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West Catholic handles Archbishop Ryan to book Palestra trip

02/18/2023, 12:00am EST
By Ryan Coyle

Ryan Coyle (@RyanCoyle35)

When Miguel Bocachica took over the West Catholic basketball program prior to the 2018-19 season, the Burrs were coming off a season where they went 3-10 in the Philadelphia Catholic League, poor enough for an 11th place finish out of 14 teams and were considered one of the cellar dwellers of the conference. 

The last time the Burrs finished with more than five league wins in a season before Bocachica took over was the 2013-14 campaign. Since he was given the keys to the program, there has been an upward trajectory, and his squad is now headed to the PCL semifinals for the second consecutive year.


West Catholic's Budd Clark, left, goes up for a shot on Ryan's Zaire Paris. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

West Catholic, who entered the PCL playoffs as the No. 6 seed, traveled to No. 3 Archbishop Ryan on Friday night and dismantled the Raiders for the road upset by a final score of 71-51, sending the Burrs back to the illustrious Palestra for a semifinal matchup with No. 1 seed Neumann-Goretti.

“Since I have been here it has just been about trying to work as hard as we can to get to the Palestra,” Bocachica said. “I think we are finally at a point where we are competitive on a day-to-day basis in the Philadelphia Catholic League. We have come a long way and I am just proud of my guys.”

The Burrs were led by their All-Catholic League performers with Adam “Budd” Clark, Zion Stanford, and Shemar Wilbanks-Acqui, who combined for 60 of the Burrs’ 71 points. Stanford and Clark each earned First Team All-Catholic honors this season, with Wilbanks-Acqui finding himself on the Honorable Mention list.

“It feels great to be going back to the Palestra,” Clark said after dropping a game-high 23 points in the victory. “It is a great feeling in that locker room right now. We are back to where we are supposed to be.”

With the quarterfinal victory, the Burrs were also able to avenge a 63-61 overtime loss that they suffered to Ryan in the regular season.

Coming into Friday night’s contest, West Catholic was 11-0 on the season when they held their opponent to 55 points or less. That trend continued in the quarterfinals as the Burrs dominated on the defensive end of the floor and held Ryan to only 15-of-46 (32%) from the field and 8-of-30 (26%) from downtown, doing their best to limit the effectiveness of Ryan star juniors Thomas Sorber and Darren Williams.

“They have a lot of good players, but we know their two main guys are Sorber and D Will, so we tried to put our focus on them tonight and limit what they could do on offense,” Stanford said. “I feel like if we can limit those two guys, we can limit guys on any other team in front of us.”

The defensive game plan focused on limiting touches in the paint for the 6-9 Sorber, who has offers from Villanova, Penn State, and Miami (Fl.) to name a few. West Catholic had guys like Stanford, M.J. Branker, and Amyr Walker fronting Ryan’s star big man, with another defender hugging the backside preventing any lobs over the top.

“Sorber is so tough to deal with and we knew that coming in,” Bocachica said. “Keeping bodies around him was key. I think my guys did a good job of like quarterback spying and always having extra eyes on him. 

“We always wanted to have a guy there on his backside. The less involved he is, the less he touches the ball, the less effective he would be and that is what we tried to do tonight.”

In the first quarter, West Catholic limited Sorber to only one field goal attempt and zero points,as they raced out to a 15-4 lead through eight minutes. Clark spearheaded the Burrs offensive attack against the Ryan 1-3-1 zone, knocking down two shots from beyond the arc en route to six of his 23 points.

After Clark’s two early three-pointers, Ryan extended the zone a little bit, opening up some gaps for Wilbanks-Acqui (21 points) to take advantage of in the mid-range area.

“We just wanted to make sure the ball was moving,” Bocachica said. “We wanted to attack it. They do a good job in that zone of making you stall. I think outside of Budd’s two threes we did kind of stall early on. But, we just wanted to get the ball in the middle and open things up.”


West Catholic's Zion Stanford, center, goes up for a shot between Ryan's Thomas Sorber, left, and Rocco Morabito. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

There was also an emphasis by Bocachica to his guys that they had to stay patient against the zone and not force on the offensive end throughout the week of practice. The Burrs followed the preachings from their head coach, as they shot an efficient 23-of-41 from the field (56%) and also were able to convert 6-of-14 three-point attempts (43%) on the night.

“They do a good job guarding the ball in the zone,” Stanford added. “We just wanted to make smart passes, which led to smart open shots.” 

West Catholic took a 28-20 lead into the locker room, after Ryan ended the final 2:53 of the first half on an 8-2 run after a timeout when they were down 26-12, as Sorber finally got involved on offense and scored seven of his 13 points over the last 3:16 of the first half. The Burrs forced the Raiders into nine first half turnovers and 16 total for the game.

“It is just who we are,” Bocachica said. “I think game by game, and day by day you know when you play us the energy, effort, and grit that you are going to face. I think we use that to our advantage. 

“Teams know that is what we are coming with. We have to hang our hats on that. Defense travels, offense doesn’t always travel. As long as your feet are squeaking, the floor is good, you can close out, you can box out, rebound, you will have a chance.”

The strong defense from the first half carried into the third quarter as West Catholic pushed their lead out to 12 heading into the fourth quarter with a 47-35 lead. Ryan was led by First Team All-PCL junior guard Darren Williams, but he was forced into tough contested shots that resulted in him going 4-of-15 from beyond the arc.

About midway through the fourth quarter, when West extended its lead to 55-38, you could tell the Burrs and their fans were starting to feel it that they were headed back to the Palestra for the second time in as many years.

“We are definitely excited to have the chance to go back to the Palestra,” Stanford, a Temple signee said after dropping 16 points. “I think we have proven a lot of people wrong, a lot of people didn’t think we had a chance to get this far again. We are all coming together I think now and playing our best and now we are back where we left off at last year.” 

West Catholic won the fourth quarter 24-16, the Burrs converting 14-of-23 free throw attempts to seal the deal and finish off a 71-51 victory. With a matchup looming now against No. 1 seed Neumann-Goretti, who beat the Burrs 57-56 back in January, on February 22nd down at the Cathedral of College Basketball, just getting to this stage won’t be sufficient this time around. Last year, the Burrs fell to Archbishop Ryan in the semifinals 59-55.

“For us, I think it was important for us to get that experience that we had last year with the guys who returned from that team,” Bocachica said. “Experience is everything. Experience is the difference between someone getting a job and not getting a job. We have that experience now, we are back for another interview, and hopefully we got the job this time, and that job is two wins down at the Palestra.”

Even after getting some revenge back tonight from last year’s playoff loss to Ryan, as well as the regular loss to the Raiders this season, it is more revenge that this experienced West Catholic team seeks.

“It is a get-back revenge in these playoffs and that started tonight,” Clark noted. “We are getting everyone back this go around and we will be ready to go down at the Palestra this time.”

By Quarter
AR: 4  |  16  |  15  |  16  ||  51
WC:  15  |  13  |  19  |  24  ||  71

Shooting
AR: 15-46 FG (8-30 3PT) 13-18 FT
WC: 23-41 FG (6-14 3PT), 17-29 FT 

Scoring
AR: Williams 20, Sorber 13, Gallagher 6, Murray 5, Paris 4, Morabito 3

WC: Clark 23, Wilbanks-Acqui 21, Stanford 16, Walker 5, Cole 4, Wheatley 2


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