City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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NORTH PHILADELPHIA — Last season, Jalen Harper likely wouldn’t have been in the position. 

A rebound in the air and the Catholic League’s best big man trying to grab an offensive board for the other team in a one-possession game... the 6-foot-8 Tristen Guillouette would have been there to clean it up for St. Joe’s Prep instead.

There’s no Guillouette this season for the Hawks, leaving the 6-foot-3 Harper to fend off the Philadelphia Catholic League’s giants by himself. Late in Tuesday night’s PCL opener against Archbishop Ryan, Harper boxed out Georgetown-bound big man Thomas Sorber and skied for the ball. One possession later he was in defense on the game sealing steal before knocking down the putaway free throws in a 57-52 win.

He finished with 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter of the victory, coming up “big” on both sides of the floor for an undersized Hawks group.

“When it’s big moments, I realize that we can just really win this if we go away with it,” Harper said. “I just took charge.”

The Hawks found out this fall that Guillouette, who is now at George School, was ruled ineligible by the PIAA, taking away their counter to Sorber and others like Roman Catholic forward Shareef Jackson down low in the PCL.

Harper, an athletic 6-3 slasher who can drive and shoot, knew his role would change as the Hawks’ tallest starter, going from the perimeter to the interior, particularly on the defensive end. The team had success matching up against size during their run to the Cookie Garcia Jesuit Invitational championship in Tampa, Fla. last week, including a title game win over a Saint Ignatius (Ohio) team that featured three DI prospects who are 6-7 or taller.

Harper had 12 points and 11 rebounds in that title game and it was more of the same in Tuesday’s big win. Even when he wasn’t scoring buckets early for the Hawks, he was vital, hauling in seven rebounds and contributing to a swarming group effort defensively. And in the fourth he called his own number with success.

“I’ve been asking Jalen to step up, be a leader. I named him captain,” St. Joe’s Prep coach Jason Harrigan said. “Sometimes the moment brings it out of you. That moment, that was him. He stepped up.”

Sorber, who recently went off for a school-record 41 points, posted a 20-point, 15-rebound, four-block statline but the Hawks kept him from completely taking over the game.

Archbishop Ryan led 30-19 at halftime behind 11 points from Sorber and 10 from senior forward Jaden Murray, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. A three by senior Darren Williams grew the advantage to 14 points twenty seconds into the third quarter.

Helped by junior guard Jordan Ellerbee, who had 10 of his team-high 19 points in the third, the Hawks trimmed that deficit to all the way down to three before trailing 45-38 heading to the fourth.

“At that point we just needed to put the ball in the basket, and that’s what we all did,” Ellerbee said. “We just kept working for good shots.”

Harper hit a pair of huge threes in the fourth quarter, the second of which pulled St. Joe’s Prep within one, 52-51, with two and and a half to play. A pair of free throws by junior guard Jaron McKie (12 points) gave St. Joe’s Prep its first lead of the game with 56.8 seconds left. Harper’s big rebound came with 25.7 seconds to go after a miss by Ryan, setting up free throws for junior guard Olin Chamberlain (10 points) to put the Hawks up 55-52 a few moments later.

“Last year, even early this season, I didn’t really get those rebounds,” Harper said. “I tried to get that rebound.”

He wasn’t done, pressuring Ryan guard Darren Williams into a turnover alongside Ellerbee. The two ensuing free throws capped a terrific quarter and a comeback win for St. Joe’s Prep.

Guillouette was in the stands watching his former team play on Tuesday and came out of the locker room with his old teammates insisting he get to read about Harper’s big day on Wednesday morning.

“He was huge in the clutch, hitting great shots, playing great defense against a much taller defender, just playing tough,” Ellerbee said.

Harrigan noted Harper is embracing the challenge of playing extra big for St. Joe’s, a challenge that was compounded Tuesday with team’s only other player with a little bit of size, Jackson Maguire, still a little banged up.

Tuesday’s win was just one for the Hawks, whose ultimate goal is the Palestra. It was a big one though to show they can play with (and take down) anybody.

“This is really our toughest challenge when it comes to being smaller, but we’ve still got tough games against really good bigs like Roman, even Father Judge,” Harper said. “We still got to continue to work.”

St. Joe’s Prep 57, Archbishop Ryan 52

By Quarter:

AR: 15 | 15 | 15 | 7 || 52

SJP: 13 | 6 | 19 | 19 || 57

Scoring:

AR: Thomas Sorber 22, Jaden Murray 14, Rocco Morabito 7, Darren Williams 6, Ryan Everett 3.

SJP: Jordan Ellerbee 19, Jalen Harper 16, Jaron McKie 12, Olin Chamberlain 10.