City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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CHESTER — Matt Bloom was about to drive his heel through the cinderblock walls in the bowels of Widener University’s Schwartz Athletic Complex on Wednesday night.

The Rutgers Prep coach just saw his team lose to Cardinal O’Hara 73-53 in the Pete & Jameer Nelson Play-By-Play Classic and he knew his team was better than that—far better than that. What loomed a few nights later was national-caliber Neumann-Goretti next, coming off the Iolani Classic tournament championship in Hawaii.

Bloom winced at the possibilities.

Instead, what he received was a signature victory in his six-year tenure at Rutgers Prep, when the Argonauts pulled off a shocking 69-55 upset over the previously undefeated Saints in the final game of the Pete & Jameer Nelson Play-By-Play Classic on Friday night.

The Argonauts (5-2) were led by Marist-bound 6-foot-1 senior guard Jadin Collins, who dropped in a game-high 26 points with help from 6-7 junior John Kelly’s 15 points, 6-4 sophomore Myles Parker’s 11 and 10 from 6-foot senior guard Jordy Atkins.

“We’ve had a couple of big wins over teams like Neumann-Goretti in the past, but the feeling is this is one of the biggest wins in our program’s history,” Bloom said. “I’m super proud of the effort of our guys. We had an injury in the first half to our senior guard, Cam Piggee, and other guys stepped up. We won that one for Cam.

“Jordin really took control and made plays when he had to and gave a lot of energy. We lost to O’Hara 73-53 a few nights ago, and I knew we were better than that. We know the level that we’re capable of playing. It’s high school basketball. Some days are good, and some days are bad.

“We were ready today.”

The Argonauts were.

The game was tied once early in the second half, 31-31, and Rutgers Prep took off after that.

Rutgers Prep got a little something from everyone.

The catalyst, however, was Collins, whose 26 points arrived on 11 of 16 shooting. He made his first four shots, and four of five from the floor in the second half before fouling out with 3:18 to play and the Argonauts holding a 61-48 lead.

“We all took this personally, because my junior summer, we played them in Philly and they beat us by a good amount, so this wasn’t just personal for me, this was personal for our whole team,” Collins said. “We took what we did the other night (against O’Hara) and we turned that around. If we do this every single game, I don’t think anyone can beat us.

“If we do what we do, ball movement, effort, energy, the second-efforts, which are all of the things that we didn’t do against Cardinal O’Hara, this is the result.”

Neumann-Goretti (6-1) was playing without its 6-8 senior center Sultan Adewale, who was in England for the death of his mother.

But the Saints’ exceptional junior backcourt of Baylor-bound guard Robert Wright III and Khaafiq Myers was there, combining for 38 of Neumann-Goretti’s 55 points.
It just seemed at times Wright and Myers were forcing drives, dribbling into a congested lane and taking uncharacteristic ill-advised shots in the middle of two and sometimes three defenders.     

“Not having Sultan was big, but that’s no excuse and I saw this coming a few days ago,” Saints’ legendary coach Carl Arrigale said. “I have a lot of experience, if I have anything. I don’t know what that means, but I knew tonight was going to be a struggle.

“With players like Robert, anything is possible, so if we kept it tight, we thought we could pull it out. We didn’t play like ourselves. It wasn’t who we are and what we stand for. We had some bad practices coming into this game. The ball didn’t move. We didn’t trust each other on either end of the floor and that’s a formula for losing. It’s not the way we choose to play.

“We’ll find out moving forward what our guys are made of. We’ll find out fast.”

The Argonauts went into halftime holding a 28-27 lead. Neither team played well in the first 16 minutes, with seven lead changes.

But there seemed to be a game within a game between Collins and Wright III.

The pair didn’t disappoint.

Collins had 14 at halftime on 6 of 11 shooting, while Wright dropped in 12, on 4 of 11 shooting. The largest difference between the teams in the first half was 5 points, an edge held by the Saints twice, 24-19 and 27-22, before Neumann-Goretti went cold from the floor going scoreless the remaining 2:59 of the half.

In the second half, the Saints had trouble covering the perimeter. Rutgers Prep scored 41 points in the second half, 15 points coming from three-point range to Neumann-Goretti’s lone three-pointer from Wright in the third quarter.

“I was tired, and we didn’t get a real practice in and it’s no excuse,” Wright said. “We weren’t into the game. No one was playing hard. We weren’t being ourselves. Credit to Rutgers Prep. They played way harder than us. They deserved it. This will help us a lot. It shows we have to come out every night playing our best and playing hard.”

By Quarter

Rutgers Prep (5-2):  14   | 14  |  21  | 20 ||  69

Neumann-Goretti (6-1):  14  | 13  |  14  |  14 ||  55

Scoring

Rutgers Prep: Jadin Collins 26, John Kelly 15, Myles Parker 11, Jordy Atkins 10, Cameron Piggee 3, Franklin Jones 2, Jon Nsenkyire 2.

Neumann-Goretti: Robert Wright III 21, Khaafiq Myers 17, Stephon Ashley-Wright 10, Bruce Smith 6, Matt Guokas 1.

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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