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PIAA 3A: Neumann-Goretti survives Bishop McDevitt comeback

03/17/2018, 7:00pm EDT
By Ari Glazier

Hakim Byrd (above) and the Neumann-Goretti bench picked the Saints up in a PIAA 3A quarterfinal. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Ari Glazier (@AriGlazier)
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Neumann-Goretti head coach Carl Arrigale described the end of his team’s 65-54 PIAA 3A quarterfinal win against Catholic League playmate Bishop McDevitt as “helter skelter”, a nod to the classic Beatles song with lyrics inspired by the rapid descent in an amusement park ride.

The comparison is apt, as the Saints saw a 15-point lead with four-and-a-half minutes to play whittled down to just six.

The Royal Lancers had a few opportunities to make the contest even tighter, but missed an open three and a couple free throws. Ultimately the Saints padded their lead from the line and kept their season alive, despite a fourth quarter they would like to forget.

“I don’t know if our guys had a sense that it was over,” Arrigale said. “I give (McDevitt) credit for continuing to fight. They don’t want the season to end.

“We missed a couple one and ones, we threw the ball away a little bit...fortunately for us, we were able to recoup and get ourselves back together, make enough foul shots and just kind of ge to the finish line.”

Neumann Goretti will advance to the 3A semifinals against Trinity on March 20, with two games left in a bid to win five straight state titles.

Prior to the fourth, the game was all Neumann. A one-point advantage through a quarter became a 14-point lead at the half thanks to 11 second quarter points off the bench from sophomore guard Hakim Byrd. Byrd finished with 15 points, including knocking down a pair from beyond the arc.

“I want to get up under people on defense, score buckets when I can and lift my team up in any way I can,” Byrd said. “I’m supposed to be a spark, if not there’s no purpose in me playing.”

“They started out in man, then then they went to the zone early and we missed a couple, and we were kind of passing the ball around with no purpose,” Arrigale said. “When Hakim came in he got two feet in the paint a couple of times, drove the zone and made some plays. He hit an open shot. We were able to get a little quicker defensive unit out there and we got them to speed up a little bit. He was definitely a big lift for us.”

Byrd’s production was huge given the struggles of the Saints’ starting point guard Christian Ings who got into foul trouble early and finished with just 10 points. The Saints also got limited production from GW commited big man Marcus Littles who started practicing only just before states after missing time due to a car accident.

Dymir Montague carried the main offensive load of the first unit, as the Holy Family commit scored a team-high 16 points as well as collected five assists. Freshman Taquan Woodley was asked to take on an extended role with Littles somewhat rusty, and the 6-6 forward responded with thirteen rebounds.

The last five minutes notwithstanding, Neumann’s biggest strength in the game was their defense. The Saints didn’t allow for anything easy inside, and gave up just one 3-pointer.

“Our communication was pretty good, our rotations were pretty good, we stayed attached to the guys we needed to,” Arrigale said. “We did a pretty good job of rebounding the first miss. But then they got into that helter skelter thing and we kind of fell into the trap. We were reaching and giving up dribble penetration. We weren’t hedging hard on ball screens. We gave up a couple of offensive rebound because of bad rotations. That stuff’s correctable, so I’m not to worried about that.”

The gutsy fight was an appropriate send off for a Bishop Mcdevitt team that has fought all year.

The Royal Lancers had two Catholic League wins over a two-year stretch going into this season. This year, head coach Will Chavis lead them to their first PCL playoff appearance since 2014.

They went on to win two games in States, their first two wins since 2012. The decisively pro-McDevitt crowd at Jefferson made sure the team felt their appreciation. They went wild throughout McDevitt’s fourth quarter run, and gave the team a hearty applause once the final buzzer sounded.

The Royal Lancers were lead by sophomore guard Robert Smith, who scored a game high 20 points.

“I give a lot of credit to those guys, their coaching staff is doing a nice job with them,” Arrigale said. “They’re gonna be a team to be reckoned with in the future.”


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