City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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How much will the experience factor matter when it comes to deciding the Catholic League champions? Eric Gidney hopes it’s zero.

Lansdale Catholic’s fifth-year head girls coach is the first one in Crusaders basketball history, boys or girls, to lead a team into the PCL title game, the school having not exactly been a hoops powerhouse since joining the league in 2008. He’ll be going up against a Wood program that’s been there 13 out of the last 15 years, against a coach (Mike McDonald) who has two titles under his belt, including the 2021 championship.

Gidney and his Crusaders are all in uncharted territory, aware of what’s to come Monday night when they walk onto the Cathedral of College Basketball floor, and doing their best to put it all aside.

“We’re ignoring it,” Gidney said by phone Friday morning. “We’re just focusing on the preparation, that’s the biggest thing. 

“Yeah, it’s a cool stage, and it’s a historic moment for Lansdale Catholic and its girls basketball program, but at the end of it all, it’s still a basketball game. Things like the environment, I don’t know if those are going to be deciding factors, and even if they were, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The Palestra during Catholic League championship night is an experience like few others in the sports world, four high school basketball teams — two girls and two boys — putting everything they had onto the floor, massive student sections behind each basket, hundreds of alumni in the building, plus thousands of fans and who’s-who of local hoops figures, from coaches to players to scouts and everybody in between.

McDonald might know what it’s like when there’s 9,000-plus fans pouring their energy onto the court for the city’s most coveted title, but most of his girls don’t. When the Vikings won the title two years ago it was at Archbishop Carroll, the Palestra unable to host that year. The year before, when they lost to West Catholic in the title game, this year’s seniors — Holy Family commit Kara Meredith, defensive specialist Delaney Finnegan, reserve Lauren Tretter and more — were little-used freshmen, not the starters and leaders they are now. 

This will be the first Palestra experience for senior post Deja Evans, the Albany commit spending her first two years at Plymouth Whitemarsh, as well as junior point guard Ava Renninger, who moved to the area from Central Mountain (Pa.) after her freshman year. McDonald knows he has to get his whole squad settled down early, create easy opportunities, not let the pressure build too quickly.

“Don’t run a lot of quick-hitters early because then if you’re not finishing them, you’re giving the possession away right now,” he said. “You want to move the ball…move it, get everybody a touch a couple times, see if you can get something easy or put a little pressure on an official going to a basket, that sort of thing.”

Monday’s matchup will be a rematch of the 2022 PIAA Class 4A championship, which Wood won 57-45. Lansdale got a bit of payback with a 49-31 win at Wood on Feb. 7, which helped the Crusaders lock up the top overall seed in the league for the first time.

“We're starting to become familiar with playing each other now in, let's say, really meaningful games, whether it’s state titles or Philadelphia Catholic League,” Gidney said. “We know they'll be ready, but we'll be ready too.”

Lansdale Catholic will lean heavily on its top five, led by St. Joe’s commit Gabby Casey, senior wing forward Jaida Helm and sophomore point guard Saniyah Littlejohn, a developing Division I prospect in her own right.

It was Helm who went off for 17 points in the Crusaders’ and Vikings first matchup, Casey adding 13 and junior sharpshooter Olivia Boccella adding nine; nobody on Wood scored more than Meredith’s eight. 

Though Gidney admitted that McDonald was “not wrong” when it came to his approach to the opening minutes of the game, that he doesn’t want his girls taking rushed, contested shots in an attempt to push the tempo, he also doesn’t want them deviating much from their usual.

“Yeah it’s the PCL finals, yeah it’s the Palestra, but our game plans are usually a bit more tailored towards the opponent,” Gidney said. “There was a lot of success we found the first time around playing Wood [...] Being methodical, being patient, sticking to the game plan of focusing on their rebounding, focusing on their outside shooting, that’s regardless of whether we’re playing at our place, their place or the Palestra.”

The boys’ game, which pits top-seeded Neumann-Goretti against second seed Roman Catholic, pits Carl Arrigale and his 12 PCL titles against Chris McNesby, who has two of his own.

Most of Neumann-Goretti’s rotation is back from last year’s championship squad, including senior forward Sultan Adewale and the starting backcourt of juniors Robert Wright III and Khaafiq Myers. Roman’s only starter with PCL title game experience is senior guard Xzayvier Brown, who started three years ago as Roman — then with Matt Griffin at the helm — lost to Neumann-Goretti. 

So while Roman seniors Anthony Finkley, Erik Oliver-Bush and Jermai Stewart-Herring all got their first Palestra experiences out of the way Wednesday, this will be their first time playing for it all.

“We’re just trying to keep them as loose and as confident as possible,” McNesby said. “They’ve had a good year, really just try to keep them fresh on what we’ve been doing well and just keep them feeling good about themselves. In that building, there’s so much excitement, so much energy, you just want them playing off their habits, not trying to change too much of who they are and let them be who they are, play through their strengths — and have some fun, too.”

If Roman does win, it’ll be the third time that McNesby would have gotten the better of Arrigale, the PCL’s all-time leader in championships (12), Roman having beaten Neumann-Goretti in both 2015 and 2016 behind the likes of future Penn State standouts Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens. The two programs, among the most storied in the region, will both be favorites for state championships — Roman in 6A, Neumann-Goretti in 4A — but none of those games will be as meaningful as the one they play Monday night. 

“Roman-Neumann is always, always a great battle, it’s a Philly tradition,” McNesby said. “You know you’re going to get a great crowd, a lot of interest, great team that’s really well coached and obviously Carl’s done a helluva job.”

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Team Capsules

Archbishop Wood
Record: 19-4
Head Coach: Mike McDonald, 8th season (2 championships)
Last Championship: 2021
Projected Starters: PG Ava Renninger (5-5/Jr.), WG Emily Knouse (5-10/Soph.), W Delaney Finnegan (5-11/Sr.), WF Kara Meredith (6-0/Sr.), C Deja Evans (6-2/Sr.)
Key Reserves: G Alexa Windish (5-8/Jr.), G Lauren Tretter (5-9/Sr.)

Lansdale Catholic
Record: 22-2
Head Coach: Eric Gidney, 5th season
Last Championship: N/A
Projected Starters: PG Saniyah Littlejohn (5-8/Soph.), SG Olivia Boccella (5-5/Jr.), G Gabby Casey (5-9/Sr.), G Nadia Yemloa (5-7/Soph.), WF Jaida Helm (5-10/Sr.)
Key Reserves: F Ali Johns (5-10/Sr.), G Aubrey Mobley (5-7/Jr.)

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Neumann-Goretti
Record: 21-2
Head Coach: Carl Arrigale, 25th season (12 championships)
Last Championship: 2022
Projected Starters: G Robert Wright III (6-0/Jr.), G Khaafiq Myers (5-11/Jr.), G Bruce Smith (6-1/Sr.), W Amir Williams (6-5/Jr.), PF Sultan Adewale (6-8/Sr.)
Key Reserves: G Stephon Ashley-Wright (6-0/Fr.)

Roman Catholic
Record: 21-3
Head Coach: Chris McNesby, 10th season (2 championships)
Last Championship: 2019
Projected Starters: PG Xzayvier Brown (6-3/Sr.), SG Jermai Stewart Herring (6-2/Sr.), WG Erik Oliver-Bush (6-3/Sr.), WF Anthony Finkley (6-7/Sr.), PF Shareef Jackson (6-7/Sr.)
Key Reserves: G Robert Cottrell (5-10/Sr.), WG Will Felder (6-2/Soph.)

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