cahillites in 2016, taking over for Chris McNesby who had led the team to back-to-back Philadelphia Catholic League titles as well as PIAA Class 4A crowns. Betrand was coming over from Samuel Fels of the Philadelphia Public League’s “B” Division and inserted into a starting lineup that was vacated by Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Nazeer Bostick, all of whom moved on to Penn State.

Together, they helped lead the Cahillites back to the PCL semifinals where they fell to Neumann-Goretti then, despite earning a high seed, bowed out in the first round of the PIAA 6A Tournament to Perkiomen Valley. Compared to how Roman had performed in recent years and based upon its history, it was not what the program come to expect. Still, it was a learning experience for Griffin, Betrand and the Cahillites, and one year later they were back on the Palestra floor.

Betrand had 20 points, seven rebounds and four blocks while teammate Lynn Greer III added 17 as Roman pulled away from Saint Joe’s Prep, 69-66 to advance to the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game for the first time in two years. Betrand scored the first basket of the game and was on the receiving end of an alley-hoop from Greer in the second quarter that ignited the Roman student section.

The Second Team All-Catholic selection and Towson commit recalled why he chose to come to Roman and why he was enticed to play in this league.

“In the Public League, there isn’t as much competition,” Betrand said. “I came to the Catholic League to have competition and play in this [building] right here. It’s what I’ve always dreamed about and it came true.”

Betrand was looked upon to carry the team, particularly in the fourth quarter. 6-6 junior forward Seth Lundy, who led the team in scoring with 22 points in the quarterfinal victory over La Salle, fouled out with 7:17 left to play. Without one of its top scoring options, Roman was clinging to a 42-36 advantage. Betrand immediately responded with an and-one to push the lead to nine. After the Hawks’ Darius Kinnell (19 points) converted a layup, Greer hit one of his two three-pointers to keep the lead at 48-39.

Betrand scored 12 points in that final quarter and Greer followed up with eight of his 17.  Greer knew that either himself, Betrand or Hakim Hart, who had 11 points and eight boards, was going to have to pick up the slack with Lundy gone.

“It just meant that we had to do a lot of the extra stuff like getting rebounds and making the right play,” Greer said. “It was stressed more and more since Seth was out. He’s a big body down there and gets a lot of rebounds so we had to carry the defensive load.”

For Griffin, the victory was a culmination of what he has seen from Betrand over two seasons and how much he has grown into a leader.

“He’s grown in so many ways,” Griffin said. “He keeps getting better and better on the court. He works extremely hard and he’s coachable. He’s done anything and everything that I’ve asked of him from defending the biggest guy to playing the smallest guy.”

Even when Lundy went out and Betrand and Greer were spearheading the charge, the Hawks would not go away. La Salle University commit Ed Croswell (nine points, nine rebounds, two blocks) controlled things inside in the first half including an and-one two-handed dunk which gave St. Joe’s Prep an 11-10 lead at the opening quarter. The Hawks took a 24-20 advantage into the locker room at halftime but weren’t able to sustain it.

In the fourth quarter Kinnell and Kyle Thompson were singlehandedly trying to close the gap. Down 56-42, the two three-year starters began to take over. Thompson scored 12 of his team-high 25 points in the final four minutes of the game including a stepback trey that cut the deficit to 60-52 with 1:28 left. Kinnell hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, the latter which made it a four-point game with 11.1 seconds remaining. Greer ultimately hit two more free throws to put the game out of reach.

 The Cahillites win over the Hawks was their eleventh in a row, dating back to Jan. 23 versus Archbishop Ryan. The last time Roman lost was to Bonner-Prendergast, the PCL’s top seed and their opponent in Monday night’s title game at the Palestra at 8:30 p.m. The Friars defeated Archbishop Carroll, 48-45 in the first semifinal matchup. Griffin said he was waiting for this team to learn to play together before it could gain some momentum.

“We knew we had it in us,” Griffin said. “We just had to work and maintain a positive attitude. We lost two games early on in the [PCL] season and we had to learn from them. We’re going to learn, get better and take on the same mentality for the next game.”

Griffin was referring to learning from his team’s 68-66 overtime loss to the Friars on Jan. 19. In that game, Betrand only scored seven points before fouling out. Greer, Lundy and Hart all scored in double figures but it was not enough. Since that game, Roman has been revitalized and came into the PCL playoffs playing its best basketball.

Betrand has already established himself as a winner and this performance only confirmed that. Now, he wants to finish off his career in the same footsteps as many former Roman greats, notably Carr.

"I want to make my own name and our team wants to make their name,” Betrand said. “Being able to follow behind Tony, [Lamar and Nazeer] means a lot.”


HS Coverage:

Recruiting News:

Tag(s): Home  Recruiting  Contributors  Rich Flanagan  Boys HS  Catholic League (B)  Roman Catholic  St. Joe's Prep