City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Delaney Finnegan’s impact on a game can be deceiving if you only look at the box score. At least, if you only look at one side of the box score. For it’s not her points that she cares about: it’s those of whoever she’s guarding.

The Archbishop Wood senior wing is a two-year starter and four-year varsity player for the Vikings, helping them to the 2022 PIAA Class 5A state championship, but it’s not because the 5-foot-10 wing is a terrific scorer or the best athlete on the roster. It’s because she makes life miserable for whoever she’s tasked with defending. 

“Honestly, since like travel basketball in fourth grade, it’s always been something [I’ve focused on],” she said. “I’ve always been really aggressive and just forced myself to have a mentality: they can’t score on me; if anyone scores on me, I’ll immediately feel bad about myself and be extra-aggressive next time.”

“She doesn’t get the recognition she deserves a lot of the time because it’s defense,” Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “But if you go back to all the games where she’s matched up [against] their leading scorer, their field goals are one or one in the game, when she’s matched up against her. And it’s everybody.

“We’ve had her against some of the best players in the country, and it’s like we don’t have to think about that matchup, because alright, that takes care of that,” he added. “She’s the X-factor, she’s game-changing that way for us. I can’t give her enough recognition.”

In Archbishop Wood’s 55-26 win over Manasquan (N.J.) on Sunday at Jefferson University, part of the 15-game Blue Star High School Invitational showcase event, it was ‘Squan junior guard Hope Masonius who drew the unfortunate card of having Finnegan assigned to her all game. 

Masonius, a 5-9 guard with more than a half-dozen Division I offers, including from Big East and Atlantic 10 programs, was utterly frustrated by Finnegan, taking until there were just over two minutes left in the third quarter until she finally hit her first bucket, missing her first seven shots, Finnegan almost the entire reason why.

That paced a stellar Vikings defensive effort which held the Warriors — who are one of the top girls’ programs in the Shore Conference, beating Archbishop Carroll earlier this season — scoreless in the first quarter, taking a 14-0 lead into the second; it was 32-8 Wood at halftime, Manasquan going 3-of-22 from the floor in the opening half, unable to get any good looks against the smothering presence of the Bucks County squad.

“As a team I thought we defended really well,” McDonald said, “but it starts with (Masonius) on the ball and not giving her so much space or letting her get downhill to where we have to overhelp to the point where we’re leaving wide-open shooters. So without a doubt, she sets the tone.”

Masonius’ abilities on the court were clear: she’s quick and strong, with a great first step and a strong handle, a get-into-the-lane and score type with a bunch of tricks in her bag. But every move she made, Finnegan was right with her, the long-armed wing never reaching, never gambling, just constantly moving, sliding her feet, staying locked in.

Her abilities are a combination of natural instinct and motor — oh yeah, and some film study, too, as soon as she finds out who she’s guarding next.

“It’s all about focus for me and I know I’ve been assigned to guard the best player for like years, that’s always been a big role of mine,” Finnegan said. “So it’s really just about focus and I just put my whole heart into it basically, because I have a lot of pride in it, and it’s a big thing for me.”

That defensive effort has already earned her a scholarship offer from D-II Chestnut Hill, interest coming from more D-IIs and even a few lower-level Division I programs.

Finnegan’s been Wood’s defensive ace since here sophomore year, when she held her own against the likes of Archbishop Carroll’s Grace O’Neill (Drexel); she moved into the starting lineup a year later, and has never needed to be one of the Vikings’ featured scorers, though she did pop in six points against Manasquan.

Seniors Deja Evans and Allie Fleming paced Wood with 11 points in the win; Evans, a 6-1 forward and Albany commit, had a double-double with 12 rebounds (5 offensive), and Holy Family commit Kara Meredith added eight points, four rebounds and two steals off the bench.

McDonald’s got enough trust in Finnegan that he sometimes lets her ignore the team’s defensive instructions and do a little bit of freelancing. He recalled one game where he wanted his team to do one thing against screens, but Finnegan disagreed.

“I just said ‘no, what if she keeps (the ball) and there would be no one on her,’” she said, “so I just changed to not switching, doing my own thing — and my instinct was right, and she kept it, but I was there.”

“We let that go, because that’s how good she is defensively, and how much we trust her doing what she does,” McDonald said. “To the point that other kids are going ‘Should I be doing what Delaney’s doing on those handoffs?’ and we’re like ‘no, just let Delaney do what Delaney’s doing, you do what we’re telling you to do with everyone else.’”

Eventually, Masonius got to 10 points, scoring a bucket or two on Finnegan, plus another when she was on the bench, and a fourth on a put-back. Finnegan didn’t let that bother her too much — she doesn’t expect to pitch a shutout, after all.

“They’re going to score, I know that,” she said. “It’s just, keep it minimal.”

By Quarter
Archbishop Wood: 14  |  18  |  11  |  12  ||  55
Manasquan:            0   |   8   |  11  |   7   ||  26

Shooting
Archbishop Wood: 19-41 FG (4-14 3PT), 13-21 FT
Manasquan: 10-45 FG (2-10 3PT), 4-8 FT

Scoring
Archbishop Wood: Evans 11, Fleming 11, Meredith 8, Renninger 7, Finnegan 6, McCloskey 4, Knouse 3, Greer 3, Windish 2

Manasquan: Masonius 10, Carlson 5, Orlando 4, Donnelly 3, Shaughnessy 2, Hollawell 2