City of Basketball Love

Rob Rose (@RobRoseSports)
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At 20 points per game, Anthony McCall is comfortable being asked to score the ball for his Academy of the New Church squad. 

The Lions’ senior leads his team in scoring, but when the fourth quarter started, he was stuck on the bench due to foul trouble. With ANC up by two on George School with six minutes left, head coach Kevin Givens called on the senior to step back on the floor and close out the contest with postseason implications in the Friends School League.

“Coach told me, ‘Go, we gotta win this. We need this big game,’” McCall said. “Coach let me go out there and get it and give it my all.”

McCall definitely did all he could to get the win. The senior scored 10 straight points after he got on the court to close out the game with a 72-69 victory over George School.

He missed the first shot he took after he checked in, but McCall’s teammates told him to keep going. With their encouragement, the 6-foot-4 forward continued to drive toward the net and consistently finished against the Cougars’ talented front court of Kachi Nzeh (6-8) and Gestin Liberis (6-10).

“They said, ‘Go get them, you know they can't guard you, you're the best in the gym,’” McCall said. “Once they told me that, I knew it was go mode. Without my teammates, I think this win and the mindset wouldn’t have helped at all but thanks to them we got this thing.”

Givens said he’s seen a big change in McCall’s game and his physical frame since the summer. The senior is listed at 205 pounds and now leads the team in dunks, as well as points and rebounds per game.

McCall currently holds one offer from NCAA Division II West Chester, but after he shared the floor with three other players with NCAA D-I offers — Nzeh, George School’s Christian Bliss and ANC’s Elmarko Jackson — and took over in the clutch, Givens added it’s time for teams at college basketball’s top level to take notice of what McCall can do for their program.

“I'm sort of impressed by the way Ant is playing compared to last year,” Givens said. He's a whole different kid. He's tough, he's aggressive, he can shoot and he plays tough defense. He lost the baby fat, he's much more athletic, but his mentality, his mindset has changed and I think that's what makes him a D-I player.”

The Lions needed McCall to play the role of closer because the Cougars continued to claw their way back into the game. ANC opened with a strong start, but with McCall on the bench George School headed into halftime with a one-point lead.

The Cougars battled their own foul trouble issues with Nzeh stuck on the sideline for large parts of the game. Without Nzeh, Bliss was brilliant and kept his team close whenever ANC tried to pull away.

Bliss led everyone with 26 points and hit three times from beyond the arc. After McCall picked up his fourth foul with two minutes left in the third quarter, Bliss led a 9-2 run with Nzeh on the bench and beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to tie the game headed into the fourth quarter.

Nzeh and McCall came back in with six minutes left as both coaches chased the win at all costs. ANC controlled the lead during the fourth quarter, but George School got one chance to send the game to overtime.

Bliss ran down the floor as the final seconds ticked off the clock and drew a double team. He found junior Dante Weise open in the corner. The guard rose up to tie the game, but McCall quickly closed out on the shot and it bounced off the rim and the Cougars dropped their first game of 2022.

Givens told his team before the game how important it was for their season. After a road loss to Westtown last week, Tuesday’s game couldn’t be dropped or a first round rematch with the defending champions was all but certain.

Now that his team has played both teams with the talent to take the league title, McCall is confident his squad 

“Anybody that come in this gym and feel like they better than us, we're gonna prove that they not,” McCall said. “I feel like they could stack up, but I feel like when we approach it right and we all on the same page, nobody can really play with us and we proved that tonight.”

By Quarter

ANC: 19 | 17 | 17 | 19 || 72
GS:   11 |  26 | 16 | 16 || 69

Scoring

ANC: Anthony McCall 19, Gabe Harris 16, Isaiah Milien 14, Elmarko Jackson 10, Jarell Keel 8, Carson Bethea 3, Dylan Coq 2.

GS: Christian Bliss 26, Kachi Nzeh 15, Gestin Liberis 9, Kyle Anderson 8, Dante Weise 8, Evan Hefflefinger 3.