City of Basketball Love

Sam Istvan (@sistvan_14)
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In their final game before embarking on a grueling five game Catholic League gauntlet in six days, Neumann-Goretti flashed both their sky-high potential and the rust and inexperience they still have to work through to reach that potential.

For the majority of the game, Neumann Goretti exerted their will on a physically overmatched O’Hara team. They played suffocating defense, turning up the heat on their opponents in an already sweltering gymnasium and forcing 11 first half O’Hara turnovers. 

The Saints are laden with quick, strong guards who get out in transition and rim-running bigs. They used that to their advantage early on, turning several O’Hara turnovers into lay-ups and wide open transition threes on the other end. They led by as much as 22 half way through the third quarter, poised to run away with the game.

“For two-and-a-half quarters it was really good,” Saints head coach Carl Arrigale said. “They did everything that we’ve been asking them to do.”

Then, the tide took an unexpected turn. O’Hara fought back furiously. Junior Izaiah Pasha and sophomore Hunter Johnson led the Lions back, making a game out of what appeared to be headed for a blowout. A three from Pasha trimmed the lead to just eight early in the fourth quarter, bringing the visiting O’Hara crowd to life.

“We need to know how to control leads,” Saints 6-foot-8 junior forward Sultan Adewale said. “We’re still immature. We still think, let’s just say we have a 10-point lead, we’re slacking off. That’s what makes (Arrigale) really angry, is us being immature.”

Neumann-Goretti, suddenly in a tightly competitive game, relied on the play of their sophomore point guard Robert Wright III (12 points in the fourth quarter), as well as the steady hand of their most experienced player, senior Masud Stewart (18 points) to hold off the charging Lions, 76-67, improving to 6-2 in the PCL.

We’ve gotta be more like the first two-and-a-half quarters than the last quarter-and-a-half,” Arrigale said. “We’ve got it in us but sometimes, we’ve got two fifteen-year olds handling the ball for us and they haven’t seen a lot.”

Letting O’Hara back in the game in that last quarter and a half cost the Saints an opportunity to grab much-needed rest for their starters in the midst of a busy schedule, as they remained on the court for all 32 minutes with the outcome still in doubt.

That busy schedule means Arrigale’s team will need to figure out a way to put a full game together and then some in a hurry. Due to a weeks-long COVID pause in early January, they have a stacked schedule ahead of them, as they begin a slate of five games over six days on Tuesday, including three games against PCL heavyweights. 

“It is what it is,” Arrigale said. “We can’t keep harping on it, or making excuses. It’s better than the alternative which is not playing. It’s just frustrating it didn’t really happen to anybody else the way it happened to us. We’re still learning who we are and what we’re about. Some teams have already figured that stuff out. We’re kinda figuring some stuff out on the fly.”

An 11-time Catholic League champion, Arrigale has led his team past plenty of challenges over his thirty years as a coach. Yet, he remarked that he has never faced a challenge quite like the one presented by the packed schedule that awaits his team. 

“It’s really just the weirdness of the whole thing,” Arrigale said. “We feel like we’re still early in our season but the playoffs are in two weeks. It’s really just a weird feeling when you start to talk about it.”

“I do a lot of referring back to certain things and I said I’ve got no reference point for this,” he added. “We’re doing this for the first time together. We can either handle it one way, or another way. We can embrace the challenge or we can whine about it and fold under it. So hopefully we’re gonna embrace the challenge and be at our best.

Arrigale has his eyes set on a top-4 finish and a quarterfinal home playoff game in a few weeks, but with Devon Prep (6-3), Archbishop Ryan (7-3), and Archbishop Wood (8-1) all looming, the Saints have their work cut out for them. 

“We’re all getting ready to meet that challenge,” Wright III said, “because (Arrigale) is really getting on us in practice, making sure that we are ready for these next games because it’s gonna be tough.”

“We need to be prepared,” Adewale said about the Saints’ upcoming flurry of games. “We need to come in with the right attitude, sleep well, eat well. We just need to forget this game and get on with the next step. Short memory, that’s what (Arrigale) says.”

The unprecedented upcoming stretch that awaits Neumann-Goretti will be a stiff test of the Saints’ physical and mental mettle. Arrigale hopes to instill the toughness and the mindset that his team needs to navigate the turbulence ahead.

“We’re just gonna try to attack it with some passion and energy,” Arrigale said. “We talk about trying to embrace the grind. Well, this is the grind.”

By Quarter
Neumann-Goretti:   15 | 22 | 16 | 23 || 76
Cardinal O’Hara:      9  | 13 | 18 | 27 || 67

Shooting
Neumann-Goretti: 26-60 FG (5-15 3PT), 20-28 FT
Cardinal O’Hara: 24-47 FG (8-19 3PT), 11-21 FT

Scoring
Neumann-Goretti: Wright III 19, Stewart 18, Adewale 13, Hurst 13, Myers 9, Williams 4

Cardinal O’Hara: Pasha 26, Johnson 21, Coulanges 9, Harris 5, McGinn 3, Cervellero 3