City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
––

WARMINSTER — Josh Reed says he wasn’t in shape last year.

Upon hearing this, Archbishop Wood boys basketball coach John Mosco gave a side-eye then shook his head. Reed, a physical and gifted athlete still felt like he could do more to maximize that and spent his offseason putting in plenty of conditioning.

Slimmer, but still plenty strong, Reed helped power the Vikings to an 84-54 win over Salesianum in the nightcap of the Diane Mosco Foundation Shootout on Saturday.

“I lost weight, I got leaner but stronger too,” Reed said. “I just started running a lot more. Last year, Inwas out of shape and this year I’m able to play the whole game.”

Saturday’s tilt against the Sallies seemed tailored exclusively to Reed’s best attributes. It was a physical game, a high tempo game, an at times contentious game and one that needed a guy willing to go downhill and be a force.

Jalil Bethea grinned when the notion of it being a good Reed game was brought up. The Miami (Fl.) recruit finished with 27 points but Bethea noted it was the way Reed got his 22 points that was just what the Vikings needed.

“I look to him more because he’s the most physical person on the team and he can go through contact,” Bethea said. “Not saying none of the rest of us can’t go through contact but he’s definitely the more physical one and likes games like this.”

Reed thrived running up and down the floor and as Mosco noted, handling it a good bit too. Wood was at times sloppy in possession but Reed was steady in control on top of being strikingly effective.

The Drexel-bound senior shot 9-of-13 from the floor and had four of his rebounds on the offensive glass. Without a true “big man” this year, the onus is on Reed, Bethea and Milan Dean to play above their size.

Against Salesianum, the trio had 25 rebounds.

“I love surprising people by grabbing rebounds over a big man,” Reed said. “I really look forward to that during games.”

That same trio also had 10 assists and all three were locked in on defense, something Bethea and Reed felt was sorely lacking in Wood’s first two games of the season. Dean’s athletic feats were on par with Reed’s and it seemed right that two Dean plays led to two of Reed’s three dunks on the night.

“It lets out everything,” Reed said. “Throwing something down is my favorite thing to do in a basketball game.”

Reed, who did not sub out until the final stages of the game, split his scoring pretty evenly as well. His eight second quarter points were pivotal after the Sallies made a run to chop a once 14-point advantage to five at the half.

He got right back to work in the third, his putback of a miss with 36.3 seconds left in the frame gave Wood a 20-point lead.

“He really came up big tonight just by playing downhill,” Mosco said. “He attacked the glass, rebounded and was locked in defensively.

“Coming in, me and my staff felt like if he got the ball on some mismatches and played downhill, he’d be able to use his strength and his size to get to the basket.”

Committing to and signing with Drexel lifted a different kind of weight from Reed and he feel like he’s playing loose this season. The senior plays with a lot of pride, he relishes the tougher games and feel like he can’t be stopped when he’s in his zone.

He wasn’t happy with how the team’s first two games went, but nobody was. Reed made up for it by putting his head down and doing what he does best in a game that seemed to invite it from him.

“When you’ve got Jalil Bethea, people are going to try and hug him then you’ve got to make a choice, and because of that, Josh hung from the rim a few times,” Mosco said.

By Quarter
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 20 | 10 | 23 | 31 - 84
SALESIANUM 12 | 13 | 12 | 17 - 54