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Moore's experience paying off for Archbishop Wood boys

01/24/2022, 11:00pm EST
By Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)

WARMINSTER — Justin Moore came to the Philadelphia Catholic League for games like Monday night's.

After two solid years at Cheltenham, the second seeing him thrust into a leadership role before the pandemic canceled the end of the season, Moore made the move to the PCL as a junior at Bishop McDevitt. His leading turn on Royal Avenue would only last a year, with McDevitt closing at the end of the 2020-21 academic year, meaning his senior year would have to come with another fresh start with an Archbishop Wood team that needed him to be every bit the leader he had spent the last three years growing into.


Justin Moore (above) has been a major reason why Wood is still unbeaten in the PCL. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Moore took that role head-on and led the Vikings with eight of the team's final 12 points, plus one emphatic swat of a would-be go-ahead layup as Wood stayed unbeaten in the PCL with a 59-52 win over Archbishop Ryan.

"It just starts with playing hard," Moore, who led Wood with 18 points, said. "I got beat off the dribble so I had to try and make up for it and came up with a block. The momentum of the game changed, we felt it and our crowd was great tonight so without them, it would have been a way tougher game."

Wood coach John Mosco had wanted Moore to be a part of his program when the guard was just an eighth grader but with a glut of talented guards already in Warminster, Moore stayed home. It was a good decision as Moore got a crash-course in both point guard play and leadership from Cheltenham coach Pat Fleury and standout point guard Zahree Harrison, who had played a year at Wood himself before transferring back home.

The Panthers lost Harrison, now at St. Francis (Pa.), a quarter into his senior season, putting Moore into the position of floor leader for a team with high expectations. He delivered, helping Cheltenham to a runner-up finish in the District 1 6A championship game and the second round of the PIAA tournament before the spread of COVID-19 ended the season early.

"It started sophomore year and it's been a big learning process for me to become a leader," Moore said. "Coach Pat started it and when I got to McDevitt, coach Will (Chavis) took it to another level and even in AAU with coach (Kyle Sample) so when I got here, it carried over and it kind of felt easier."

Moore made the most of his one season at Bishop McDevitt, earning All-PCL and all-state honors getting his first taste of the Catholic League experience. Coaching against Moore, Mosco saw a lot to like about the guard's game so when he ended up at Wood, it was only a matter of pushing him into the role the team needed.

Coming into another new setting this summer, Moore didn't want to step on the toes of seniors like Mike Knouse or Tyson Allen who had put in their time and come up through the program. While Mosco respected that, he also needed Moore to take charge and started pushing the guard to be a team leader.

"He's a special player, even though it's only for one year, he's one of the best guards I've been able to coach," Mosco said. "He knows how to play, he knows how to take over but he keeps everyone involved. He started out slow, he didn't want to do too much but as the summer progressed, I pushed him to do more and the guys started trusting him."


Sophomore guard Jalil Bethea (above) is one of a number of youngsters benefitting from Moore's presence. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Much like Harrison did for him, Moore is now doing for Wood's talented underclassmen like Bahsil Laster, Jalil Bethea and Josh Reed. The senior said it starts with gaining his teammates' respect and also learning how best to communicate with each of them. Some guys may respond well to being yelled at but others won't, so Moore has worked to figure the best way to deal with each teammate he's had at each stop along the way.

Mosco, who has tutored a string of Division I point guards from Tommy Funk (Army) to Collin Gillespie (Villanova) then Rahsool Diggins (UConn) and now Moore, who has committed to play at Drexel and reunite with first-year Dragons assistant coach Chavis, puts his newest lead guard right with any of those others in terms of leadership.

"He's taken Bahsil and Jalil under his wing and even all the other young guys, every day at practice, he's grabbing them and talking to them, telling them to calm down or to be confident in making shots," Mosco said. "He's a born leader."

"He's got a great change of speed, but he also has such good poise. We got lucky he decided to come here. Will did a great job with him and Pat at Cheltenham did a great job with him, he's played at different levels and adjusted well here because I don't usually take my guards out."

Being a leader means making the big play, like Moore did scoring the go-ahead basket then preventing Ryan from doing the same but also enduring the negatives, no matter who was at fault. Mosco is hard on his team's leaders, and even if he didn't necessarily do anything wrong to earn his coach's wrath, Moore understands it's his job to absorb it and keep going.

"When my teammates see me get yelled at, I just have to take it and I'll take everything on the chin coming from Coach Mosco because I know he wants what's best for me," Moore said. "I take nothing personal, if he has something to say to me or if he yells at me, it is what it is, he'll even yell at me for stuff other people did and I'm cool with that. It's part of being a leader."

The Vikings have been finding ways to win in the PCL this season and Thursday was another example. Moore struggled shooting the ball for three quarters, the game was played at the Raiders' preferred pace and Ryan big man Thomas Sorber was unstoppable with 29 points, 15 rebounds, a couple assists and five blocks. Moore's teammates, including his current understudies Bethea and Laster with Reed also getting plenty of minutes spelling Moore defensively, kept Wood afloat and when it came time to finish, the senior found himself again.

Moore is a little beat up at the moment, but it isn't enough to keep him from putting maximum effort out on the floor.

"Every time I step on the court, I'm going to play with heart, no matter what injuries I may have or else I wouldn't have stepped out there," Moore said. "When it's a big game like this, I knew my team needed me. I had a rough night shooting the ball but I was able to stick with it and we grinded it out as a team."

Moore's last basket came on a thunderous one-handed slam set off by a great outlet pass from Allen out of a timeout but he had to go with the block for his favorite play of the night.

"It was such a changing point in the game," Moore said. "The dunk put the game away but the block, it's what we pride ourselves on defensively to get stops."

The Vikings are off to a good start, but Moore knows there's a long way to go if they want to get to the Palestra and raise another PCL title. At the same time, that's the reason he came to the Catholic League in the first place and he's happy to bring his teammates along for the ride.

"It's a big-time league," Moore said. "Playing in a league like this, it's tough, they scout you night in and night out, so they know what you're doing and you have to be able to adjust. I think that's the fun part, playing in a competitive league like this every night, you're playing a tough team and it's a test to come away with wins and prove you're capable of doing it."

By Quarter
Archbishop Wood:  8   |  13  |  19  |  19  ||  59
Archbishop Ryan:  16  |   9   |  17  |  10  ||  52

Scorers
AW: Justin Moore 18, Mike Knouse 15, Bahsil Laster 14, Tyson Allen 5, Jalil Bethea 5, Carson Howard 2

AR: Thomas Sorber 29, Darren Williams 12, Luke Boyd 5, Michael Paris 4, Jalen Snead 2


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