City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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WYNDMOOR — With 16.2 seconds remaining in regulation, Nix Varano went to the foul line for two shots to push La Salle’s lead to three.

What should’ve been a relatively routine end-of-game free-throw situation turned into a chaotic finish after Varano split the free throws, missing the second one. 

When the ball bounced off the rim, senior Sam Brown skied for the rebound, grabbing it at its apex. But on the way down, Archbishop Wood’s Tyson Allen gained simultaneous possession forcing a jump ball, giving the ball back to La Salle.

An irate John Mosco, who wanted an over-the-back call, picked up his second technical foul, and the Archbishop Wood head coach was ejected from the game. 

After Mosco left the gym, La Salle got two more free throws — which Varano drained — and possession because of the jump ball. 

When the smoke cleared, La Salle left their home floor victorious, defeating the first-place Vikings 66-61, handing them their first conference loss of the year. 

“Of course,” Varano said when asked if there was extra motivation heading into a matchup with the top-seeded team. “We look at them as our rivals because they're not too far from us, so it’s a game we always want to win.”

And even though the pair of free throws Varano split will get the most attention in this game, the Explorers' ability to knock down late-game free throws was pivotal in them securing the win as they went 15-17 from the charity stripe in the final frame. 

“When I go up there, I’m thinking I’ve practiced for this millions of times; it’s no big deal,” said Varano, who went 9-10 from the line in the fourth quarter.

Coming into the fourth quarter, the game was being dominated by Wood senior Justin Moore, who finished the game with 21 points and seven assists en route to scoring his 1,000th point as a high school basketball player.  The Drexel signee was able to get into the paint at will, his jumper was falling, and he was finding teammates for open shots as the Vikings ended the third quarter up 44-41.

But when Wood’s offense wasn’t running through Moore, Mike McKee’s team forced Wood (8-1 PCL, 12-5 overall) into contested jumpers that stopped falling in the fourth quarter. 

“They’re really hard to guard…Justin Moore is almost impossible to guard,” Varano said. “Our coaches just preached ‘force them to make tough twos.’” 

On the other end of the floor, La Salle (6-3 PCL, 13-5 overall) got significant contributions from seniors Varano (19 points), Brown (17 points) and junior Horace Simmons (17 points), as the three upperclassmen combined for 53 of La Salle’s 66 points. 

Simmons was effective early on for the Explorers, dropping nine first-half points, helping La Salle keep up with Moore and the Vikings offense. But his biggest shot came with 1:19 remaining in the fourth quarter, knocking down a baseline mid-range jumper to pull the game within two points. 

“I just got the ball in my spot and I was confident shooting the ball and I just let it go,” Simmons said.

Shortly after Simmons’ jumper, Varano drilled a three to give La Salle a 54-53 lead, causing Wood to call a timeout. 

“If I’m open, I’m letting it fly,” the West Point commit said. “I believe, in my ability, I’m pretty confident, if I’m open it’s going up.”

Things got worse for Wood during the stoppage because Mosco picked up his first technical. And after Nix hit both technical free throws,  the Vikings came out of the timeout down three points instead of one. 

Mosco’s technical fouls weren’t the only issue for Wood in the fourth quarter. The youthful Vikings struggled with ball security in the final frame, which kept La Salle in it. 

“They were running at us and doubling us and I was taking too long to make a play,” Moore said. “We’ve got to start coming to the ball more.

“We went back to the locker room, everyone was a good mad… when we got back to the locker room we talked about all the stuff we need to work on as a team, and that’s how we bounce back and come back strong.” 

After falling to the Explorers, the Vikings still sit atop the PCL but now have the same amount of losses as Roman and West Catholic; Wood beat Roman earlier this year and are scheduled to face West Catholic next Friday. Their opportunity to bounce back from this loss will come on Sunday when they take on St Joe’s Prep.

This was a bounce-back win for the Explorers after losing to Neumann-Goretti on Wednesday.  Now, after starting league play 0-2, they’ve won six of their last seven PCL matchups and have a little momentum heading into the final game of this difficult Goretti-Wood-Roman stretch when they take on the Cahilites on Monday. 

“I feel like we’ve been playing more confidently, and more as a unit,” Simmons said. “And that’s just leading to us being more successful.”  

By Quarter
La Salle:        19  |  15  |   7   |  25  ||  66
Arch. Wood:  18  |  13  |  13  |  17  ||  61

Scoring
La Salle: Varano 19, Brown 17, Simmons 17, Williams 5, Sorge 3, Shields 3

Archbishop Wood: Moore 21, Knouse 13, Howard 8, Laster 6, Bethea 6, Allen 5, Reed 3