City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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BOOTHWYN, PA — Kival Clarke could barely get up, let alone walk across the tiles of the Penn Wood locker room Thursday night. It seemed every tendon and joint in the 5-foot-9 senior guard’s body ached. His knees were swollen, as he shuffled along, and none of that was about to deter the smile on his face.

Penn Wood needed this. Clarke needed this.

The Patriots have had problems closing games early this season, but head coach Matt Lindeman got a nice boost from Clarke and his team Thursday night, as they pulled away from a late Chichester charge to win their first Del-Val League game this season, 47-41.

Penn Wood (6-6 overall, 1-1 Del-Val) had yielded fourth-quarter leads in four of its six losses. Clarke prevented that from happening by scoring seven of the Pat’s final nine points in erasing a 41-36 deficit in a game where every point came at a premium.

Neither team shot the ball well nor could hang on to the ball. It made for an exciting, though ugly clash in which Penn Wood looked as if it had Chichester, the defending Del-Val champs, sunk leading 36-27 late in the third quarter.

But the young Eagles (6-6, 1-1) played possibly their best basketball this season in a five-minute span, going on a 14-0 tear and seemingly taking control of the game.

That is until Clarke, a three-sport athlete at Penn Wood, arrived.

He nailed a three-pointer with 3:34 to play, bringing the Patriots to within 41-39, and added two driving layups to add some cushion.

The Penn Wood victory comes in the wake of the Pats’ opening league loss to Chester, in which Penn Wood started the game 13-0.

“I know Clyde [Jones, Chichester’s coach] is going through the same thing we are, playing a lot of new people this year who don’t have much experience,” Lindeman said. “Even though we’re playing upperclassmen, this is all new to them. I’m glad they kept fighting. But it’s what inexperience looks like.

“We had a couple of huddles there telling the guys that our run would come, and we made a couple of plays in the row and things turned in our favor. Kival is a natural athlete and a super kid. His athleticism is scary. I don’t think I took him out tonight. We needed him. We’ve struggled closing game this year and it was nice to finally win one.”

Clarke played 30 of the 32 minutes Thursday night. He’s a defensive back and wide receiver in football who tried the triple jump last spring for the first time and qualified for the PIAA state track championships.

“I’ll probably play football in college and this is it for me,” said Clarke, a three-year starter in football who is getting attention for football from Eastern University and King’s College. “It hasn’t not hit me yet that this will be my last year playing basketball. I’m a little sore. I’m still trying to get into basketball shape. But this was good.

“We dug deep and this game I think bounces us back into a good spot. This is the first time I stepped up. It means a lot to come up and still be playing basketball. I felt the weight on the shoulders and I had to step up. When we were down, I tried to keep everyone up. I know I’ll sleep well tonight.”

This loss stung Jones and his team. The Eagles played hard, especially on defense, and looked like they were out of the game numerous with shoddy shooting, and going 7-for-19 from the free throw line.

But Chichester kept clawing back, riding Jayan Harris and Hamza Clay, who combined for 28 of Chichester’s 41 points.

Jones likes the effort. It’s a team that is not finishing near the basket.  

“We lost a number of close games in similar ways, missing a lot of layups and free throws,” Jones said. “This is a team capable of doing so much. Penn Wood had a chance of putting us away, but we have a different gear and a grit that we can go to that can keep us in games and serve us well.

“When we make layups and free throws, we’re going to be a tough team to beat. This team is capable of winning. We just lack discipline right now. We defend every night. There aren’t teams out there that will get away from us. I have confidence this is a good team. I just have to get them to believe it.”

By Quarter
Penn Wood:  7  |  13  |  16  |  11  ||  47
Chichester:   4   |  13  |  13  |  11  ||  41

Scoring
Penn Wood: Kival Clarke 13, Chris Taylor 7, Jekhi Estrada 6 Lamaj Mapp 4,

Adriano McClean 4, Donald Hairston 4, Taj Cobbs 4, Amauro Womack 3, Nafi Davis 2.

Chichester: Jayan Harris 15, Hamza Clay 13, Carlton Gordy 4, Derrick Robertson 2, Warren Wideman 2, Dilyn Butler 2, Siddiq Oglesby 2, Antonio Posey 1.

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.