City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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RADNOR — Francis Bowe didn’t quite realize just what was going on in front of him.

The Archbishop Carroll coach was annoyed by his squad committing five early turnovers against Caravel Academy (Del.). So focused on the mistakes, that he wasn’t really thinking about each shot the Patriots were burying in the second quarter, at least right until the end, when a Seamus Rogers triple sent the crowd of a couple hundred people into a frenzy.

“I didn’t think much of it until (Rogers) hit the last one,” Bowe said. “When he hits the last one at the end of the quarter, I was like, ‘that’s special, I’ve never seen something like this.’

“I’ve seen dunks, I’ve seen Jalen Duren almost rip off our rim here and I’ve said ‘wow.’ That was one of my ‘wow’ moments.”

Carroll had one of the best offensive quarters you’ll see in a high school game, putting up 36 points in eight minutes — including 24 points in the four minutes before halftime — to run away to a 77-61 win over Caravel. 

It was an absolute onslaught of shot-making from Carroll (4-0), who got everybody in the top nine involved, seven of them scoring in the second quarter alone, to take a 54-26 lead on a good Caravel squad that couldn’t do much but watch. 

Four different players connected from deep, led by Rogers, a 6-foot-2 senior, who popped off the bench to hit all three triples he took during the stretch. The whole Carroll lineup was finding each other, the ball moving around the floor, open shooters galore; there were 15 first-half assists on 20 buckets, five different players with multiple dimes. 

They went 13-of-20 from the floor in that quarter, including 6-of-10 from 3-point range; for the first half, they were 20-of-32 from the floor, 10-of-17 from deep, 4-of-4 from the foul line. 

Read those numbers postgame, Bowe laughed.

“That’s wild,” he said. “That’s wild. Speechless. That’s wild. The way we were cheering, it felt like that.”

Carroll cooled off significantly after halftime, though not before pushing the advantage to 30, setting off the running clock. The shortened half helped the Patriots hold off a Buccaneers squad that got a terrific game from senior wing John Clemmons, who went for 34 points on 12-of-16 shooting (5-7 3PT, 5-8 FT), including 8-of-9 in the second half.

Rogers, still working his way back from a broken cuneiform bone in his left foot he suffered in late October, finished the game a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor (5-5 3PT), keeping up a terrific start to the season which has seen him go 12-for-15 from deep through the Patriots’ first four games. 

The Darby native came to Carroll out of St. Mary Magdalen in Media, liking what he saw at Carroll in visits to the school, seemed to think that the basketball team enjoyed playing for Bowe, then in his first year at Carroll. A two-sport athlete in middle school, he played freshman basketball as a ninth grader and baseball in the spring, then gave up baseball after a sophomore year where he played JV hoops, catching the attention of the coaching staff alongside classmate Blake Deegan, one of the Patriots’ starters.

“When they were sophomores, both of them were playing JV, and I was like alright, let’s see how this goes,” Bowe said. “And then they helped us towards the end of junior year, and now I don’t even blink twice, it’s like, just go in.”

This summer, after a strong summer with Pro Skills Philadelphia on the grassroots circuits, Rogers attracted the attention of multiple Division III programs: FDU-Florham (N.J.), Catholic (D.C.), Widener, Muhlenberg, Alvernia, and Susquehanna. 

He took visits to Florham, Muhlenberg and Susquehanna, but ultimately decided to commit to Susquehanna in October, getting his college decision done ahead of his senior year. He’ll join a program under longtime head coach Frank Marcinek, who’s won the last two Landmark Conference titles and made six NCAA Tournament appearances.

“I just loved it up there,” he said. “They had me up there for an overnight visit so I got to stay with the team, see what it was about, I was able to see their workouts and just what the whole team was about. They seemed like a close-knit team, they all work hard, they all seem like they had the same goal in mind — to win. I just loved it up there and I just decided to play with them.”

It helped that the River Hawks have a couple Delco connections on the team in guards Luke Edwards (Strath Haven) and Allen Cieslak (Devon Prep), a Havertown native. Rogers has known Edwards since elementary school, having played baseball with current Strath Haven guard Jack Edwards when they were younger.

“I’ve known (Luke) forever,” Rogers said. “He was a big part of it, he seems like he really loves it up there, he was talking to me about it a lot. He was definitely trying to sell it to me.”

At Carroll, Rogers is a valuable reserve on a team that plays three freshmen in its top eight, though they’re quite a group to watch. Ian Williams had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists against Caravel; Nasir Ralls (5 points, 2 assists) and Luca Foaster (5 points, 4 rebounds) both chipped in off the bench.

Rogers (above) is one of four seniors on the Carroll roster. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Sophomore guard Jake West also had a strong game against Caravel with 16 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor, with six assists and three rebounds; Dean Coleman-Newsome had 7 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals; Deegan (6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Su’Meer Alleyne (6 points), and Khair Dixon (4 points) rounded out the box score.

“We all love playing with each other, we kind of feed off of each other’s energy,” Rogers said. “We all look to find each other and we’re all happy to see other people hit shots and be successful.”

The Patriots have five games left until Catholic League play opens on Jan. 3 at home against St. Joe’s Prep, starting with a matchup against a tough Bishop McNamara (Md.) squad at Cristo Rey this Sunday as part of the Post & Pivot event. 

“We’re going to have a big test Sunday vs. Bishop McNamara, that should show us where we stand as a team,” Rogers said, “so we’re excited to keep going and get ready for PCL play.”

By Quarter
Carroll:    18  |  36  |  15  |   8   ||  77
Caravel:  11  |  15  |  20  |  15  ||  61

Shooting
Carroll: 30-52 FG (12-22 3PT), 5-6 FT
Caravel: 21-46 FG (5-18 3PT), 14-19 FT

Scoring
Carroll: Rogers 17, West 16, Williams 11, Coleman-Newsome 7, Alleyne 6, Deegan 6, Ralls 5, Foster 5, Dixon 4

Caravel: Clemmons 34, White 14, Webster 10, Black 2, Wyatt 1