City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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All season long, Malachi Warren’s coaches teammates have been telling him the same thing: stay ready, and your time will come. 

It was a lesson the Archbishop Wood sophomore tried to keep at the top of mind even as his varsity minutes fluctuated from one game to another. Keep working, and be ready for anything.

“[Assistant] coach Pat [Haggerty] always tells me to stay ready, sending me Instagram reels of how to stay ready,” Warren said. “Sending me Instagram reels of Dan Hurley from UConn, telling me how to stay ready and stay positive — even if I don’t get any minutes one night, to be ready the next night.”

Warren’s patience paid off on Friday night at Archbishop Carroll. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound wing guard had the most impactful game of his varsity career yet, coming off the bench and contributing 12 key points in the Vikings’ 84-76 win over the Patriots. 

It was a meaningful arrival for a young athlete who wanted to play in the Catholic League ever since watching Collin Gillespie when he was in elementary school, who switched from football to basketball as his primary sport after suffering a concussion and collarbone injury during his middle school years. 

“That was my career high, for now,” he said. “It’s a good one to look back on and it was just really fun to play in this environment, crowd going crazy. It was just really fun.”

Warrn’s outing was part of a balanced scoring outing that saw five different Wood players in double figures in a critical Catholic League win, but his output was certainly the most unexpected of the group. 

He didn’t even enter the game until the second quarter, Wood (8-8, 3-4 Catholic League) already with a 13-point edge eight minutes in. That gap was down to nine when he came up with an offensive rebound, waiting out a couple defenders around him to put the ball off the glass and into the hoop. The next possession down, he squared up and knocked down a 3-pointer, the Vikings’ lead suddenly back to 14 points. 

In the fourth quarter, with Carroll (6-10, 2-6 PCL) having cut a 22-point gap down to 10, a corner 3-pointer with 6:45 remaining helped stem the tide, capping off his evening from a scoring perspective. He finished the night 4-of-4 from the floor, 2-of-2 from the 3-point arc and the foul line alike, with three rebounds and a steal. 

“He hit some big-time shots,” senior guard Mike Green said. “It got close at the end, and if he doesn’t hit those, who knows how the game would have went, but he definitely hit some big-time shots.”

Warren specifically mentioned Green, the only senior in the Wood rotation with Milan ‘Mir’ Dean sidelined due to injury, as one of his primary mentors on the team, along with junior wing Brady Macadams. 

As a freshman, he was only on the junior varsity roster, the Vikings’ roster packed with seniors, led by Jalil Bethea (Miami) and Josh Reed (Drexel). But this year’s group is much younger, with two sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup, and head coach John Mosco has experimented with a number of different underclassmen in support roles off the bench along with junior sixth man Brian Donohue.

Mosco’s been making adjustments as the season’s gone on, which has required some patience on behalf of anybody not in his top six or seven, Warren included. But everybody else in the Wood rotation had to wait their turn for at least a year or two as well, so he had plenty of guidance. 

“(Warren) started off the season getting some decent minutes and the last couple games he hasn’t really seen the floor,” Green said. “I was just telling him to stay confident, wait your time. I’ve been in his position, when you get in, you’ve just got to give it your all. He showed it tonight and proved he can be out there with us.”

While Warren did his part, the rest of the Wood rotation shined on the offensive end in a game that — like most in the PCL — will have major ramifications on the standings at the end of the year.

Sophomore Caleb Lundy led the way with 18 points, along with eight assists and seven rebounds, including 5-of-6 foul shooting in the final two minutes; sophomore center Jaydn Jenkins had 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks; MacAdams scored 14 points with five rebounds and three assists; Green added 10 points, three assists and two rebounds. 

As a team, Wood shot 32-of-55 (58.1%) from the field and 8-of-20 (40%) from the 3-point arc.

Junior guard Christian Matos led Archbishop Carroll with 22 points. Sophomore Munir Greig (five assists, four rebounds) and junior Nasir Ralls (three rebounds, three steals) added 16 each. The Patriots are playing the whole season without junior point guard Ian Williams (knee), an All-Catholic selection as a sophomore, and have been without junior center Drew Corrao (foot) since December.

With both Wood and Carroll having dealt with significant injuries this season, the two entered the evening outside the 10-team playoff cutoff, with work to do to extend their seasons beyond Feb. 9. 

In arguably the deepest year in league history, with all 14 teams competitive and no outcome taken for granted, Wood’s win was a significant boost to its postseason hopes. By the end of the night, the Vikings were in eighth place, a half-game behind Archbishop Ryan (4-4). Carroll’s now in 11th, with work to do and seven league games remaining.

“Going into this game, we saw Carroll’s right next to us in the standings,” Green said, “so we knew coming into this one it was a must-win. We treated it like a playoff game.”

By Quarter
AW: 28  |  16  |  17  |  23  ||  84
AC: 15  |  16  |  16  |  29  ||  76

Shooting
AW: 32-55 FG (8-20 3PT), 12-17 FT
AC: 24-59 FG (10-31 3PT), 18-23 FT

Scoring
AW: Caleb Lundy 18, Jaydn Jenkins 16, Brady Macadams 14, Malachi Warren 12, Mike Green 10, Rowan Phillips 8, Brian Donohue 6

AC: Christian Matos 22, Munir Greig 16, Nasir Ralls 16, Luca Foster 14, Yasir Turner 3, Caesar Richardson 3, Chris Kingkiner 2