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PIAA Class 4A: Wright powers Neumann-Goretti past BeCaHi

03/16/2022, 1:00am EDT
By Jerome Taylor

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)

READING – Robert Wright III got off to a slow start in the quarterfinal of the 2022 state tournament, and it made his head coach contemplate a difficult decision. 

Earlier in the week, Wright III banged knees with a teammate during practice and the effects of the collision appeared to be lingering early on. 

“There’s no structural damage, but he’s really sore,” Neumann-Goretti head coach Carl Arrigale said. “It looked to me like he wasn’t moving around real well at the start of the game, and I almost was gonna take him out.” 


Robert Wright III (above, in Feb.) had 20 points as Neumann-Goretti advanced to the Class 3A state semifinals. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Luckily for the Saints, Arrigale and Wright had a conversation on the bench and not only did the sophomore stay in, but he took off.

“He’s too young and too good to try and put him at risk. But he told me he was okay,” Arrigale said,  “I said, ‘Well if you’re okay then you gotta play harder, you can’t be out there playing afraid.’ Thank god he played.”

On Tuesday, Wright’s 20 points powered the Saints to a 53-42 victory over Bethlehem Catholic in the PIAA 4A quarterfinal matchup. 

Wright hadn’t scored a point in the first quarter of the game, and the Saints (20-4) trailed 13-11 to open the second frame. And that’s when the second-year guard got to work. 

He finished with eight second-quarter points while going 2-2 from 3-point territory, which matched his class-and-backcourt mate Khaafiq Myers

While Wright was finding his footing in the first quarter, Myers was red-hot to start the game scoring the Saint’s first eight points, and he also was 2-2 from deep. 

He’s a great player, great point guard, he can get people involved,” Wright said about Myers “he can score, he can shoot the ball well, he’s a great overall player.”

“They’re good together, they kinda get each other, and when one guy needs a rest, the other guy gets to it,” Arrigale said.  “‘Fiq got out of the gates pretty good for us, and they’re a tough duo.”

Myers’ first-quarter scoring wouldn’t be enough, however, after Bethlehem Catholic’s Ryan Glassmacher hit a deep buzzer-beater three to give the Golden Hawks (21-6) the lead at the end of the first quarter. The Kutztown commit finished with 11 points and four rebounds, though his buzzer-beater would be the last time the Golden Hawks, who were the top seed from District 11,  would play with the lead. 

“We were all just saying ‘stay together, play as a team,’ we knew we were the better team, so we just had to go out here and show it,” Wright said.

After Wright’s second-quarter scoring outburst, the Saints took a 25-22 halftime lead into the locker room; in the second half, their defense hit another gear. 

Our guys thought they were playing defense in the first half, just because the other team didn’t score a lot of points, Arrigale said. “But they were real comfortable, I thought. The ball swung pretty much side to side pretty easily; we didn’t take anything away.”

In the third quarter, the Saint’s defense was more to Arrigale’s liking as they held Scott McClary’s team to just six points in the quarter. The Saints were able to force the issue, and the Golden Hawks looked sped up. 

The Saints began to switch more aggressively and disrupted the Golden Hawks' plan to play a more half-court game. And any shots that BeCaHi got in the paint were contested by junior Sultan Adewale, who finished the game with eight points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. 

In the fourth quarter, on the back of Edixon Gomez (15 points), BeCaHi gave one more push to overcome the 4A juggernaut that is Neumann-Goretti. But Wright’s late-game scoring and foul-shooting kept the Golden Hawks at arm's distance. 

The first-team all-Catholic guard added eight more points (including 3-4 FTs) to his total in the game’s final frame.

Wright was a major catalyst in Arrigale capturing his 12th PCL championship, and Arrigale hopes this tournament run ends in his ninth state title. Especially after the tumultuous few years before this one. 

In 2020, the PIAA tournament wasn’t completed due to the coronavirus. In 2021, a player eligibility issue disqualified Neuman Goretti from competing for a state title. 

And after an exhausting end to the regular season, which included a stretch of six games in eight days before entering the PCL playoffs, Arrigale hopes this is the year the Saints bring a Hershey bar back to South Philly. 

“I’m proud of the guys cause they kinda handled some crazy stuff throughout the season. Hopefully, we’re good enough to make it to Hershey and close the deal,” Arrigale said. 

But before the Saints punch a ticket to “The Sweetest Place on Earth,” they’ll have to face Dallas, the top seed from District 2, in a semi-final matchup Friday at a time and place still to be determined.

“This tournament’s a grind ‘cause you’re all over the place, playing all these teams, and everybody wants to take a shot at the Big Bad Wolf,” Arrigale said. “We’re like the Big Bad Wolf of the tournament cause we’ve been winning and have had a lot of success. We’re everybody’s Super Bowl, and (the players) don’t understand it sometimes, but I think they’re getting it now.”

By Quarter
Neumann-Goretti:     11  |  14  |  14  |  14  ||  53
Bethlehem Catholic: 13  |   9   |   6   |  14  ||  42

Scoring
Neumann-Goretti: Wright III 20, Myers 10, Adewale 8, Hurst 7, Stewart 5, Smith 3

Bethlehem Catholic: Gomez 15, Cercado 12, Glassmacher 11, Vidal 2, Richardson 2


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