City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WEST CHESTER -- The whole thing really started by happenstance. Matt Mayock looked at a pile of practice jerseys last year and wanted to be respectful. He had just transferred into Westtown School from Conestoga and he didn’t want to steal any of the returning starters’ jersey numbers, so he thought he would pick the most random number he could find.

One of the few remaining jerseys left happened to be No. 33. The 6-foot-7 Mayock thought, why not? So, he took on No. 33. The Westtown Moose also happen to have power blue jerseys, the same color as Indiana State. Put that together with a rail-thin kid with shaggy dirty-blonde hair with a penchant for nailing three-pointers and it’s inevitable what Mayock heard, right?

“Oh, I get it all of the time, every time I touch the ball, the crowd yells ‘Larry Bird,’ it’s pretty cool,” Mayock said.

Mayock looked like he was channeling the former Boston Celtics all-time great Tuesday night, hitting six three-pointers and finishing with a career-best 20 points in leading Westtown to an impressive 63-40 victory over visiting George School.

Quin Berger ended with 12 points and Duke-bound star Dereck Lively II added 10 for Westtown, which is 21-6 overall and 8-0 in the Moose’s quest for an eighth-straight Friends League championship. Gestin Liberis led George School with 14, and Christian Bliss chipped in with 10 for the Cougars (13-3, 5-2).

“It was a great feeling tonight, I could just feel as the ball left my hands that it was going down,” Mayock said. “I didn’t hear any of the Bird thing tonight, maybe because I was in a zone. But the whole thing is by accident, because I took 33 since no one else wanted it.”

No major schools have given Mayock an offer yet, though he is getting attention from Ivy League and Patriot League schools. If he continues to have games like he did on Tuesday, the offers will surely come pouring in.

“Matt is just scratching the surface of how good he can be,” Westtown coach Seth Berger said. “He is obviously an elite shooter. He is just starting to become confident with all of the things he can do with a basketball. He has really started to pick up his defense and rebounding. He is starting to understand how good he can be.”

It marked a nice victory for the Moose. This was a season in which ANC and George School had a chance to challenge the traditional Friends League powerhouse.

“I remember when I first started coaching in the Friends League, and I remember when we played ANC at one point and there were four Big East commits and nine Division I players on the court when we started,” said Berger, who is in his 15th season coaching Westtown. “The Friends League is starting to get back to that level.

“[George School coach] Ben [Luber] does a great job, and I still believe Westtown, George School and ANC, any of the three of us can win the league and win states this year.”

It was Senior Night at Westtown and the Moose made sure that it would be a memorable one. Westtown never trailed, getting off to a 12-3 start after the first quarter. The Cougars shot 1-for-11 and turned the ball over five times in the first quarter.

“We dug ourselves a hole in that first quarter, and it was great to be in this atmosphere, but Westtown’s a very, very good basketball team and Seth does a great job, but it was the first quarter that did us in,” Luber said. “I’m really proud of Gestin Liberis, he fought Lively, the No. 1 player in the country, until the end and he’s a senior.

“I thought Gestin held his own. I think our team kind of needed this. I would like to see Westtown again, but we’re going to have to find our way there, too, to get that opportunity again.”

Lively thought this was a statement game.

“It’s the battle mentality in the Friends League and just being able to know that everyone is looking at Westtown and thinking that they can compare their team to Westtown basketball, this sets the tone that they really can’t,” Lively said. “The world is going to really realize who Matt Mayock is. He’s one of the best shooters I know. When his confidence is high and he lets the ball go, no one can stop him.

“This was a statement game. This sets the tone that we’re here to play.”

By Quarter
George School:  3  |  13  |  16  |   8   ||  40
Westtown:         12  |  21  |  11  |  19  ||  63

Scoring
George School: Gestin Liberis 14, Christian Bliss 10, Dante Weise 8, Kachi Nzeh 4, Kyle Anderson 4

Westtown: Matt Mayock 20, Quin Berger 12, Dereck Lively II 10, Jameel Brown 8, Seyphon Triplett 7, Wade Chiddick 3, Kevin Kang 3

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.