City of Basketball Love

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
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In comparison to Jalil Bethea’s previous PIAA playoff performance, his team-high 13 points in Archbishop Wood’s 56-54 PIAA Class 6A semifinal win seem modest.

In the 74-47 quarterfinal victory over North Hills, Bethea went 11-for-12 from 3 for 37 points to lead the Vikings into the semifinals against the District 7 champ Fox Chapel.

“Coming into the game, I just wanted to do the same thing,” Bethea said. “But you know when you make all of those 3s, teams switch their defense up. I had to change it up a little bit and go off-ball, move around a little bit more.”

The score wasn’t nearly as lopsided this time, and Bethea didn’t hit as many 3s or score nearly as many points, yet his three made foul shots with 51.3 seconds left that gave the District 12 third-place Vikings (21-7) their fourth and final lead of the game might’ve been the most important points he’s scored in all of the state playoffs.

“Just stay focused, don’t worry about the crowd,” Bethea said on the three clutch foul shots. “Don’t let anybody distract me. Just shoot the free throws.”

The Foxes’ (27-2) last-ditch effort from 3 clanked off the back iron and Archbishop Wood came away with the win Saturday evening at Chambersburg High School to move onto the title game against District 12 champion Roman Catholic.

The Vikings head back to the PIAA final for the second consecutive season with a chance to atone for a 58-57 loss to Reading last year.

The Foxes' executed a perfect game plan to counteract the Vikings’ high-powered offense by bogging the game down and getting good shots off ball movement and backdoor cuts to the basket.

Fox Chapel senior Jake DeMotte scored 16 points in the first half and hit four 3-pointers, doing his best Bethea impression, and Fox Chapel held leads of 14-11 after the first and 29-22 at halftime. 

Archbishop Wood head coach John Mosco felt the Foxes took advantage of their aggressive defense in the first half and made adjustments to have the 6-foot-7 big Carson Howard help more on defense while having the offense be more inside-out than one-on-one.

In the second half, Justin Moore started things off with a personal 5-0 run. Bethea hit a trey with 4:01 left in the third quarter to give the Vikings their first lead at 34-32 since being up 2-0. After Moore tipped in his own miss as time expired in the third, it was knotted at 40.

The Foxes started the fourth on a 6-0 run and seemed up to the task of keeping the PCL power at bay; the Vikings immediately fought back to cut the lead to 47-44. 

Then the senior leader Moore fouled out with 4:44 remaining.

“We’ve been through wars,” Mosco said. “It’s a marathon. It’s hard. You got to stay together. Teams that get too high and teams that get too low lose. Teams that stay even, or try to stay even for the most part win the game. I think we stayed together, especially in the second half. We were a little lethargic to start the game.”

The Vikings outscored the Foxes 12-7 with Moore on the bench. Wood was down 54-52 until Howard drew a crucial charge call on Fox Chapel star Eli Yofan with 1:31 left. Bethea then hit all three of his foul shots, Howard forced a Foxes’ turnover, and Bahsil Laster hit one of two foul shots.

But it wasn’t over as Fox Chapel and DeMotte had one last great look from three that ultimately went long.

Along with Bethea’s 13, Moore, Howard and Tyson Allen each contributed nine points for Archbishop Wood; DeMotte had 19, Yofan 15 and J.P. Dockey 10 for Fox Chapel.

“We’re not a one-man team so we got other people we can distribute to in the game,” Bethea said. “It feels good. That was a stressful game. I’m just happy we came away with the win.”

By Quarter

Archbishop Wood: 11 | 11 | 18 | 16 || 56
Fox Chapel:           14 | 15 | 11 | 14 || 54

Scoring

Archbishop Wood: Jalil Bethea 13, Justin Moore 9, Tyson Allen 9, Carson Howard 9, Bahsil Laster 8, Josh Reed 6, Mike Knouse 2.

Fox Chapel: Jake DeMotte 19, Eli Yofan 15, J.P. Dockey 10, Russell Fenton 6, Colin Kwiatkowski 2, Jefferson Moorefield-Brown 2.