City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WARMINSTER – Sky’s the limit.

Those three simple but meaningful words are etched onto Jalil Bethea’s left forearm, part of a striking and intricate tattoo above an astronaut in a cosmic setting. Watch the Archbishop Wood junior play just a few minutes and it becomes evident they’re not just words, they might as well be a declaration.

The newly-minted Philadelphia Catholic League’s Most Valuable Player scored 30 points to lead the No. 4 Vikings past No. 5 St. Joe’s Prep 84-73 in the PCL quarterfinals Friday night.

“The sky’s the limit, you never know,” Bethea said about what inspired the ink. “You never know where you can go in life, so you just keep going and find your success.”

Bethea, who will step foot in the fabled Palestra for the first time as a player next Wednesday, saved his best for last by scoring 14 fourth quarter points as Wood finally put away a game Hawks squad that won’t be going anywhere over the next few years. So, how to describe his performance Friday night?

“The sky’s the limit for him,” Wood coach John Mosco said. “He gets better every day with his basketball knowledge, his game, his shooting. I don’t know the exact stat but I think when he’s got at least five assists, we’re 8-1 so it’s not just the scoring.”

In the regular season, Bethea had torched the Prep for 40 points in a Vikings overtime win that ended up being pivotal in earning Wood home court and an edge in the PCL’s 6A state playoff picture. While Bethea opened the game with a drive and layup off the opening tip, the junior guard knew he was not going to have an easy night trying to score the ball.

Finishing with 30 on a 10-of-16 shooting effort might seem like it came easily, but Bethea was quick to note there was a lot of work that went into each of those makes. There isn’t a stat to quantify what he did, but senior forward Carson Howard definitely deserves a lot of credit for opening the miniscule windows that are all Bethea needs to get off a shot.

“They were just worried about me most of the time and trying to deny me, so I used my big man as a target, setting screens off the ball,” Bethea said. “That’s how I got open most of the time.

“It’s the chemistry me and Carson have.”

Wood went up 10-5 when Bethea found Milan Dean Jr. for a skyscraping alley-oop but the Vikings only led 13-12 after a quarter. Bethea hit a pair of threes in the second quarter but he was just 3-of-7 from the floor at halftime with the Prep’s defense all eyes on him.

That was just fine with the rest of the Vikings. Mike Green hit a pair of threes off the bench in the second, Gus Salem hit one three and assisted another and Dean scored three straight to end the half and bring the game level 33-33 after the Hawks had briefly gone in front. 

The physical skills Bethea has - the quick first step, the long arms and legs he seems to bend to his will mid-air and the range on his high-arching jump shots - are alluring enough to have already launched his high-major recruitment but its the intangibles that have grown leaps and bounds. 

At one point in the second quarter, Howard took a lot of contact and got knocked down under the basket, then had a Prep player land on him on the floor and he battled for the loose ball. Picking him up as the officials figured out possession, Bethea lifted Howard’s head, tapped his teammate on the chest and left any lament in the sweat spot being wiped off the court.

“I just said ‘keep your head up,’ I told him they were going to be fouling the whole game, so just play through it and that’s exactly what he did,” Bethea said.

In the final seconds, with the victory secured and a teammate at the line to shoot free throws, Bethea brought the other three Vikings on the floor together at halfcourt for a few words. From an 0-2 start in the PCL to a second trip to the Palestra in four years, the Vikings grew up fast with their MVP taking the mantle of leadership.

“A lot of maturity,” Mosco said. “It’s funny, I cut this as a clip; the first time we played Prep, Carson’s on the floor and nobody picked him up. In the huddle, we called timeout and he cursed everybody out so when I showed it to them, Jalil said ‘that’s my fault’ and he’s taken ownership of it.

“He’s maturing and the more he matures, the better he’ll be.”

Howard, who not only had to eat all those bumps, pushes and hits setting screens on offense but took as much punishment guarding Prep post man Tristen Guillouette on defense, got his moment in the third quarter. The senior, who had six points and 11 rebounds, finished a putback off a Bethea miss and got the foul to go with, giving the Wood student section cause to go wacky.

Despite Wood’s shot-making prowess for three quarters, the Vikings entered the fourth clinging to a 53-50 lead. Matt Gorman gave the Prep a first-half lift while Jalen Harper scored six points and Guillouette four in the third to keep SJP in step with Wood.

Gorman, Olin Chamberlain Jr. and Jaron McKie all posted 12 points, getting very few easy looks while Guillouette finished with eight. Jordan Ellerbee was a massive spark off Prep’s bench, the springy and athletic guard finishing with a team-high 20 points that included a couple of powerful dunks.

Once Bethea got rolling in the fourth quarter, including hitting threes on three consecutive possessions and four shots from deep in a three-minute span that broke the close game open, the students drowned out the rest of the gym chanting “M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P,” over and over again. It was his first time in front of his classmates since the announcement of All-PCL honors but he wasn’t there to celebrate.

“I was just locked in from the jump, I didn’t care about being the MVP, all I care about is cutting the nets down at the Palestra,” Bethea said. “This game, it’s over with, we still have two more games to get where we really want to be.”

Bethea did allow a smile when the sheer volume of MVP chants directed his way was mentioned and becoming the third Vikings player to claim the honor since the 2017-18 season was not something he wanted to overlook.

“It was actually overwhelming,” Bethea said. “When I first heard it, I was actually surprised. At the start of the season, that was my goal but I wasn’t going toward the MVP, I was just playing and it shows hard work pays off.”

Dean had 10 of his 13 points in the first half, Salem hit another clutch three to start the fourth quarter and was extremely steady handling the ball while Howard got six points and 11 rebounds to go with his myriad other efforts. Josh Reed was the beneficiary of the space opened up by the Prep’s defensive focus on Bethea, the junior scoring 14 of his 16 after halftime in an 8-of-9 effort that included a pair of monster fourth quarter dunks.

As an eighth grader, Bethea went to the PCL semifinals and watched as a Wood team led by Rahsool Diggins lost to Jalen Duren and Roman Catholic, the contest lighting a fire in him to get there on his own. Wednesday, he’ll lead the Vikings to the historic court to face Roman Catholic — the semifinals re-seeding due to West Catholic’s win at Archbishop Ryan — and a chance to avenge one of their PCL losses from this season.

“The atmosphere, everybody from each school and everybody from the city coming out to watch, that’s what I remember most,” Bethea said. “I know I’ll enjoy that, playing there.”

Mosco pointed out Bethea’s defense as well, saying that even when the Hawks tried to target him and get his third foul, he managed to avoid getting into any further trouble. However far Wood goes this season - Friday’s win also secured Wood of at least a spot in District 12’s play-in game for states - there’s no doubt who will be leading them.

It’s all written right there on his arm, floating above an astronaut and a space shuttle, three simple but meaningful words that Friday night only served to reinforce.

“Sky’s the limit for him,” Mosco said. “If he goes and plays well in the spring, he’s going to have 20 more offers. He just puts the ball in the basket.”

By Quarter
Archbishop Wood: 13 | 20 | 20 | 31 || 84
St. Joseph’s Prep: 12 | 21 | 17 | 23 || 73

Scoring
AW: Jalil Bethea 30, Josh Reed 16, Milan Dean 13, Gus Salem 8, Carson Howard 6, Mike Green 6, Deuce Maxey 5

SJP: Jordan Ellerbee 20, Olin Chamberlain 12, Jaron McKie 12, Matt Gorman 12, Jalen Harper 9, Tristen Guillouette