City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
––

DREXEL HILL — When Anthony Lilly was still just a middle schooler, his parents had an idea of how his eventual high school career would go. Anthony had already made it clear he would be following his older brother Paul to Father Judge, basketball the tall youngster’s sport of choice. 

“They kept saying to me, my senior year, I think you guys will make it to the Palestra,” Lilly recalled.

At the time, that seemed a little optimistic: Judge wasn’t exactly a basketball powerhouse in a league full of them, hadn’t been to the Catholic League semifinals — hosted at the Palestra, the venerable gym on Penn’s campus that’s become the mecca of Philly high school basketball — since the 1998-99 season. 

As it turns out, Kathy and Paul Lilly might have been onto something. 

Though a potential trip to the Palestra is still a few weeks off — and a handful of hard-fought wins — away, the Crusaders are putting themselves in position to end a 25-year drought. A 69-64 win at Bonner-Prendergast on Wednesday night moved the Friars to 6-1 in the Catholic League, tied with two others for second place, right there in the mix for a top-four seed and the resulting home quarterfinal game that brings with it.

There’s a lot of basketball to be played, no doubt. But Judge is in a place it hasn’t too often been in recent memory.

Since Bill Fox led the Crusaders to a PCL title in 1998 and semifinal appearance a year later, Judge hasn’t been further than the quarterfinals. They were last that deep in the league playoffs in 2017, one of just three quarterfinals appearances since 2007. 

But a win over Roman Catholic on Monday was a big sign that Judge’s time might be arriving right now, even with a still-young core leading the way.

Lilly, Judge’s starting ‘5’ man, has had an up-and-down four years, but both he and the program are trending in the right direction as his high school career winds down.

“Oh my god, it’s like, unbelievable,” Lilly said. “I’m just happy, being 6-1 right now and we’re like top three, top two in the league right now. I’m like damn, we actually put the work in and we actually progressed. I’m so happy.

“I just feel so proud to be a Father Judge Crusader right now, maybe [make] a Palestra run. I’m excited for the future.”

Lilly (21, right) has become one of the leaders for Judge, helping younger players like Nazir Tyler (3) and Derrick Morton-Rivera (44). (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The 6-foot-6 forward, whose family lives just five minutes from Judge’s Solly Avenue campus, arrived at Judge to play for head coach Sean Tait, who’d been at his alma mater since 2010. But Tait’s 11-year run ended after Lilly’s freshman year, the Crusaders going 2-10 in the league during the COVID-shortened season. 

Chris Roantree was John Mosco’s top assistant as they turned Archbishop Wood into a powerhouse. He was brought in to do the same thing at Judge, which was aiming to shed its reputation as a neighborhood school in a league whose members had largely abandoned that model years ago. 

“Sophomore year, I was kind of worried I was going to lose my spot,” Lilly said. “But my whole family was talking to me — put the work in, and good things happen.”

Lilly didn’t lose his spot on the team, but he only started two games as a sophomore. Though he started 20 games as a junior, he only averaged a little more than 10 mpg, averaging 2.7 ppg and 2.5 rpg on a Judge team that went 11-12 overall, 6-7 in PCL play, a two-win league improvement over the year before. 

“He probably didn’t know what to expect when I got there, he started as a freshman, and the last two years haven’t been easy for him,” Roantree said. “We yin-and-yanged him a little bit.”

Lilly stuck with it, and Roantree stuck with him. He’s been Judge’s full-time starter again as a senior, but his minutes have taken a solid tick upwards. He’s not the leading scorer or rebounder on a deep Crusaders squad, but there’s no doubt he’s making his biggest impact yet. 

That was clear in Wednesday’s win, to which Lilly contributed six points, four rebounds, three assists and block as he played about half the minutes, splitting time at the ‘5’ with 6-8 junior forward Everett Barnes. 

“He’s been a great leader for us, he’s been a great teammate all the time, he’s helped Ev a lot,” Roantree said. “He’s been fantastic this year and I love seeing it, he’s setting himself up to have a really nice Division III college career, which is great, what you want to see from those types of kids. I love him.

“The one thing that he really has honed in on is his mental ability to take criticism,” he added. “If something’s going wrong, last year he would have gone south, and he’s really matured doing that this year and me not getting crazy with him, him not getting crazy with me; he’s really matured and it’s great.”

Lilly said he was hearing from numerous area Division III schools, naming Wilkes, Juniata, Elizabethtown, Arcadia, and Gwynedd Mercy; he’s taking visits to that group and others, and won’t make a decision until after the season ends.

Right now, he’s focused on being one of the leaders for a group that’s relying on mostly non-seniors to do a lot of the heavy lifting. 

Junior guard Kevair Kennedy was outstanding with a game-high 26 points for Judge (12-4, 6-1), the 5-10 guard slashing his way to the rim as he converted on four and-one opportunities, including two back-to-back in the third quarter to help Judge hold off a charging Bonner (10-6, 3-4). 

The Crusaders led 21-9 after one quarter but the Friars closed the gap to eight (35-27) at halftime, then tied it in the third before Kennedy helped Judge lead 51-47 going into the fourth. The visitors held the edge the whole final eight minutes, getting key 3-pointers from senior LaQuan Byrd and sophomore Rocco Westfield to help them hold off a Bonner side led by senior guard Kevin Rucker’s 28 points.

Sophomore Derrick Morton-Rivera added a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double for Judge, which has two more big tests ahead with home games against St. Joe’s Prep (6-1) on Friday and archrival Archbishop Ryan (5-2) on Monday.

Just like with the Roman game, Judge will go into both of those not just thinking they could win, but that they should win. That’s a mindset the Crusaders developed over the summer, Roantree said, beating a few high-profile teams at Philly Live, and has rolled into the season.

 It’s not that Judge never thought it would win games before. It’s not that the last couple years’ locker rooms lacked confidence. But…

“Not like this year,” Lilly said. “Not like this year.”

~~

By Quarter
Bonner:   9   |  18  |  20  |  17  ||  64
Judge:    21  |  14  |  16  |  18  ||  69

Shooting
Bonner: 24-59 FG (7-27 3PT), 9-17 FT
Judge: 22-46 FG (7-18 3PT), 18-25 FT

Scoring
Bonner: Kevin Rucker 28, Kyree Womack 12, Deuce Ketner 9, Korey Francis 7, Reggie Selden 6, Kenjai Gatling 2

Judge: Kevair Kennedy 26, Derrick Morton-Rivera 17, LaQuan Byrd 9, Anthony Lilly 6, Max Moshinski 4, Rocco Westfield 3, Everett Barnes 2, Nazir Tyler 2