City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
__

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA — Robert Wright III is no stranger to clutch. 

He hit a game-winner the first time he suited up in a Neumann-Goretti uniform.

In now his third season at the varsity level, the junior guard has plenty of late-game heroics on his resume. 

Though there was no iconic shot to put in the memory bank, Wright's performance on Friday night would certainly fall into the clutch category.

Wright spearheaded Neumann-Goretti to a 57-56 comeback win over West Catholic. He scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, including four free throws in the final 30 seconds that delivered the Saints a Philadelphia Catholic League win.

“It’s really just to stay locked in,” Wright said of his mindset late in games. “I got in foul trouble early, so I knew when I came back in I had to bring a spark, play defense, get the team involved and just do what I do.”

Friday’s contest pitted two of the preseason favorites in the PCL against each other early in league play. The gym was packed with spectators piling up around the corners and baselines. 

The looked-forward to guard matchup between Wright and West Catholic senior guard Budd Clark, who finished with 21 points, stole the show. Neumann-Goretti (8-1, 2-0) held a 13-10 lead after a quarter, but with Wright in foul trouble in the second quarter, Clark and the Burrs (5-6, 1-1) took advantage. He had eight points, three assists and two steals in the period to help West Catholic to a 33-24 halftime lead.

The Burrs grew their lead to double digits in the third quarter, but a strong run by the Saints to end the period closed the gap to five, 44-39. Wright made up for lost time in the third period with 10 points in the quarter, and senior forward Sultan Adewale (nine points) was a force in the period as well with five points, five boards and a block.

Neumann-Goretti crept within two early in the fourth, but a pair of Zion Stanford buckets expanded the Burrs’ lead to six, 52-46. The breathing room didn't last long. A three plus the foul by Wright turned momentum with 2:30 to play and three free throws by senior Bruce Smith pulled the Saints within one, 55-54, with 1:35 left. 

“It made the crowd go crazy, made the place go crazy and I think it got them real scared,” Wright said of his three.

The Burrs were content to work the ball around and chew the clock before taking a shot with about 30 seconds left that went off the back of the rim.

Wright grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball up the floor, earning a trip to the line. His 22nd and 23rd points of the night put the Saints ahead 56-55 with 23.7 seconds left. 

Clark tried to find an answer for West Catholic but N-G junior Amir Williams slid in to take the charge on the drive.

“We’ve been talking about taking charges, have been practicing it a little bit,” Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale said. “For Amir Will to step in and take that big charge, he’s one of the guys who doesn’t step in all the time and take them and we’ve been getting on him. For him to do that in a big situation, it was really big for us and him. … It won the game for us.”

Wright sunk another pair of clutch free throws with 6.5 ticks on the clock to put the Saints up by three. Clark came back down the court and got a desperation three off at the buzzer that looked like it had a chance to go in — instead he was fouled and given three free throws for a chance to tie. The first two went through the net, but the third hit the front of the rim leading to a Saints celebration.

“You gotta close out games, you gotta know time and score,” West Catholic coach Miguel Bocachica said. “Things like that, things that you can go back, watch film and hopefully learn from.”

“Broken plays, simple missed assignments, things like that,” he added. “You gotta ice the cake. You can’t be up nine and be comfortable. Those are the type of things you learn in a game like this.”

The Saints came back from an impressive four wins at the Iolani Prep Classic  in mid-December a little banged up. Junior guard Khaafiq Myers played through an injury on Friday. They fell to Rutgers Prep (N.J.) for their first loss of the season to conclude the 2022 part of their schedule. Wright said the team learned it needed to play harder after that one.

Neumann-Goretti bounced back with a win over Bonner on Tuesday and though it wasn’t pretty, Friday night’s victory was a big one as well.

“We’re starting to understand we’re a big game for everybody and we get a lot of teams’ best punch,” Arrigale said. “We’re not shooting it great right now, so we're kind of scrapping and finding our way.”

“I feel like we kind of stole one tonight because we haven’t played our best,” he added.

The Burrs walked away from Friday night knowing they let an opportunity slip away. They also once again proved the West Catholic program is a long way from where it once was.

“We can’t forget where we came from,” Bocachica said. “For us to play Neumann, there was once a time when no one was in the gym. They knew Neumann was gonna blow us out or Neumann was gonna win the game. Now, every time we step into a gym it’s a game. The crowd comes out. People want to watch us play and we’re still kind of adjusting to who we’ve been becoming but it’s just one game at a time for us. Obviously it’s super disappointing, but it will be a great film to watch and a great experience to learn from.”

“This ones gonna hurt, but you sleep on it tonight, you wake up tomorrow and you prepare for La Salle. That’s our league.”

By Quarter

West Catholic:  10   |  23  |  11  |  12  ||  56

Neumann-Goretti:  13  |  11  |  15  |  18  ||  57

Scoring

West Catholic: Budd Clark 21, Zion Stanford 12, Amyr Walker 8, Shemar Wilbank-Acqui 7, MJ Branker 4

Neumann-Goretti: Robert Wright III 25, Sultan Adewale 9, Amir Williams 7, Bruce Smith 7, Khaafiq Myers 6, Stephon Ashley-Wright 3.