City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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NORTHEAST — Roman Catholic’s Philadelphia Catholic League title defense began this season with a group trying to get back to the Palestra, although quite a few Cahillites players had never been there before.

Along with junior pillar Shareef Jackson and senior point guard Robert Cottrell, a new-look Roman squad followed up last season’s PCL championship with the top seed in the league tournament. 

The Cahillites looked every bit the par of the league’s top dogs in Friday 71-32 night’s romp over Cardinal O’Hara, setting up a matchup with Father Judge on Wednesday at the Cathedral of College Basketball.

“Coach Chris (McNesby) needed people to step up for him this year, and I was one of them,” senior Hunter Johnson said. “Now I’m going to the Palestra.”

Johnson’s one of a handful of new upperclassmen in the mix for coach Chris McNesby this season, along with seniors Travis Reed and Kabe Goss. They’ve had some young players like Jackson’s younger brother Sammy, a sophomore, and junior Sebastian Edwards step up after mostly watching last season.

Cottrell led the way with 16 points Friday and Reed and Jackson added 12 apiece and Sammy Jackson joined them in double figures with 11. Senior forward Pearse McGuinn scored 10 for O’Hara, which will continue its season in the PIAA Class 4A tournament.

The balanced scoring attack was nothing new for Roman, which has gotten contributions deep down the rotation this season — something different from the last two years when McNesby went about six guys deep, relying on stars like Daniel Skillings (Cincinnati) and Xzayvier Brown (St. Joe’s). 

“It’s nice now that we have some depth and we can use some guys and everyone’s onboard,” McNesby said. “They know they’re coming in, coming out and everyone gets back in fighting.”

Roman jumped out to a double-digit lead early in the second quarter Friday and went into the half with a 31-16 advantage. It didn’t take long after halftime, about a minute, for that lead to grow to 20. The Cahillites extended the advantage to 30 not long after. Roman outscored the O'Hara, 30-7, in the third quarter to coast into the semifinal round. 

“(McNesby) said don’t give them life, so we tried our best not to give them life,” Cottrell said.

The Cahillites breezed past O’Hara in the quarterfinals last season before taking down Wood and winning a classic overtime championship game against Neumann-Goretti.

There’s no Erik Oliver-Bush this season or Jermai Stewart-Herring or Anthony Finkley or the hero Brown, now starring with St. Joe’s alongside Finkley. But McNesby could see Brown’s example passed down to the younger players in the program. The older ones who came in fell in line behind Jackson, the team’s only first team All-PCL selection.

“It’s part of the legacy,” McNesby said.

“Not to say we have any magic formula, but I think we’re fortunate to have some kids with some character and they're good kids and they’re coachable,” he added. “Every one of these kids is coachable, and they’re fun to be around and they're good teammates. That’s what makes it fun.”

Johnson, who played his sophomore season at O’Hara and then at Orlando Christian Prep in Florida last season, highlighted the impact McNesby's had on the growth of his game this season.

He said it was a group easy to mesh with when they started playing together in the fall and that's translated to the balanced attack on the floor around the centerpiece Jackson.

“You never know with this team,” Johnson said. “We all can chip in. We all can help. That’s what helps us. We’re all diverse. We all can help in certain ways.”

“Everybody has each other’s back,” Cottrell said. "We all play for each other. We don’t have one guy we can rely on. We can rely on everybody on the team.”

There will be a lot of new faces on the floor at the Palestra next Wednesday as the perennial power Cahillites face a Judge team making the program’s first semifinal appearance since 1999. The Crusaders knocked off Roman, 76-62, back on Jan. 22.

Cottrell’s confident his teammates will be ready for the big stage. Johnson knows what to expect and thinks his young teammates will be ready too.

“It’s gonna be a big crowd, a big, big crowd,” Johnson said. “We’re really gonna need people who didn’t play last year like Bash, Sammy. Those people are gonna be our X-factors this year because they can really help us.”

McNesby’s no stranger to the Palestra as he’s guided his fair share of teams on deep PCL runs. He’s happy to see another group of upperclassmen earn their special moment.

“For the kids to have this experience is pretty awesome,” McNesby said. “They deserve it, guys like Hunter and Trav and Kabe. You want it for them.”

Roman Catholic 71, Cardinal O'Hara 32

Cardinal O'Hara  5 | 11 | 7 | 9 || 32
Roman Catholic  14 | 17 | 30 | 10 || 71

Scoring
O'Hara: Pearse McGuinn 10, Aasim Burton 9, Miles Johnson 8, Tygee Clark 5.

Roman: Robert Cottrell 16, Shareef Jackson 12, Travis Reed 12, Sammy Jackson 11, Hunter Johnson 7, Kabe Goss 5, Sebastian Edwards 4.