City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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POTTSTOWN — Darrell Davis and Munir Greig are the youngest among a group of Archbishop Carroll boys basketball youngsters. 

At times it shows with youthful mistakes. At others it doesn't, and they're the best players on the court.

“We are kind of young, but it don’t matter,” Greig said. “When we step on that court, we don’t care who’s in front of us. We just go right after them.”

In a game where the Patriots’ youth and talent was both on display, the freshman duo shone brightest to lead Carroll to a 60-42 win over Engineering & Sciences in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals Friday night at Pottstown High School.

Davis scored 16 and Greig added 15 as they each buried a trio of triples to advance to Monday’s semifinal against Scranton Prep.

It will be the program’s second state semifinal in three years — though none of coach Francis Bowe’s all-sophomore and freshman rotation were around for that one.

“Coach Bowe just congratulated us,” Davis said. “For as young as we are, we’re the fourth in history to make it to the Final Four of states. It’s big. We gotta keep going. We don’t want our season to end.”

Friday’s state quarterfinal was a rematch of a Dec. 11 regular-season game that Carroll won 61-27. That was the fifth game of the season for Carroll (20-8) and third for E&S (21-7).

The game played out a lot tighter this time.

E&S sophomore Fareed Brown led his team with 20 points. Davis had 11 and Brown had 10 at halftime as the Engineers were within two, 22-20, at the break.

“We kept saying to ourselves if we played them again it would be a different outcome,” E&S coach John Brown said. 

“They grew up between December and now.”

Greig aided Davis with nine in the first half. He played a key role in a dominant third-quarter stretch that gave Carroll control.

The Patriots started the second half on a 21-2 run to go up 43-22 with 1:18 left in the third. Greig hit a pair of 3s during the stretch and assisted on a triple by Nasir Ralls to finish off the run.

“It was very big when (Munir) hit the shots, and it gets him going,” Davis said. “It keeps his head in the game, and gets the team energized. It’s just a great vibe, great feeling. We’re playing together, we’re sticking together through all the bad moments.”

Sophomore point guard Ian Williams scored eight points and added six assists, and sophomores Luca Foster and Ralls both chipped in eight points.

Greig and Davis first played together on the grassroots circuit for Team Takeover in seventh grade. When Davis moved to the Philadelphia area in late August, he became excited about the fact the two would share the court again.

The excitement was mutual.

“It feels great to me,” Greig said. “I love playing with Rell. He’s the best point guard in 2027. … He does everything the right way.”

It’s a promising pairing that will be fun to watch develop alongside the talented sophomore group over the next three seasons. 

They’ve proven they're ready to win right now, though. Up next is Scranton Prep, a 76-75 winner over Carroll’s Catholic League rival and District 12 champion Neumann-Goretti.

“My mindset heading into every game is I’m not going home without a chip,” Davis said.

Friday’s loss ended the deepest run in program history for E&S. 

The Engineers won the Public League "B" Division title for the first time since 2012 earlier this season. They played in the District 12 Class 4A title game and after winning their first state playoff game since 2006 added another to reach the quarterfinals for the first time.

Seniors like Tali Simpkins, Lut Young and Anthony Brown have set the bar high for the underclassmen like sophomores Fareed Brown, Matt McField and Sahin Rodriguez.

“After Tuesday’s game watching all the footage that they were posting on social media, seeing the excitement from them, the adulation, it said to me that’s what we coach them for, for these moments for the kids,” E&S coach John Brown said. “Do we want it to come to an end? No. Nobody expected us to be here, but we believed in those kids. I’m just proud of what they accomplished. They made history for Carver High School.”

By Quarter

Carroll  9 | 13 | 21 | 17 || 60

E&S  8 | 12 | 7 | 15 || 42

Scoring

Carroll: Darrell Davis 16, Munir Greig 15, Luca Foster 8, Nasir Ralls 8, Ian Williams 8, Mason Murawski 3.

E&S: Fareed Brown 20, Sahin Rodriguez 7, Anthony Brown 4, Aaron Williams 4,Tali Simpkins 3, Lut Young 2, Teon Smith 2.

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PIAA 4A Boys

Quarterfinals (Fri. March 15)
2-1 Scranton Prep 76, 12-1 Neumann-Goretti 75
12-3 Archbishop Carroll 60, 12-2 Engineering & Science 42
7-2 Hampton 60, 3-1 Eastern York 54
7-1 Lincoln Park 89, 7-5 North Catholic 74

Semifinals (Mon., March 18)
2-1 Scranton Prep vs. 12-3 Archbishop Carroll
7-2 Hampton vs. 7-1 Lincoln Park

Championship at Giant Center (Thu., March 21)
TBD, 8 p.m.