City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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SPRINGFIELD — Chris McNesby let out a sigh of relief after addressing his team Wednesday night. The Roman Catholic boys basketball coach knew there would be nights like this, when little seemed to work, yet somehow, some way, his team would prevail.

That’s what the Cahillites did, find a way, against a good team, District 1 No. 3-seed West Chester Henderson, in a 47-40 victory in the second round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs played at Cardinal O’Hara High School.

District 12 No. 1-seed Roman (27-2) advances to the state quarterfinal round against District 11 champion Parkland, a 61-46 winner over Chambersburg, on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

Led by Connor Fleet’s 13 points and Nyle Ralph-Beyer’s 11, Henderson (25-6) played well, but the Warriors had some trouble with the Cahillites’ pressure and turned the ball over 16 times, seven of them in the second quarter.

Roman, meanwhile, had problems nailing its shots, shooting 16 of 54 for the game. Many were shots close to the basket. Part of that was Henderson’s doing, part was the Cahillites going cold.

McNesby was just pleased to be moving forward. The rest he was willing to flush.

“I just told my teams sometimes in tournaments you win games that you shouldn’t have won, and that was one right there,” McNesby said. “We missed a ton of layups, a ton of 3s, a ton of free throws. If you gave me the stats of what we did offensively, and I didn’t know the score, I would say we lost. But one thing we did was a good job on their guys Fleet and Ralph-Beyer.

“The goal was to hold them under a combined total of 26. They had 24. We try to keep teams under 45. We did that. We just flush this and move on. We know we are a fairly decent team and we have a track record. We have to move on. That’s what we take from this, we move on.”

The Cahillites were led by Shareef Jackson’s team-high 13 points, with Robert Cottrell and Sammy Jackson, Shareef’s brother, chipping in with 11 each.

But it was Sammy Jackson who exploded with a big third quarter that began pulling the sway of the game in favor of Roman. He scored seven of his 11 in the quarter, including playing solid perimeter defense.

“I wasn’t too happy with the first half, and we picked it up toward the end,” Sammy said. “People underestimate us because of us missing guys because of eligibility. We didn’t start off with any rhythm. Once we began talking to each other, even though we weren’t hitting shots, our chemistry was still there. We won and move on, but we have to reflect on this to see what we can better.”

Henderson led 14-11, but Roman held the Warriors scoreless the final 3 minutes, 43 seconds of the first half, while ending the second quarter on a 9-0 spurt. The Warriors were not able to recover, although they did pull within 28-26 late in the third quarter on a Dylan Delucia 3-pointer with 1:56 left in the quarter.

Again the Henderson offense stalled, while Roman closed on a 6-0 run that spilled over into a 9-0 on a Cottrell trey with 7:24 left to play, giving Roman a 37-26 lead.

Just when it looked like the Cahillites would run away, Henderson began chipping away again. The Warriors got within 43-38 with just over two minutes to play but did not score again until there were 3 seconds left in the game.

What cannot get lost is the season Henderson had. Under coach Jason Ritter, the Warriors won their first state playoff game in school history, won a single-season record 25 games and the seniors set a new standard for future Henderson teams.

As Ritter, who called the senior class the best in program history, was breaking down his team’s achievements, he did so with a beaming smile on his face.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Ritter said. “I got a little emotional there when I spoke to them after the game. I thanked them for taking the coaching staff and the fans for a great ride. I do say this with a smile on my face because this team played so hard, and I love them so much. I’m disappointed I won’t see them at practice tomorrow, but at the same time, I’m so happy for everything they went through to get to this point.

“The standard has been set. This is special. These seniors are special. My lasting memory will be those 6 a.m. summer runs. I’ll miss the relationships.”

By Quarter

West Chester Henderson: 10 | 4 | 12 | 14 || 40

Roman Catholic: 8 | 12 | 14 | 13 || 47

Scoring

West Chester Henderson: Connor Fleet 13, Nyle Ralph-Beyer 11, Dylan Delucia 6, Jesse Smith 6, Aaron Nelson 2, Ryan Ranalli 2.

Roman Catholic: Shareef Jackson 13, Robert Cottrell 11, Sammy Jackson 11, Hunter Johnson 8, Semaj Robinson 3, Malik Hughes 1.

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PIAA 6A Boys (local games)

First Round (Sat., March 9)
12-3 Archbishop Wood 81, 1-5 Methacton 73
1-1 Lower Merion 85, 3-6 Cedar Crest 55
1-3 West Chester Henderson 80, 2-2 Hazleton Area 73
3-4 Reading 65, 1-4 Chester 63
3-5 Central York 69, 1-2 Garnet Valley 60
12-1 Roman Catholic 63, 1-11 Downingtown West 37
1-6 Coatesville 57, 11-2 Liberty 46 (2OT)
1-8 Springfield (Delco) 59, 12-2 Lincoln 43
11-1 Parkland 65, 1-10 Plymouth Whitemarsh 35
3-1 Cumberland Valley 84, 1-12 Bensalem 59
1-9 Spring-Ford 55, 2-1 Scranton 52
3-2 Chambersburg 72, 1-7 Central Bucks East 41

Second Round (Wed., March 13)
12-3 Archbishop Wood 66, 1-1 Lower Merion 64
1-9 Spring-Ford 45, 1-8 Springfield (Delco) 32
12-1 Roman Catholic 47, 1-3 West Chester Henderson 40
1-6 Coatesville 52, 3-1 Cumberland Valley 37

Quarterfinals (Sat., March 16)
12-3 Archbishop Wood vs. 1-9 Spring-Ford
11-1 Parkland vs. 12-1 Roman Catholic
1-6 Coatesville vs. 3-4 Reading

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.