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Dajuan Wagner Classic: Roman Catholic downs Camden; Wood escapes Wildwood Catholic

12/31/2019, 11:45am EST
By Mitchell Gladstone


Roman senior Lynn Greer III (above) battles past a Camden defender during the Cahillites' 70-59 win. (Photo: Gavin Bethell/CoBL)

Mitchell Gladstone (@mpgladstone13)
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CHERRY HILL — Roman Catholic knew it wanted to take the air out of the ball. But trailing Camden by 11 in the early stages of the third quarter, that wasn’t an option for the Cahillites.

By night’s end, though, it was a different story — not only did Roman slow the pace and take the life out of a talented Panthers team, but it sucked all the energy right out of a raucous Camden crowd that made up a large chunk of the capacity crowd at Cherry Hill East Monday night.

“I’d seen a guy talking to me the whole game on the sidelines,” Roman Catholic senior Lynn Greer III said. “So once he started being quiet, I already knew they were ready to give up.”

Roman turned on the jets to surge from behind late and pull away from Camden, taking the nightcap of the Dajuan Wagner Play-by-Play Classic 70-59, with a dominant fourth quarter that saw the Panthers go scoreless for more than four minutes. 

In that time, the Cahillites seized the lead for the first time since the late stages of the first half, using a 14-2 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters. 

And while it was game MVP Jalen Duren who made plenty of highlights — he turned the night into a personal dunk contest and picked up an offer from Auburn in the process — freshman Xzayvier Brown flashed the potential that could soon thrust him into the spotlight.

With 15 points, including an eight-point outburst at the start of the final stanza, there’s a reason why Greer didn’t hesitate to call Brown “the best freshman in the city.”

“He’s 15 years old. When I was 15, I was 5-foot-2 and 90 pounds,” Roman Catholic coach Matt Griffin said. “For somebody that young to have such a great game is a big positive. He’s just going to get better — and the reason I know that is because he loves the game.”

After sophomore Justice Williams canned a triple to pull Roman within five at the end of the third quarter, Brown asserted himself. The freshman knocked down a 3-pointer of his own to get the Cahillites within a score, then scooped up a blocked shot and laid one in the next time down the floor.

In the process, Brown’s hand got stepped on, firing up the Roman bench, which wanted a foul called. Although the refs stopped play and Brown briefly headed to the bench, nothing was called.

Roman Catholic took home a hard-fought win over Camden in Cherry Hill East on Monday night. (Photo: Gavin Bethell/CoBL)
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No problem — even after Camden pulled back within one at 58-57, Brown drilled another trey and all but put the game away.

Roman ended the game scoring 12 of the night’s final 14 points, holding the Panthers to just four in the last eight minutes.

“I don’t even think he’s 15 yet,” Duren said of Brown. “I love that kid. He stepped up, and he’s been stepping up a lot. He’s been hitting big shots — they forget about him almost.”

Certainly, there was no forgetting about Duren. 

The Cahillites’ sophomore big man led all scorers with 18 points, and the five-star prospect — who has already picked up other offers from Maryland, Miami and Penn State, per 247Sports, though the NBA might also be an option by the time he’s done high school — added 17 rebounds to control the paint.

Of his 16 field goal attempts, Duren made nine, and seven of those field goals came on dunks, including a high-flying alley-oop just before halftime and a thunderous two-handed jam late in the third quarter to spark Roman’s final surge.

“Composure is critical in these environments and Jalen Duren never for one second wavered in his leadership,” Griffin said. “Those are the intangibles that help teams win games.”

All that overshadowed what was an impressive performance by Camden’s DJ Wagner, who scored 19 points in a game that was played in honor of his father, Dajuan, a former Camden standout himself who once scored 100 points in a game before going on to Memphis.

DJ Wagner, just one of four freshmen who participated in USA Basketball’s minicamp this summer, looked all the part of a budding star. Wagner knocked down just one 3-pointer on four tries but didn’t hesitate to get his points when the Panthers needed them most.

“He’s fearless and relentless,” Griffin said of Wagner. “He’s one of the best guards in the country in his class and he’s going to continue to be that, there’s no doubt about it.”

But it wasn’t going to be a celebratory night for the Panthers. Much of their crowd headed for the exits with two-plus minutes to go as Roman put the game on ice, hitting nine of its final 12 free throws.

It was yet another sign of a talented team that already looks all the part of a Catholic League favorite and a serious state title contender.

 “[We] know the importance of having Roman across our chests,” Greer said. “Every game is important because we’re playing.”

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Wood's Rahsool Diggins scored 13 points as the Vikings survived Wildwood Catholic. (Photo: Gavin Bethell/CoBL)

Archbishop Wood 54, Wildwood Catholic 52

Just before the night’s premier event, another Catholic League side showed some grit to emerge a victor as well.

Archbishop Wood escaped with a 54-52 win against Wildwood Catholic as Wood’s Daeshon Shepherd blocked Wildwood’s attempt just before the buzzer. Shepherd and fellow junior Rahsool Diggins each scored 13 points for Wood, which had to fight through seven fourth-quarter lead changes for its fifth win of the season.

But it looked early like Wood was going to turn things into a runaway. The Vikings canned five of their 11 3-pointers in the first quarter, jumping out to a 23-13 lead after just eight minutes.

“I don’t know if the crowd got them a little excited,” Wood coach John Mosco said. “It was only their third game and it was our eighth. … We had some good looks, even though we shot the ball badly.”

That poor shooting gave Wildwood a chance to get right back into things — Wood scored just six points in the second quarter, shooting 1-of-12 from the field as Wildwood cut the deficit to 29-25 at the half.

And that’s when things got good. Wildwood Catholic seniors Jahlil White (a Temple signee) and Taj Thweatt (a West Virginia signee) combined for eight of their team’s 11 fourth-quarter points before Diggins drew a foul on a hard drive with less than a minute to go.

The Wood junior knocked down both free throws, giving his team the lead for good, although the game didn’t even without stress. The Vikings missed three free throws in the last 15 seconds, giving Wildwood Catholic a chance to draw up one last play and potentially send things to overtime.

After a challenging five-game stretch that featured a seven-overtime loss to Virginia’s Paul VI and a trip to Hawaii — where the Vikings managed to win three of four games over the course of four days — Wood is 5-3, and Mosco knows there’s still work to be done if the program wants to capture its second-ever PCL title and first since 2017.

“We need to cut down on our turnovers,” he said. “When we share the ball...we’re hard to beat.”


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