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Carroll boys silence La Salle in locking up PCL playoff berth

02/11/2022, 11:45pm EST
By Joseph Santoliquito

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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The Archbishop Carroll boys squad was facing a daunting group Friday night. Not only were the Patriots facing host La Salle in a critical late-season Catholic League contest, they were challenged by a cast of characters including SpongeBob SquarePants, Superman, a strutting Banana Man, Star Wars storm troopers, a few Tom Cruises from Top Gun, a couple of pinstriped convicts and one crazy nun.

It was “Silent Night” at La Salle, where the crowd stays silent until the home team reaches 10 points and then erupts.

A crowd dressed in various costumes cheers in the stands

La Salle's crowd had a different look on Friday night. (Photo: Joseph Santoliquito/CoBL)

Carroll’s Moses Hipps and Dean Coleman-Newsome proudly called themselves the silencers, after combining for 45 points in leading the Pats to a surprising 72-66 victory.

It was a crucial game for Carroll, which locked in a spot in the PCL playoffs by moving to 5-7 in the league (12-8 overall), while La Salle, led by Horace Spencer’s 20, along with 18 each from Sam Brown and Nix Varano, fell to 14-7 overall and 7-5 in the league.

It’s probably the best Carroll has played all season—and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Carroll coach Francis Bowe felt this surge would arrive, and the direct spark came at halftime in the Pats’ previous game against Father Judge. An epiphany took place, when assistant coach Mike Richards blurted out “Believe!”

“That really seemed to wake us up, and we all came alive,” said Coleman-Newsome, a junior who dropped 19 and missed all of last season recovering from surgery on both knees, one in October 2020 and the other in January 2021. “We started trusting each other and Coach Mike brings every day, and we all started looking at each other.”

Bowe also noticed that about the game, too.

“No one’s heads were down,” he said. “I remember the whole coaching staff congregating and saying, ‘There’s an edge coming.‘”

Carroll beat Judge.

The Pats followed that by beating La Salle in a very hostile environment.

“We’re the silencers and we were having fun,” said Hipps, a smooth 6-foot-3 sophomore who scored a game-high 26, including nailing five of seven from three-point range and closing out La Salle with six made free throws in the closing minutes “This is great for our playoff chances. I think this is the best we’ve played this season. We kept our composure when La Salle made its run.

Dean Coleman-Newsome and Moses Hipps stand in a locker room

Dean Coleman-Newsome (4) and Moses Hipps (0) combined for 45 points to quiet La Salle on "Silent Night." (Photo: Joseph Santoliquito/CoBL)

“What was happening in the beginning of the season was easily getting down on ourselves. We believe in each other and our chemistry really helped us.”

Carroll trailed once, 7-5, and once La Salle reached 10, off a Brown three-pointer, Bowe made sure he immediately called a timeout as the La Salle exploded in sound.

“That was the plan to call out,” Bowe said. “I told the guys we have to settle down. I told them that they know how to play basketball. Imagine as if there is nobody here, or if there are a 1,000 people here, just go back to doing what we do best, turning the clock and playing defense.”

The jacked-up La Salle crowd seemed to do more stirring Carroll up than that did rousing its home team. By halftime, Carroll led 41-25 on 15-of-30 shooting, while La Salle was 10-of-25 and struggling.

With 3:24 left in the third, Carroll’s lead was up to 51-29.

Gradually, La Salle whittled away, led primarily by Simmons, who shouldered the comeback with 13 of his team-high 20 in the fourth quarter. The Explorers got within six, but that came with less than a minute to play.

Hipps silenced the crowd with four free throws in the last 19 seconds.

“I had surgery in both knees and you get some doubts about playing again or not, but you learn to push them aside and keep working,” Coleman-Newsome said. “In the past couple of nights, we’ve mentally came together. Beating Father Judge was a big week, but this was the best game we’ve played this season.

“Their crowd helped us. We didn’t let anything on the outside affect us. We celebrated afterward, too. We’ll call that giddy-up night.”

By Quarter
Archbishop Carroll: 22 | 19 | 16 | 15 || 72
La Salle: 14 | 11 | 15 | 26 || 66

Scoring
Archbishop Carroll: Moses Hipps 26, Dean Coleman-Newsome 19, Shawnn Smith 13, Harold Ivery 4, Seamus Rogers 4, Jake West 3, Sal Monastero 3
La Salle: Horace Simmons 20, Sam Brown 18, Nix Varano 18, Ryan Sorge 6, Chris Williams 4

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.


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