City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Xzayvier Brown didn’t know who to celebrate with. So he celebrated with everyone.

The Roman Catholic senior guard was all over the court at the Palestra, during the Catholic League championship game against Neumann-Goretti and afterwards, when he was grabbing friends, family members, random Roman students, you name it, in bear hugs, going from baseline to baseline, soaking in all the love.

“I still can’t believe we won, honestly,” he said at the post-game podium. “I thought I was in a dream, a bad dream, when we were down five and a minute [left], I was like ‘damn, it’s over.’ 

“I think it’ll sink in before I go to sleep tonight.”

The Palestra has seen more than its fair share of incredible games with classic ends. Brown and Roman Catholic spent their Monday night adding one more to the Cathedral of College Basketball’s list of legendary contests.

The St. Joe’s guard helped the Cahillites complete an improbable comeback in the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game, banking in a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime and hitting the game-sealing foul shots in the final seconds of the extra session as Roman won the PCL title for the 33rd time in school history, 57-52 over Neumann-Goretti.

Brown finished with 20 points as he won the Catholic League title for the first time, the four-year starter flashing the “X” with his arms after he hit his final two points, a couple free-throws with 3.3 seconds left, before a long NG heave at the buzzer fell short and the Roman students stormed the court.

Anthony Finkley added 13 for Roman and Jermai Stewart-Herring scored 10, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime. Erik Oliver-Bush added six points and seven rebounds, the same numbers as sophomore forward Shareef Jackson.

But it wasn’t Brown’s game-sealing foul shots that had everybody talking. It was the one he hit to send it to overtime, after it looked like Roman’s hopes were all but dashed.

It was all tied up at 39 with under two minutes to play in regulation when Neumann-Goretti’s Bruce Smith buried a corner 3-pointer; the next trip down the floor, Smith gobbled up an offensive rebound and deposited it back off the glass and in, putting N-G up five with 1:19 to play.

Robert Wright III hit a pair of foul shots to make it a seven-point lead with 35 seconds left, before Finkley responded with a triple to keep Roman alive.

Roman Catholic guard Xzayvier Brown, left, and his team won the PCL championship on Monday. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

Brown played hero at that point, hitting three foul shots with 14.8 seconds left to make it a 3-point game. N-G missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and Brown missed a 3-pointer, sending Wright III back to the line with 12.8 seconds left, the standout lead guard and Baylor commit normally reliable from the stripe.

“I’m just hoping for a miss, you can’t really think too much. I just hoped for a miss, and just the opportunity,” Brown said. “I was blessed to have two opportunities to tie it. I was just lucky.”

Brown's hopes came true as Wright missed both, giving Roman one final chance — and Brown banked it in just ahead of the buzzer, sending the Palestra into pandemonium.

“There’s not another deserving player to be in that moment, to make that shot,” Roman coach Chris McNesby said. “Four-year guy at Roman, has been through it all, around school everyone loves him, great student, great ambassador for the program, he embodies what Roman Catholic basketball player should be, and to have him make that shot, to me he deserved it. That moment was his.”

All told, Neumann-Goretti missed five foul shots in the final minute, going 5-of-12 from the stripe for the game.

Stewart-Herring opened overtime with a triple for Roman, the game’s last lead change. Neumann-Goretti responded with a bucket from Sultan Adewale, then Roman got a put-back from Erik Oliver-Bush, before Adewale responded one more time to cut it to 53-52 with a minute to play.

Both teams then turned it over — Roman on a backcourt violation, Neumann-Goretti on an offensive basket interference. Finkley then hit two foul shots with 12.8 seconds left to make it a 55-52 game; Wright III, sent back to the line, missed the first and then the second intentionally, but Roman retained possession, setting up Brown’s final shots. 

His two makes finished off an 11-of-11 day for the Cahilites from the line.

“Every day after practice you’ve got to make foul shots and if you’re not, you’re on the line,” Brown said. “That just shows the work we put in.”

Sultan Adewale led Neumann-Goretti with 15 points and 10 rebounds, though Jackson made sure he really worked for it. Smith added 12 points and six rebounds, Wright 11 points, six rebounds and six assists as Roman generally did a good job staying in front of a guard who can do a lot of damage.

The Saints, who were searching for head coach Carl Arrigale's 13th Catholic League title, played most of the second half without junior guard Khaafiq Myers, the Division I recruit going down with an ankle injury late in the first half.

Neither Roman nor Neumann-Goretti needed any time to get settled in at the Palestra, the two teams chock full of big-game experience coming right out and playing aggressive from the get-go.

The Saints jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the first couple minutes, but Roman owned the majority of the opening half. Xzayvier Brown led the way as the Cahillites went on an 18-3 run that spanned the end of the first and most of the second quarter, going up 22-11 with 4:39 left in the second on a floater by junior guard Robert Cottrell. 

It was 24-18 Roman at half before Neumann-Goretti won the third 17-7 to take a 35-31 lead into the fourth . 

“The momentum swings were both ways,” McNesby said. “We got out to our run early, they came out in their run and we had enough, Roman/Neumann, you get those swings back and forth, luckily we had that last run.”

Roman’s seniors aren’t done, the District 12 championship game coming up in which the Cahillites are heavy favorites against Central, before the PIAA Class 6A playoffs begin the week after, the Cahillites the defending state champions.

No matter what happens the next few weeks, Brown will always get to say he left Roman Catholic not just as a four-year starter and 1,000-point scorer, but as a Catholic League champion — and doing so in a way that certainly will stay in the city’s hoops lore for another generation or two.

“That ain’t really my job to say legacy, but I just try to put the work in, just trust in my teammates and my coaches,” he said. “If they want to say it’s a legacy that I left or whatever [they can]. I just think I left as a champ, so you can’t really say too much (to) that.”

By Quarter
Neumann-Goretti:  11  |   7   |  17  |  13  |   4   ||  52
Roman Catholic:    16  |   8   |   7   |  13  |   9   ||  57

Shooting
Neumann-Goretti: 20-53 FG (7-18 3PT), 5-12 FT
Roman Catholic: 20-53 FG (6-29 3PT), 11-11 FT

Scoring
Neumann-Goretti: Sultan Adewale 15, Bruce Smith 12, Robert Wright III 11, Amir Williams 8, Stephon Ashley-Wright 3, Khaafiq Myers 3

Roman Catholic: Xzayvier Brown 20, Anthony Finkley 13, Jermai Stewart-Herring 10, Shareef Jackson 6, Erik Oliver-Bush 6, Bob Cottrell 2