City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
––

SPRINGFIELD — It’s a three-month pounding that the Devon Prep boys basketball team takes each year with a shared smile.

The Tide keep getting back up, and getting back up, and getting back up, after they get rung through the gauntlet of the Philadelphia Catholic League, the toughest high school basketball league in the state, and it is hardly ever pretty.

The bruises have a way of paying dividends — and leading to where they are going Saturday, the PIAA Class 3A state championship, where Devon Prep will try to win its second state championship in three years, after getting by Math, Civics & Sciences 69-50 in the state semifinals at Cardinal O’Hara High School in a rematch of the District 12 championship.

The No. 1 seed out of District 12, Devon Prep (14-13) will play District 10 No. 2-seed Franklin (24-5) at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Tide coach Jason Fisher did a superb job in getting them there, revamping his starting lineup, which lost junior starters Calvin Smith and Mason Thear due to transfer rules. Stepping into their roles has been juniors Mike Pergolis and Ayinde McClendon, who combined scored 32, including a career-best 22 from Pergolis coming off the bench.

When Devon Prep faced MCS in the District 12 championship a few weeks ago, Fisher had a completely new starting lineup, trying to figure it all out again. The math seems to have worked.

Five Devon Prep players scored in double figures, led by the sharp-shooting Pergolis, who had 15 by halftime while nailing four 3-pointers. Zane Conlon scored 15 as well, while Shane Doyle and Reece Craft had 11 each and McClendon chipped in with 10.

The Tide were a fine cohesive machine, working the ball, finding the cutters, showing patience on offense and most importantly nailing their shots. They went 11 of 20 from the floor in the first half in building a double-digit lead, and with 5:50 to play they opened that margin up to a game-high 20-point lead, 60-40.

“These guys have gotten better, and gotten better over the last three weeks, because it was like we were back in November with a whole new starting lineup,” Fisher said. “It’s awesome playing in the Catholic League. Every night we are going against the best league in the state, maybe the East Coast. Every night you are playing against high-level coaches and high-level players.

“We’re competitive and we realize in order to win those games, we have to have a lot of things go right.”

Everything has gone right since the Tide were knocked out of the Catholic League playoffs by O’Hara a month ago, after blowing an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead. Devon Prep is riding a five-game winning streak and has gained depth in that span.

“We don’t get the opportunity to play with leads in the Catholic League, and that game we had a lead and that was uncharted territory,” Fisher said. “We spent the last three weeks (learning) how to handle the leads.”

The Tide led from start to finish against MCS. Pergolis set the tone by making three 3-pointers.

“I started one game this year, and tonight I defended Milak Myatt, who is a really nice player,” Pergolis said. “My teammates trusted me in knocking down shots, and I had to deliver on that. We take the (Catholic League) losses and we take that as motivation. I was on the bench two years ago, but not in uniform (when Devon Prep beat Aliquippa for the state title).

“This is totally different. I can be on the court and make plays for my teammates.”

Conlon did suit in the state final as a freshman two years ago. He stressed playing the Catholic League giants preps them for playing schools their own size.

“That’s how we take it, we are surrounded by dogs on this team,” Conlon said. “We learned from the O’Hara loss. We watched the film and realized we can’t stop scoring. We have to remain aggressive and keep attacking the basket.”

Math, Civics & Sciences played its last basketball game Tuesday night in the state semifinals. The school is closing at the end of the year. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

For MCS (20-11), and its well-respected coach Lonnie Diggs, the loss was not just an end to the season but an end to the program. MCS will close its doors in June, and it was Diggs who had made the countless sacrifices for his players and the program since 2005.

“This was tough, really tough,” said Diggs, his eyes blood shot with emotion. “It will eventually sink in. I’ll always remember the good memories of being a coach and seeing these players turn into good people, good husbands, good fathers, and I wanted to see these kids go out with a state title.

“With the school closing, we wanted to go out on top. We had kids graduate from college and go on to do good things. We’ll see what is next for me. It was a little emotional saying goodbye because I know what these kids went through this year.”

Myatt, who led the Mighty Elephants with 19 points, transferred into MCS from Imhotep Charter and has a bright future. The cousin of former MCS star Wooga Poplar (Miami), the 6-foot-3 sophomore said he will play this summer and think about staying in the city.

“It depends on what the best situation is for me,” Myatt said. “I’ll remember playing hard and taking coaching, and Coach Lonnie helped me a lot. It was a little tough when I got here, not knowing anyone. I’ll remember my experience here.”

By Quarter

MCS: 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 || 50

Devon Prep: 20 | 13 | 18 | 18 || 69

Scoring

MCS: Milak Myatt 19, Azeem Murphy 12, Aiden Brown 9, Alantay Dawson 4, Zion Robinson 2, Rahki Mason 2, Nieem Gregory 2.

DP: Mike Pergolis 22, Zane Conlon 15, Shane Doyle 11, Reece Craft 11, Ayinde McClendon 10.

~~~

PIAA 3A Boys

Semifinals (Tue., March 19)
12-1 Devon Prep 69, 12-2 Math, Civics & Sciences 50
10-2 Franklin 64, 10-1 Girard 55

Championship at Giant Center (Sat., March 23)
12-1 Devon Prep vs. 10-2 Franklin, 2 p.m.

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.