City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

READING — Chris McNesby almost couldn’t believe the words he was hearing. 

It was early in the third quarter of a PIAA 6A second-round game between Roman Catholic and defending champs Central York. McNesby was focused on the action after senior guard Sebastian Edwards splashed down a 3-pointer from the wing, 

“I heard the scorekeeper say ‘clock’s running,’ meaning they’re running the clock the rest of the half,” he said. “And I was like ‘whoa.’”

Just a minute into the second half of a game that had all the makings of a potential classic at Reading’s Geigle Complex, Roman was up 30 points. And the Cahillites never took their foot off the gas. 

Roman’s 96-46 win over Central York was the end result of a near-flawless four quarters from McNesby’s program, which got a quartet of stellar individual performances in front of a shell-shocked throng of Panthers’ supporters on Wednesday night. 

It was hard to pick just who had the best individual night.

Sammy Jackson, Roman’s 6-foot-7 junior wing, scored 30 points on 11-of-15 from the floor. Senior guard Sebastian Edwards added 24 points, going 4-of-6 from downtown (10-15 overall). Sophomore guard Tyler Sutton, who missed school the day before with an illness and came off the bench due to his health, was masterful with 21 points, nine assists, four rebounds and four steals. And Shareef Jackson, Sammy’s older brother and a Lafayette-bound center, finished with a 12-point, 16-rebound double-double — with five assists for good measure. 

The Cahillites were an unconscious 40-of-62 (64.5%) from the field, including 10-of-18 (55.5%) from 3-point range. They had 22 assists, a number which seems low based on the way the ball was flying around the court, in the half-court or in transition. They also won the turnover battle 13-5, with a 10-1 advantage in steals, and dominated the glass.

“Couldn’t be happier,” McNesby said. “Probably the best we played all year long on both ends.”

“I think that’s a good example of what we can do when we all play together,” Sammy Jackson agreed. “All year we talk about playing four quarters of great basketball, maybe three quarters and a slow quarter. That was four great quarters — we came out ready to play, had amazing energy, and that’s who we are. We play to our best ability.”

Make no mistake — Central York is a high-quality team. The Panthers, the defending PIAA 6A state champs, had plenty returning from that group, including senior forward Ben Rill (Shippensburg) and senior guard Ben Natal, who had a bunch of Division I coaches in the building to check him out as a planned post-graduate 2026 prospect. They won the District 3 6A crown this spring for the first time ever, came into Wednesday with a 28-2 record. 

On this night, though, Roman was just better in every single facet. 

The Cahillites scored at least 20 points in every quarter, using a 27-10 second quarter to turn what had been a six-point game after one into a 53-30 halftime edge. Any hopes of a Panthers second-half comeback were quashed when Roman came out of the locker rooms just as hot as they’d gone into them, Edwards’ 3-pointer making it a running clock just 63 seconds into the third quarter. 

The starters all departed with four minutes remaining in the fourth, the Cahillites’ deep reserves still coming up with a couple and-ones to close things out. After Roman Catholic saw a 19-point lead at halftime of its opening-round win over Lower Merion trickle away down to 10 in the fourth quarter, the Cahillites didn’t let it happen again.

“At halftime I was talking about keeping our foot on the pedal,” McNesby said, “and they stayed aggressive and we got going early and just really good to see us do that. We’ve struggled with that at different times in the year.”

Sutton said he wasn’t sure at all whether he would be able to play, the 6-foot-2 lead guard suffering the effects of a nasty cold early in the week. He made it to school on Wednesday and to Reading for the game, though he said it wasn’t until the pregame adrenaline kicked in that he felt ready to play. 

He entered the game about two minutes in and immediately picked up a steal and took it in for a layup. He played most of the next 24 minutes, looking every bit like the top-25 guard in his class he's ranked as, knocking down 9-of-14 from the floor and 3-of-6 from deep along with multiple impressive change-of-pace finishes in transition and terrific passing throughout.

“I just wanted to be here for my team as much as possible [...] I just wanted to show up and play,” he said. “I know I came off the bench and I didn’t start, but that didn’t matter to me. We still won the game, so that’s all that matters to me.”

Coatesville, which beat Cumberland Valley in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, awaits in Saturday’s quarterfinals. The Cahillites are hyper-focused on a trip to Hershey and re-capturing the state title after coming up short in the Catholic League championship game. 

As good as they looked on Wednesday, a state championship is no given with Coatesville, Father Judge and Imhotep all still alive, along with WPIAL champs Upper St. Clair, District 10 champs McDowell, District 11 champs Parkland and District 2 champs Hazleton.

It’s an especially meaningful stretch for the Jackson brothers, with Shareef off to Lafayette in just a few months. Sammy, who’s receiving all sorts of high-major attention, will likely be heading to a power conference school a year later. 

“It’s great, knowing it’s our last couple games left, last five games — three games left of our whole lives playing together, [playing] organized basketball,” Sammy Jackson said. “We’ve been playing together since we were five years old in Florida. Just cherishing it, making the best of it.”

By Quarter
RC: 26  |  27  |  23  |  20  ||  96
CY: 20  |  10  |  10  |   6   ||  46

Shooting
RC: 40-62 FG (10-18 3PT), 6-7 FT
CY: 17-47 FG (4-13 3PT), 8-12 FT

Scoring
RC: Sammy Jackson 30, Sebastian Edwards 24, Tyler Sutton 21, Shareef Jackson 12, Dwayne Ruffin Jr. 4, Tre Scipio 3, Brad Wanamaker Jr. 2 

CY: Ben Rill 14, Ben Natal 11, Doug Layer Jr. 9, Byron Pinkney 4, Kyler Landis 3, Ryan Brown 2, Ryan Jackson 2