City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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SPRINGFIELD — Zane Conlon put on a reluctant smile, and did all the perfunctory rituals that come with scoring 1,000 career points, yet his mind was elsewhere during the myriad cell phone pictures and camera clicks he took.

The Devon Prep 6-foot-5 senior, who verbally committed to NAIA Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, was thinking ahead to the next round of the PIAA Class 4A state playoffs, after the Tide vanquished a very tough Bishop McDevitt team, 77-63, Friday night at Cardinal O’Hara.   

Devon Prep, District 12’s No. 1 seed, will now advance to play District 3 No. 2 seed Eastern York next Tuesday in the second round.

Conlon finished with 20 points, supporting Reece Craft’s game-high 22, while Shane Doyle added 16, and Mason Thear added 14.

Conlon’s career milestone came with 1:59 to play in the game and the Tide handily ahead, 76-61. Though Conlon enjoyed the post-game moment of pictures and balloons, he admitted, he was already looking ahead to the second round.

“It was definitely a cool experience (getting 1,000 career points), a great personal milestone, but we have bigger goals to reach as a team,” Conlon stressed. “Right after the game, my focus was on what’s next. We hopefully have a lot of basketball ahead of us. Winning (another) state championship is the goal. I think we can raise our focus to higher levels, and we still haven’t played our best game yet. We need to be tougher in practices, and that will be a focal point this week.

“We need to be as locked in as possible.”

Devon Prep trailed once, 5-4, and the Tide answered with a 10-0 run and grabbed control of the game. The Tide led by as much as 19 points, 56-37, midway through the third quarter and took a 65-49 lead into the fourth quarter.

But the Tide kept running into a problem, who is going to be a future problem for any District 3 team over the next three years—McDevitt 6-foot-2 freshman Damir Arp, who came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points, 17 combined in the second and third quarters.

“We had a nice season, and I’m sad it ended this way, but I learned a lot this season, and learned this is a team sport and we can all do this together,” Arp said.

Tide coach Jason Fisher has placed great stock into his seniors, knowing this is going to be their last journey together after winning two of the last three PIAA Class 3A state champions. The Tide and Fisher got a dose of what it may be like ahead against the Class 4A schools.

“It’s dawned on us the last two years how special this senior group is,” Fisher said. “We are blessed to have all six seniors. I think every tournament is a challenge and (Arp) was very good. We try to come out in the beginning of games how we want the game to go. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Toughness is what we preach.”

The Tide shot 11 of 16 in the first quarter, with almost every basket coming inside.

Devon Prep 77, Bishop McDevitt 63

By Quarter

Bishop McDevitt (12-12): 15 |  16  |  18  |  14  ||  63

Devon Prep (19-4): 25 |  17  |  23 |  12  ||  77

Scoring
Bishop McDevitt: Damir Arp 19, Jadus Byrd 14, Ethan Hammer 11, Max Henderson 7, Patrick Denisco 5, Liam Fuller 4, Aaron Kopcha 3.

Devon Prep: Reece Craft 22, Zane Conlon 20, Shane Doyle 16, Mason Thear 14, Mike Pergolis 3, Calvin Smith 2.

Girls PIAA Class 6A

Archbishop Carroll 61, Council Rock South 42

The Patriots, District 12’s No. 1 seed in PIAA Class 6A, started strong and never had to look back, getting out to an 11-0 lead and maintaining a double-digit lead throughout much of the opening round Class 6A playoff game.

Carroll (18-9) will now advance to play District 3 No. 5-seed Wilson in the second round on Tuesday.

The Pats were led by junior Alexis Eberz game-high 16 points, followed by freshman Kayla Eberz’s 15, and sophomore Abbie McFillin’s 13. Council Rock South (21-6) ended a highly successful season, winning the Suburban One League Patriot Conference and qualifying for the state playoffs for the first time since 2012.

The Pats reached the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals last season. This season, they are a far younger team, placing a lot on players like freshman Kayla Eberz and sophomore McFillin. The victory over Council Rock South was Kayla’s first state playoff game.

“I feel like we work well together as a team and we knew Council Rock South had a team of good shooters,” Kayla Eberz said. “This was my first state playoff game and our goal is to relax and have fun. We did the scouting and were ready to dig down and do the dirty work. When we lost (to Neumann-Goretti in the Catholic League championship) at the Palestra, that got us a little angry. We’re so close as a team, we don’t want this to end. The big thing is to have fun.”

Kayla scored nine of the Pats’ 17 points in the first quarter, while the Golden Hawks had problems dealing with Carroll’s size. Midway through the second quarter, Council Rock South’s Kathryn Kane, the Golden Hawks’ best player, fouled out.

“I’m very proud of my team,” Council Rock South coach Steve Polinsky said. “Carroll is a special team, and they are so well coached. We knew this would be an uphill battle. We fought as hard as we could. We’ll be fine next year, but this was not easy for me, because the standard these girls set is special.

“We were down and this team still played hard. It’s what I love about this team. This is only the second time we won the Patriot and the second time we went to states. They know what they did. What we will miss is not going to practice next week. They did something special this year. We have a flag in the gym that had 2012 on it, and we were able to add 2025 to it.”

By Quarter
Council Rock South (21-6): 5 | 9 | 13 | 15 || 42

Archbishop Carroll (18-9): 17 | 24 | 14 | 6 || 61
Scoring
Council Rock South: Emerson Gunther 14, Liliana Metrick 8, Maria Freeman 6, Bella Hettler 6, Kathryn Kane 4, Fiona Reckner 2, Sarah Freeman 2.

Archbishop Carroll: Alexis  Eberz 16, Kayla Eberz 15, Abbie McFillin 13, Olivia Nardi 8, Bridget Grant 3, Djami Diallo 2, Bridget Archibald 2, Caitlin Schumacher 2.

Joseph Santoliquito is an 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 BlueSky here.