City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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WARMINSTER — Michael Green was calm, collected, almost stoic, and absolutely indispensable.

The Archbishop Wood sophomore never knows what his given role will be from game-to-game coming off the bench for the Vikings or how much time he’ll get on the floor. With Wood struggling on both ends early in Saturday night’s game with North Catholic in the finale of the Diane Mosco Foundation Shootout, the Vikings needed someone to get out there and get moving.

Green did just that, coming through in a major way in Wood’s fourth-quarter comeback that erased an eight-point deficit and ended with a 78-69 win over the Trojans.

“I come off the bench, so I’m just looking to do the best thing I can for my team,” the 6-foot guard said. “I found it in the early part of my game with my shot and I just kept letting it go.”

Green let it go to the tune of 16 pivotal points that included four 3-point makes and half his total coming in the deciding final frame. As a freshman at Wood last year, Green played a mix of freshman and JV ball and made it a goal to have a role on the varsity team this season.

The Vikings couldn’t have scripted a much more dispiriting start on Saturday. North Catholic came out scorching, hitting their first six threes and dropping a 27-spot on Wood, while the hosts couldn’t seem to buy a basket early.

When Green was first subbed in, the coaches told him to help get the ball moving.

“Defensively we weren’t closing out hard enough, they weren’t missing but you’ve gotta get out on them, rattle them so they stop making them,” Green said. “We weren’t scoring a lot because we weren’t moving a lot. 

“Once we started moving more and playing with each other, we need to work on that the most, but once we worked together it started to come.”

Wood fought an uphill battle most of the game, but a 9-0 run in the second quarter that included Green’s first trey helped get the lead back to single digits briefly. North Catholic kept playing a game of cat-and-mouse through the second and third frames, every time Wood got with six to four points, the Trojans bagged two scores in a row to stay a pace ahead.

“We had to change our intensity,” Wood guard Josh Reed said. “We were flat in the first quarter, we took them for granted, I think they looked a little small and they jumped on us. We picked up, I thought, and got back into it.”

Reed was excellent throughout, scoring a team-high 18 points while adding five steals and really getting down and guarding late in the game to stymie an otherwise effective North Catholic offense.

Wood entered the fourth down 58-50, but opened the frame on a 7-0 run kicked off by a Green three and ended by a Reed basket to get within one. Bethea, who had seven of his 13 in the fourth, hit a three a few possessions later to tie it 60-60 with 5:13 to go.

Andrew Maddalon, a force offensively for the Trojans with 28 points, split a pair at the foul line to put North Catholic back up. On the next possession, Wood’s Milan Dean attacked the basket off the right side, only spotting Green open up top at the last second and winging a hard pass out to the sophomore shooter.

“I saw I was open and I just let it go,” Green said of his ensuing three, which gave Wood its first lead at 63-61. “I wasn’t thinking about it that much. I had a lot of adrenaline but there was a lot of game left.”

Green buried another key shot, hitting a three off a pass by Reed for a 70-66 lead with 1:53 to play. The sophomore also knocked down two foul shots for a five-point lead with 40 seconds left, putting the hosts in position to pull off the comeback win.

“It’s a huge boost,” Reed said of Green’s impact Saturday. “He’d been struggling to start the season but this was his breakout game, I think. He’s only a sophomore, he’s going to get better over time and bring more for us.”

Green was happy with his performance, but stayed level about it at the same time. He knows some games will be like Saturdays and others, his role will be a little more limited.

That’s life as a bench player and no matter what, it’s a role he’s set up for.

“Regardless, I’m always going to cheer for my team,” Green said. “If I’m in, then I’m going to play as hard as I can and if I’m not, I’m cheering for the guys out there.”

By Quarter

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 15 | 15 | 20 | 28 || 78

NORTH CATHOLIC 27 | 10 | 21 | 11 || 69

Scoring
AW: Josh Reed 18, Michael Green 16, Jalil Bethea 13, Gus Salem 10, Carson Howard 8, Deuce Maxey 7, Milan Dean 6, Ihsan Beyah 2

NC: Andrew Maddalon 28, Max Hurray 18, Matt Ellery 11, Max Rottman 5, Jason Siket 3, Nick Larson 2