City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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MALVERN, PA — They looked sunk. They were sunk. Down 11 with five minutes to go, the Cardinal O’Hara Lions appeared to have little hope of beating Devon Prep in the opening round of the Catholic League playoffs Wednesday night.

Then, almost from nowhere, came Anthony Hobbs. The Lions’ senior guard had started for a portion of the season, before coming off the bench recently. He did not sulk about it. He did not quit on himself. He stayed and fought. That fight surfaced Wednesday night when Hobbs scored all six of his points in the fourth quarter, including a clutch steal and a three-pointer to propel O’Hara to an improbable 63-61 victory over the Tide.

Seeded No. 9, O’Hara (9-13 overall) will advance to play No. 1 seed and defending Catholic League champion Roman Catholic on Friday at Holy Family, while No. 8 seed Devon Prep (9-13) will have to wait for the District 12 3A championship game after an uncharacteristic deluge of turnovers in the last 1:50 of play.

“We were dead, but I had told myself that if I get back in this game, I would try my hardest,” said Hobbs, who played a big role in the Lions’ surprising victory over St. Joe’s Prep last year. “This year we had to fight through adversity and I think [that] was good for us. We kept telling each other to keep fighting, keep fighting. We knew if we cut it to three, we would come back.”

Hobbs kept telling himself to stay calm.

“I had the confidence in myself, I was ready,” Hobbs said. “We needed some energy and we had to find that in ourselves. We had to fight and it is a fight we won.”

Because for three quarters and the first 2 minutes, 58 seconds of the fourth quarter, it looked like a fight the Lions were surely losing.

 Mason Thear, Devon Prep’s leading scorer with 19, had just put the Tide up, 59-48. Devon Prep had led by as much as 45-33 late in the third quarter. The Tide moved the ball exceptionally well, Zane Conlon was a bull inside, scoring 17, while Reece Craft, Shane Doyle and Calvin Smith chipped away from the outside.

The Lions were led by Rider-bound Aasim “Flash” Burton, who finished with a game-high 21, but it was O’Hara’s unsung players who pulled the Lions over the top. It was a Miles Johnson steal and score with 1:26 to play that brought O’Hara to within 61-60, and Tygee Clark keeping O’Hara in the game in the third quarter with some big shots when the Lions looked like they were sinking.

“I was thinking what I was going to say to them at the end of the game after our season,” Lions’ coaching legend and Big 5 Hall of Famer Fran O’Hanlon said. “All of a sudden Hobbs began stealing the ball and we were causing turnovers. I do not know if they scored the last few minutes (the last 2:01 to play). It was a terrific comeback by us. These were live-ball turnovers, too> We were coming down and getting shots. That was very unlike them. Devon Prep takes care of the ball and shoots well.”

O’Hanlon liked how Hobbs stayed strong this season.

“Anthony has always been a really good defender, but we needed scoring and it’s why we made the move, but I admire Anthony for not sulking and that he kept fighting,” O’Hanlon said. “I wanted to give the seniors their chance. It was their time. It was their season. It was Anthony’s time and he took advantage of it. It was a really nice win for us. We will worry about Roman a little later.

“But we get to play another day.”

Devon Prep will get to play another day, too. The Tide will face Math, Civics & Sciences in the district title game later this month, both teams automatically qualifying for the PIAA 3A state tournament, which starts the second week of March. 

“We had them,” Thear said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight. It just came down to turnovers and I took part in that. We kind of got a little slow, after playing almost the whole game at a fast pace. I don’t know if we got tired or not. But we just stopped caring about the ball.”

The Tide turned the ball over seven times in the fourth quarter, which equaled how many times they turned the ball over combined in the first three quarters. Of the seven Devon Prep fourth-quarter turnovers, three came in the last 1:50, when O’Hara made its push.

“This is something to remember,” Hobbs said. “I know we have Roman next, but we’re still playing.”

By Quarter
Cardinal O’Hara (9-13):  10  | 13 |  18  |  22 ||  63
Devon Prep (9-13): 14  | 14  |  22  | 11 ||  61

Scoring
O’Hara: Aasim Burton 21, Ethan Schulcz 12, Pearse McGuinn 9, Tygee Clark 7, Anthony Hobbs 6, Jack Quinn 4, Miles Johnson 4

Devon Prep: Mason Thear 19, Zane Conlon 17, Reece Craft 10, Shane Doyle 9, Calvin Smith 6