City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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SPRINGFIELD — In order for Archbishop Wood to be a contender in the Philadelphia Catholic League, it needs its best player to lead the way. That’s something Jalil Bethea’s working on, the junior guard and high-major Division I recruit knowing he needs to be more than just a talent: he needs to be the driving force behind the Vikings, the one who makes them stronger and the glue that keeps them together. 

So it was a good sign for John Mosco when, in the final minutes of a tight Catholic League road game at Cardinal O’Hara, Bethea got into the lane, and — instead of pulling up for a contested jumper — he instead dished off to teammate Markus Dixon for a layup, a key play in Wood’s 72-63 win. 

“It’s definitely just, trust your teammates,” Bethea said. “You trust your teammates, your teammates can shock you. All you’ve got to do is put your trust in them, they’ll do their thing.”

“They’re listening and they’re trusting each other,” Mosco said. “It’s not about ‘me me me,’ it’s about ‘we.’ Markus is a great kid, he’s a great football player, going to Clemson, he gives us energy minutes [...] for Jalil not to go try and finish and trust him, and he made the layup, and no bad body language by anybody…”

Bethea’s pass was one of a few crucial ones the Vikings made down the stretch of their first Catholic League win of the year. With less than 80 seconds remaining and Wood up three, Josh Reed passed out of a double-team to find Gus Salem in the corner for a 3-pointer. One possession later, after a pair of O’Hara foul shots, Salem made a no-look pass to senior forward Carson Howard for an emphatic slam, making it a 68-62 lead with 37 seconds to play.

Bethea and Ihsan Beyan sealed the win with a pair of foul shots in the game’s closing 20 seconds.

The win was a critical one for Wood (4-5, 1-2), which has been one of the powerhouses in the PCL the last six or seven years but has a roster this year full of underclassmen and untested pieces. A loss would have sent them an unthinkable 0-3 in the league, having lost to Roman Catholic and Archbishop Carroll — the latter a five-point loss at home — already to start them off with a bit of a deficit in the ultra-competitive 14-team league.

They’d only won one of their previous five games, a run of defeats not seen in recent years at the Bucks County school.

“It’s difficult for the whole program, yeah,” Mosco said. “I think they’re tired, nobody’s picking you, everybody’s picking everybody else. If you’re not winning, they forget about you quick in this [league].”

O’Hara (8-4, 1-2) was led by a stellar performance from its Division I bound senior, as future Iona wing Izaiah Pasha went for 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Senior guard Josh Coulanges (15 points, 6 rebounds) and junior guard Aasim ‘Flash’ Burton (14 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists) also finished in double figures, who travel to Archbishop Carroll (10-2, 2-1) on Friday.

Bethea’s pass and foul shots capped off an outstanding night for the junior guard, who finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, with a block for good measure. He missed his first three 3-pointers but didn’t miss a shot after the first one he took in the second quarter, hitting his final six to finish 8-of-11 (3-6 3PT, 8-8 FT) from the floor. Howard, a 6-8 forward and East Stroudsburg commit, added 15 points and nine rebounds (four offensive).

As good as Bethea is, he only played fewer than 18 mpg last year, which was still enough for him to be their second-leading scorer (13.7 ppg). Going out on the Nike EYBL circuit this summer with Team Final for the first time, the 6-foot-4 sharpshooter with ever-improving abilities as a lead guard blew up as a high-major target, leaping into the Top 100 in his class on various scouting boards, more than a dozen scholarship offers to his name, Villanova included.

With Wood needing new leadership following the graduation of Justin Moore, Mike Knouse and others from the last couple years, Bethea became the obvious candidate to step up and fill the void.  

“They need a leader, and that’s where I come in,” he said. “I have to be that leader, to comfort them when they get in the game, they wouldn’t be as scared if they were playing last year, because they’re major players this year. So I have to be the one to step up, be a leader and comfort them.”

“(Mosco) talks about that every day [with me],” he said. “‘We win because of you, but we win as a team. But you have to start that.’”

Bethea has offers from Pitt, Villanova, Penn State, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami (Fl.) and more. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

There’s been high expectations put upon Bethea this year, but as Mosco pointed out, he’s still new to being a player to watch, new to all the expectations heaped upon him, a lot to process for a teenager who suddenly seems to have a bright, bright future in the sport.

“(Bethea) knows success but how many minutes has he played? He doesn’t know it as the leader, he doesn’t know it as the No. 1 guy on the scouting report. It was a lot easier when you had a Justin Moore, a Rahsool Diggins, Collin Gillespie, Tommy Funk and other guys that had been through wars.

“This was, two Catholic League games now, he’s played with a lot of energy, focus,” Mosco said. “Next game, he’s gotta do the same thing. It doesn’t stop.”

Bethea isn’t the only one new to a bigger spot in the lineup — just about everybody in the rotation is playing bigger minutes than a year ago, with two sophomores (Milan Dean Jr. and Deuce Maxey) in the top six after playing only spare minutes as freshman. On top of that, one of two seniors in the starting lineup, Gus Salem, is in his only year at Wood after moving from California in the offseason.

If the Vikings can continue to figure it out and put it together, there’s certainly enough talent on the roster to rip off a string of wins, and enough time left to get plenty higher in the PCL standings. That’ll start with a home game against Devon Prep on Thursday, then a trip to Neumann-Goretti next Wednesday.

“I really don’t talk about the record that much,” Mosco said. “I just say it’s a marathon, not a sprint. If we’re playing well at the end of the year, we could be playing into March.”

By Quarter
O’Hara:  22  |  10  |  14  |  17  ||  63
Wood:    12  |  21  |  16  |  23  ||  72

Shooting
O’Hara: 22-59 FG (5-18 3PT), 14-18 FT
Wood: 24-53 F (7-19 3PT), 17-17 FT

Scoring
O’Hara: Pasha 22, Coulanges 15, Burton 14, McGuinn 9, Johnson 3
Wood: Bethea 27, Howard 15, Maxey 9, Salem 8, Dean Jr. 7, Dixon 4, Beyan 2