City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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The Philadelphia Catholic League boys had three games on Sunday's schedule. Here's a roundup of the day's action, which included a trio of big-time performances:

Bonner-Prendergast 74, Devon Prep 62

DEVON — The Bonner-Prendergast boys basketball team felt the urgency Sunday afternoon.

Coming off two straight losses in the Catholic League, the Friars didn’t want to fall too far behind the top half of the league.

Senior forward Deuce Ketner rose to the occasion for the Friars. Ketner poured in a career-high 30 points to go with eight rebounds and two steals in a 74-62 victory over Devon Prep. After Ketner carried the load with a huge first half, the rest of his teammates came alive after the break to spur the Friars to a comeback win. 

“That’s what we want,” Bonner head coach Billy Cassidy said. “Just lead by example by just playing hard. Make it tough for the other team and good things happened. All of our seniors had that approach today, and they all had a piece in today’s win.

The Friars’ win over the Tide in the second-to-last game of the regular season in 2022-23 proved the difference in Bonner claiming the 10th and final spot in the Catholic League playoffs over Devon.

Even though the matchup came a little earlier this season, Cassidy stressed the importance to his team. Both teams came into Sunday limping a little. Bonner (10-5, 3-3) had lost its last two and three of four in the PCL. Devon (5-9, 1-5) entered with four losses in the league already, including three straight.

Led by Conlon’s eight first-quarter points, Devon took a 14-10 first quarter lead. Recent Washington College commit Ben Costello (eight points) helped the Tide built their lead as large as eight, 27-19, with 1:53 left in the second quarter. Bonner responded to the deficit with a 7-0 run to close the half. Ketner had 18 as Friars trailed 27-26. 

Bonner reeled off four more in a row to start the second half. Ultimately a combined 21-4 run in the last two minutes of the second and first three and a half minutes of the third put the Friars up 40-31. 

“We called a timeout and told them, ‘Let’s get it to five,’ and we’ll be fine,” Cassidy said. “They got it to one, which was even better and we had all the momentum. It was just a matter of playing hard and applying pressure to them defensively. They came out and did that. We came out in transition, made some shots and we played our game in the second half, which was nice to see and everyone had a piece of it. It was huge for our seniors.”

Senior Kevin Rucker had eight points of his 13 in the third quarter as Bonner went into the fourth up 49-39. Devon never got closer than nine despite juniors Shane Doyle (14 points) and Reece Kraft (13 points) hitting shots. Senior Reggie Selden had 10 of his 17 points in the second half and senior Kyree Womack and nine of his 10 points in the second half. Junior forward Kenny Gatling chipped in four points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

“Today, you talk about a must win to get ourselves in the playoffs, that’s kind of the position we put ourselves in right in,” Cassidy said. “Today, was a must win. We talked about it. We didn’t have the best practice yesterday, but we knew what we had to do today, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

By Quarter
Bonner:  14  |   12   |  23  |  25  ||  74
Devon: 18  |  9  |  12  |  23  ||  62

Scoring
Bonner: Deuce Ketner 30, Reggie Selden 17, Kevin Rucker 13, Kyree Womack 10, Kenny Gaitling 4.

Devon: Zane Conlon 18, Shane Doyle 14, Reece Craft 13, Ben Costello 8, Calvin Smith 5, Mason Thear 4.

~~~

Archbishop Wood 96, Archbishop Carroll 69

A senior-laden Wood squad imposed its will on Carroll on Sunday. Drexel commit Josh Reed scored 27 points to lead four double-figure scorers in the explosive outing, leading the Vikings to their third straight win.

Wood (8-7, 4-2 PCL) jumped out to a 20-15 lead after one quarter and expanded that advantage to 42-30 by halftime. Reed had 16 points in the first half. The Vikings continued to jump on the young Patriots (10-6, 3-4) in the third quarter, going into the fourth with a 66-44 lead.

Senior Miami (Fla.) commit Jalil Bethea scored 18 points, senior Tahir Howell added 13 and junior Milan Dean chipped in 10 for Wood. Sophomore Ian WIlliams tallied 19 points for Carroll, and sophomore Luca Foster added another 12.

Wood’s gone through the gauntlet already this season and has another marquee matchup upcoming Wednesday against St. Joe’s Prep.

By Quarter
Carroll:  15  |   15   |  14  |  25  ||  69
Wood: 20  |  22  |  24  |  30  ||  96

Scoring

Carroll: Ian Williams 19, Luca Foster 12, Nasir Rawls 12, Darrell Davis 8, Nate Rusike 7, Drew Corrao 6, Munir Greig 5.

Wood: Josh Reed 27, Jalil Bethea 18, Tahir Howell 13, Milan Dean 10, Mike Green 9, Jenkins 5, Deuce Maxey 4, I Beyah 3, Brady MacAdams 3, Kelly 3, Denard 1.

~~~

St. Joe’s Prep 55, Lansdale Catholic 42

Though they struggled to find their rhythm offensively in the first half, the Hawks got going in the second half to stay unbeaten in the Catholic League.

Junior guard Jaron McKie scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, including 10 in the third quarter. Classmate Jordan Ellerbee added 15.

The Hawks (12-2, 6-0 PCL) led 21-18 at half behind senior Matt Gorman’s nine points against a Crusaders (1-11, 0-6) squad that was fighting for its first league win. The game was still within reach, 36-30, heading into the final eight minutes. Sophomore James Webb led LC with 12 points.

Ellerbee and McKie combined for 15 of SJP’s 19 points in the fourth, going 7-for-7 from the foul line, to seal the win.

By Quarter
SJP:  12  |   9   |  15  |  19  ||  55
LC: 9  |  9  |  12  |  14  ||  42

Scoring

SJP: Jaron McKie 22, Jordan Ellerbee 15, Matt Gorman 9, Jalen Harper 4, Olin Chamberlain 2, Will Lesovitz 1.

LC: James Webb 12, Caron Bethea 9, Yeboa Cobbold 8, Rowan Romero 7, Jack Trezciak 6.