City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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DREXEL HILL — This may not have happened a month ago. It might have devolved into a chaotic mishmash of forced shots, errant passes under a breakneck pace with a little touch of finger-pointing and in the end, all translating into another Bonner-Prendie Philadelphia Catholic League loss.

That was the Friars a month ago.

This could be the Friars moving forward: A comeback, fourth-quarter 55-50 victory over feisty Devon Prep on Friday night to clinch a berth in the Catholic League playoffs in Billy Cassidy Jr.’s inaugural season as head coach of the Friars.

Bonner-Prendie was led by the junior pair of 6-4 guard Kevin Rucker Jr., who scored a team-high 22 points, and 6-8 center Nelson Lamizana, who dropped in 13 to offset Devon Prep’s Army-bound Jacen Holloway’s game-high 24 and Lucas Orchard’s 11.

With the victory, Bonner-Prendie improved to 12-8 overall and 4-8 in the league, securing at least the 10th and final place in the playoffs, while the Tide fell to 10-11 and 3-9.

It’s approaching mid-February and Bonner-Prendie is a team still forming. This playoff-clinching victory could be the tonic Cassidy and the Friars needed. Recently, the Friars were fumbling in tense situations, collectively paralyzing themselves in crunch time by dwelling too often on mistakes.

“Coming out in the third quarter, we stuck with it, and our guys focused on next play, next play, there was time to make a jump,” Cassidy said. “We absolutely had problems with adversity. They’re teenagers. Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to shine. The Philadelphia Catholic League is the toughest league in the country, so, naturally, you’re going to face adversity.

“We’re starting to forget mistakes quickly. We clinched the playoffs, and personally, I want to keep playing and keep competing. I’m trying to keep building this and to get better every day. We’re playing smarter, we’re being unselfish, we’re giving ourselves an opportunity.”

Bonner-Prendie trailed, 36-32, entering the fourth quarter. Though considerably larger, the Friars had problems sometimes with the smaller Tide and their swarming, tenacious defense. What may have haunted Devon Prep was 1-for-7 shooting from the foul line entering the last quarter.

Otherwise, Devon Prep looked solid, hitting 50-percent from the floor (16-32) when the fourth quarter began.

With 5:44 left to play, Lamizana nailed a three-pointer to tie the game at 39-39. About a minute later, Rucker dropped a three at the top of the circle for a 42-41 lead the Friars wouldn’t relinquish.

“We could be way better than the way we were performing, and we haven’t really been playing together that long to build a team chemistry,” said Rucker, who’s received offers from Drexel, Morgan State and Rider. “We were a little sluggish in the beginning of the year. We’ve been staying together. We haven’t fallen apart, like we did a month ago. We would get on each other a little, and that brings us down a little.

“We’ve been more encouraging to each other recently and less toxic. Everyone is cool on and off the court, and we’re just starting to click. Tonight was a good step in that direction.”

Rucker and Lamizana combined to score 15 of Bonner-Prendie’s 23 points in the fourth quarter—with Rucker scoring 10 of his 22. Rucker hit 7 of 9 free throws in the fourth quarter and Lamizana sealed the victory with a pair of free throws with :28 left.

“Devon Prep is difficult to play again, they move a lot,” Lamizana said. “We used our size and the game plan was to play harder than we had been, stay together and talk, and we did all of that tonight. That’s why we got the win.

“We’re moving forward and focusing on the objective of just winning. We wouldn’t let mistakes in the past. We want it more, and we’re just playing. A month ago, we would have fallen apart, to be honest. We knew what we were doing. We were locked into the huddles. Coach would draw up all of the great stuff for us, we would follow it and just play.

“A month ago, we had our minds and that got in the way. We’re playing more as a team right now. I want us to get better at everything, and that starts at practice.”

Bonner-Prendie hosts Father Judge on Saturday night and with the Devon Prep victory, it looks like the Friars will have more practices ahead in the foreseeable future.

By Quarter
Devon Prep:        8   |  17  |  11  |  14  ||  50
Bonner-Prendie: 14  |  10  |   8   |  23  ||  55

Scoring
Devon Prep: Jacen Holloway 24, Lucas Orchard 11, Ty Mishock 10, Shane Doyle 3, Zane Conlon 1, Ben Costello 1.

Bonner-Prendie: Kevin Rucker Jr. 22, Nelson Lamizana 13, Deuce Ketner 12, Jamal Hicks 5, Reggie Selden 3.

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.