City of Basketball Love

Ryan Coyle (@ryancoyle35)
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NORRISTOWN — Jalil Bethea has the ability to put himself into another gear in the fourth quarter. 

In Saturday afternoon’s 67-61 victory over Spring-Ford in the PIAA Class 6A boys basketball quarterfinals at Norristown High School, Bethea, a Miami (Fl.) commit, scored 18 of his game-high 31 points to lead Archbishop Wood to within two wins of a state championship. 

“I feel like that is just the quarter that I have to play my hardest at,” Bethea said. “The first half was a slow half. At halftime, I basically thought to myself, ‘You got this,’ basically just piping my own head up and just everything came to me.”

Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga was in attendance to watch the top-10 recruit in the 2024 class alongside Philadelphia native and Miami assistant D.J. Irving. 

Spring-Ford took a 45-41 lead into the final frame, but Bethea and his Wood teammates dominated the final quarter 26-16, ending the game on a 10-0 run to advance to the semifinals. They will play District 11 champion Parkland, a 57-50 winner over Roman Catholic, Monday at a site and time to be determined.

The fourth quarter started off in track-meet style with the Rams and Vikings exchanging buckets.

Bethea hit two deep 3-pointers and threw down a thunderous slam in the lane, but the Vikings still trailed 59-56 with 3:19 left. 

With the game knotted up at 61 with 1:17 left and coming off a Spring-Ford timeout, Wood’s Ihsan Beyah came up with a clutch steal that led to a leak-out where Tahir Howell got fouled on a layup with 39.4 seconds left.

Howell calmly knocked down both freebies to give the Vikings the go-ahead 63-61 lead. Wood shot 8 of 15 from the line entering the fourth quarter but knocked down 7 of 10 in crunch time.

“We had a couple critical turnovers against their pressure, that obviously hurt,” Joe Dempsey said. “I knew we couldn’t hold the ball the entire minute and a half, they are too aggressive, too good. We should have gone downhill a little bit better.” 

“We were able to stay with it and pressure and were able to force a turnover and made our foul shots when it mattered most,” Wood head coach John Mosco said.

Mosco attributed the need for the comeback effort and the slow start to a lack of focus in the early going.

“I think the problem was we weren’t focused,” Mosco said. “It’s a 12 o'clock start, we weren’t as focused after the last win. We battled, but then we got focused, we got into the game. We got punched in the face. We either had to respond or we were going home.”

The first half was chippy, with a lot of trash talking on both sides and frequent complaints from the coaches and players toward the officiating. Bethea, Mosco and Dempsey and Spring-Ford’s Matt Zollers (13 points) all received technical fouls in the first half. Mosco and Dempsey received both their technicals simultaneously and were forced to sit while they coached for the remainder of the game.

“After I got the T, I think I was more calmer,” Mosco said. “I wasn’t that calm in the first quarter. After I calmed down, I think they calmed down and settled in as well.”

Spring-Ford was able to hold Bethea to only six points in the first half, as he shot only 2 of 8 from the field and a very uncharacteristic 1 of 4 from the line. But in the second half, he got loose for multiple deep 3s and scored 25 points as he put the Vikings on his back.

Despite the slow start, Bethea’s confidence never wavered. 

“I’m always going to pipe myself up,” Bethea said. “I feel like that confidence, whenever I am in a slump, I am just going to keep shooting the ball till it eventually goes in.”

Jacob Ngyuen had a stellar performance for Spring-Ford, scoring 22 points and knocking down 5-of-7 shots from downtown, but he was held to only two points in the fourth quarter.

“Milan Dean guarded Ngyuen great in the second half,” Mosco said. “Our defense picked up.”

Dean had a strong game on both ends of the floor and contributed 13 to the scoring column. Drexel commit Josh Reed dropped 14 points for the Vikings.

Spring-Ford's E.J. Campbell finished with 13 points in the last game of his standout high school career. 

The Rams lost despite shooting 9 of 22 from downtown, but they were only able to knock down one 3 in the final frame.

“It was a coin flip at the end, it really was,” Dempsey said. “I’m just proud of my kids. They played tough.”

By Quarter

Archbishop Wood: 20 | 8 | 13 | 26 || 67

Spring-Ford: 17 | 12 | 16 | 16 || 61

Shooting

Archbishop Wood: 24-46 FG (4-19 3PT), 15-25 FT

Spring-Ford: 23-46 FG (9-22 3PT), 6-10 FT 

Scoring

Archbishop Wood: Bethea 31, Reed 14, Dean 11, Howell 5, Maxey 4, Green 2

Spring-Ford: Ngyen 22, Zollers 13, Campbell 13, Kelly 6, Mokonchu 5, Marsillo 2

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PIAA 6A Boys

Quarterfinals (Sat., March 16)
12-3 Archbishop Wood 67, 1-9 Spring-Ford 61
11-1 Parkland 57, 12-1 Roman Catholic 50
3-4 Reading 62, 1-6 Coatesville 44
3-5 Central York 71, 7-1 Upper St. Clair 60

Semifinals (Tue., March 19)
12-3 Archbishop Wood vs. 11-1 Parkland
3-4 Reading vs. 3-5 Central York

Championship at Giant Center (Sat., March 23)
TBD, 8 p.m.