City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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CHAMBERSBURG >> For Shareef Jackson, it was about playing one more game.

The Roman Catholic senior forward was going to face the tallest test, in multiple ways, of his last PIAA tournament run in order to get there. With the Cahillites having to travel halfway across the state to face an Upper St. Clair team with plenty of size and talent, getting to his third state final in four years wasn’t going to be a walkover.

Jackson, as he’s done all year, filled a number of roles as Roman took a strong challenge from USC, surviving 59-46 in the Class 6A semifinals at Chambersburg Area High School.

“Now, it’s like I’ve been here before, I’ve done this before,” Jackson said. “This year, we’ve beaten a lot of good teams and being one of the last two teams left and especially this year’s bracket, there’s a lot of good teams and skilled teams here.”

Roman advances to its third Class 6A title game in the last four seasons. Jackson reached the top as a freshman, playing a key role off the bench on Roman’s 2022 title team but then also feeling the agony of defeat in an overtime loss the next year.

A year ago, Roman was bounced in the quarterfinals, so Jackson has made it a goal to get back to Hershey to end his high school career. The 6-foot-7 senior tallied a game-high 19 points, adding seven rebounds and four assists and when Upper St. Clair’s press defense started to frazzle Roman in the second half, he provided a steady outlet to the pressure.

“For Shareef, it’d be awesome to have him finish one off with a win,” Roman coach Chris McNesby said.

The challenge for Roman, specifically Shareef, his brother Sammy Jackson and CJ Miller inside, was trying to limit Upper St. Clair standout Tyler Robbins and his brother Ryan Robbins. Tyler,  a 6-foot-10 senior post committed to Miami (OH) and sophomore Ryan, a physical 6-foot-7 presence and terrific football tackle, were going to get plenty of touches inside.

“Coming into this game, I’m not going to lie, we didn’t expect to stop them on the box,” Jackson said. “They’re two humongous dudes, two strong guys who have made their name playing around the post. I knew I would have to try and stop them early, not let them get the ball in the post.”

Jackson, a cerebral player, figured out that wasn’t the best way to go at and the Lafayette recruit tweaked his approach to defense. USC’s brothers certainly put a mark on the game, Tyler netting 18 points while Ryan had eight, but rarely was there not a Roman defender blanketing them as they tried to fight their way to a score.

“I got the rhythm, he liked that spin back to the left,” Jackson said. “After that, it wasn’t so much not let them get the ball, but anticipate them.”

Thanks to some torrid shooting from Niko Gidas to start the game, the USC senior nailing a trio of threes in the first quarter, the Panthers only found themselves down 16-13 after a quarter. McNesby went to his bench early on, first calling up junior Semaj Robinson then freshman Dwyane Ruffin Jr to help settle things defensively.

The duo combined for just six points, Robinson draining a couple of threes in the first quarter, but their energy and defensive grit had a clear impact on the game.

“That’s what we were looking for,” McNesby said. “We just wanted to put some pressure on those guys and push them out so they couldn’t have great looks to throw it inside. They came off the bench and were phenomenal.”

Roman had an outstanding second quarter on both ends. Shareef Jackson had seven points in the frame as the PCL side won the frame 17-6 with the defense keeping the ball out of the Robbins’ hands and forcing some tough looks on the perimeter for a 33-19 halftime lead.

The third quarter started out similarly well, Miller converting a three-point play. With 7:27 left in the quarter, USC coach Danny Holzer was hit with a technical foul that seemingly came out of nowhere and left the Panthers bench baffled and their fans irate.

Jackson hit a three with 5:56 left in the frame, giving Roman a 20-point lead at 42-22, but the senior knew the game was far from over.

“It’s one thing our team is really good at, when you get to those moments where the other team makes a slight mistake or their players might be a little mad, we’re really good at attacking that,” Jackson said. “That tech, I think they played harder out of that but they also played a little wilder. We knew after that we weren’t going to have to worry as much about the big guys getting in the post but we had to deal with their guards driving and trying to get their shots.”

Upper St. Clair went on an 11-0 run in the late legs of the third quarter, trimming a 22-point lead in half with 46 seconds left in the quarter. Fittingly, it was Shareef Jackson who drew a foul under the rim and knocked down two free throws to stem the tide.

With USC still pressing up in the second quarter, Jackson made himself the outlet, explaining the biggest hurdle Roman had faced in that run was getting the ball over halfcourt. So with the Panthers’ big men not coming as far up to play him, he could start in the backcourt to receive an early pass against the pressure, then find the next player down the line to break the press.

“The big challenge was not losing the ball before we got it across halfcourt,” Jackson said. “Once we did that it was easier, right? We got the points, we got the baskets and got the threes, so it was making sure we ran the right plays and right full-court passes so we could get past that.”

Sebastian Edwards opened the fourth with a three off an assist but Ruffin Jr, then Jackson found Miller for a basket that pushed the lead back to 18 with 7:00 left in the game. USC made one more push, Tyler Robbins able to steal the ball in the halfcourt and take it for a dunk with 5:36 to play, but Roman was able to keep responding.

Jackson had a steal of his own, the senior going end-to-end for a layup and a 56-41 lead as the clock ticked toward the final two minutes.

Roman will get a chance for some payback in Hershey when it faces Father Judge - a 69-58 winner over Imhotep Charter - in the Class 6A final next Saturday night. Judge has two wins over Roman this season, including the PCL title game.

“We’re still standing, it’s us and Judge again, it’s replay time,” Jackson said. “We gotta win, we’ve got that one last game against that one last one opponent we haven’t beaten yet so I think that’s all we need to keep any nerves down.”

By Quarter

ROMAN CATHOLIC 16 | 17 | 15 | 11 || 59

UPPER ST CLAIR 13 | 6 | 16 | 11 || 46

Scoring

RC: Shareef Jackson 19, Sebastian Edwards 11, Tyler Sutton 9, Sammy Jackson 8, CJ Miller 3, Semaj Robinson 3

USC: Tyler Robbins 18, Ryan Robbins 8, Niko Gidas 11, Julian Dahlen 7, Kaamal Jackson 2