City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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WARMINSTER — Chris Roantree relishes opportunities to play inside Richard “R” Kelly Gymnasium.

It was a place the former Archbishop Wood assistant knew a lot of success while serving on John Mosco’s staff. The bulk of that success was encapsulated in the guard play where Philadelphia Catholic League MVPs and heralded prospects flourished for years.

Start with the lineage of Carl Arrigale, who is the architect for explosive backcourt tandems during his historic tenure at Neumann-Goretti, and how he passed that along to Mosco, his former assistant. Mosco, in turn, took that tutelage and synthesized it with the Vikings with the help of Roantree, who has taken that and established the same concepts at his alma mater, Father Judge.

Mosco and Roantree were at the helm of Archbishop Wood’s two Philadelphia Catholic League championships, first in 2017 behind league MVP Collin Gillespie, Andrew Funk, Tyree Pickron and Matt Cerruti. Four years later, two-time league MVP Rahsool Diggins (UMass), Jaylen Stinson (Merrimack) and Marcus Randolph (St. Peter’s) ushered in the next title and made a run to the state final in Hershey.

For the first time since that last title team, Roantree believes he has the vaunted, guard-oriented lineup that will allow him to devise gameplans around the strengths of Laquan Byrd, Kevair Kennedy and Derrick Morton-Rivera, and return Father Judge to a place of prominence it has not been for more than two decades.

“I’ve had it. The last championship year at Wood we had Marcus, Jaylen and Rahsool. Rahsool was MVP, and Marcus and Jaylen complemented him by winning a championship. We also won a championship with Gillespie, Funk, Pickron and Cerruti. We talk about maturity, leadership and culture. We talk about what it means to win and that’s the most important thing for us. We feel we can play with anybody when our guards are locked in.”

Roantree’s trio of versatile guards were locked in during the Crusaders’ 77-61 win against Central York on Saturday night in the Diane Mosco Shootout at Archbishop Wood High School.

Morton-Rivera drilled three 3-pointers on his way to 22 points and added five rebounds and three steals. His marquee attribute is shooting with a pure form and high-arching release, but he showcased the next maturation in his game by allowing his jump shot to dictate the defense’s tendencies. He scored eight points in the final quarter, with his final bucket putting the exclamation point on the game as he turned a steal into a two-handed dunk to make it 71-60.

A year after averaging 10.3 points per game and making 41 3-pointers, the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard is ridding himself of the shooter stigma and becoming the player Roantree knows he can be.

“Definitely on understanding the basketball game,” Morton-Rivera said. “I’m better at being in the right place. With last year being my first year, I didn’t know how the game was really played, but now I’m slowing the game down more. My coaches are helping me understand better and they believe in me.”

Byrd added 22 points of his own and five steals while Kennedy, who played hero last year in this game at this very venue with a game-winning buzzer beater, chipped in 17 points, six rebounds and five steals,

The trio of Morton-Rivera, Byrd and Kennedy scored all but two of Father Judge’s points in the final quarter. Byrd converted a quick drive to push the lead to 12 early in the quarter, then Morton-Rivera converted a putback. Later, a Byrd 3-pointer from the corner made it 68-60 with 1:42 left to play.

After having a close call a season ago, Father Judge (3-2) pulled away late with Central York (4-1) down two starters in 6-9 big man Ben Rill (pinched nerve in right elbow) and starting point guard Ben Natal (dislocated right pinky finger).

“Coming in, we talked about how we stole one from them last year and they were going to come out with a lot of energy,” Roantree said. “We had to match their energy to start and knew they were down two of their main guys.

Without Rill and Natal, Greg Guidinger asserted himself with 30 points and nine rebounds. The 6-7 senior forward poured in 17 points in the first quarter. He sank six free throws after twice being fouled behind the arc and gave the Panthers a 22-14 advantage with 58.2 seconds remaining. After multiple players struggled with Guidinger’s ability to come off down screens and turn short post-up opportunities into easy baskets, Roantree moved Kennedy onto him and it changed the outlook on the game.

“Kevair really stepped up guarding Guidinger today,” Roantree said. “He’s starting to step into the leadership role for us.”

The Crusaders took a two-point lead into halftime but began to pull away in the third as Morton-Rivera, Byrd and Kennedy scored 15 of Father Judge’s next 16 points to grow the lead to 55-47. Another swift finish by Byrd followed by a putback inside from Morton-Rivera pushed the lead to 61-52 with 5:51 remaining.

Morton-Rivera feels Father Judge has the chance to do something the program hasn’t done since Roantree’s senior season in 1999, and he’s confident that if this group continues to play at this level, it can come to fruition.

“We want to get to the PCL semifinals,” Morton-Rivera said. “Judge hasn’t been there since the 1990s, so we want to continue that legacy. It would be amazing and a change to the culture. It hasn’t happened in a long time, but we want to add to the legacy here.”

By Quarter

Central York: 22 I 9 I 16 I 14 II 61

Father Judge: 17 I 16 I 22 I 22 II 77

Scoring

Central York: Greg Guidinger 30, Brooklyn Nace 16, Byron Pinkney 5, Ryan Jackson 4, Ryan Brown 3, Saxton Succhanic 3

Father Judge: Derrick Morton-Rivera 22, Laquan Byrd 22, Kevair Kennedy 17, Anthony Lilley 5, Everett Barnes 4, Nazir Tyler 3, Rocco Westfield 2, Max Moshinski 2