City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — They know. They see the head-to-toe looks each time they meet an opponent at midcourt before the opening tip. The Bonner-Prendie team is not surprised though. The Friars know they are among the smallest—if not the smallest—team in the prestigious Philadelphia Catholic League.

Being tiny does not deter them.

In fact, it pushes them. Because there is something else that the Friars know: They’re pretty good—good enough to spill from the shadows and become viable contenders for the PCL championship this season.

Bonner-Prendie gained a big fan Monday night in new St. Joseph’s Prep coach Chris Clark, whose young, learning team fell to the Friars, 71-53, at St. Joe’s Prep, behind very balanced scoring from Kam Jackson, who scored a game-high 18, followed by Korey Francis’ 17 and Jakeem Carroll’s 15.

“Give Bonner-Prendie credit, they came out and were outstanding,” Clark said. “They may have the best core group of guards in the league. I know Neumann-Goretti is very good, as is Roman Catholic, but with Francis, Jackson and Carroll, they are terrific. I think they are honestly good enough to win the Catholic League. They have one of the best guards in the city in Korey Francis and they complement each other.

“They are connected and incredibly fast. You can’t pressure them. Everyone they have on the floor can make a play.”

Jackson said he can feel the stares when teams see them for the first time. A few years ago, the Friars were considered dangerous afterthoughts in the PCL, good enough to contend on any given night, though not good enough to be taken seriously behind the PCL’s traditional monsters Neumann-Goretti, Roman, Archbishop Wood and now defending Catholic League and PIAA Class 6A state champion Father Judge.

“They see us and they think we’re so small that we do not have that dog in us, that we don’t have that chip on our shoulders, but we do,” Jackson said. “I see a bigger picture for us. We can’t think about two or three games ahead though. We have to stay together and play together.”

Jackson said the Friars’ biggest strength is attacking the gaps and creating more openings when help defenders try to close those gaps.

“Height does not matter to us,” said Carroll, Bonner-Prendie’s shutdown defender. “We box out. We work on rebounding every day in practice and we rebound as a group. My job every game is to shut out their top guy, and my mindset is to play my game. I don’t really care about the points, I just want my team to win. I don’t have to score. My mindset is playing defense and shutting out the guy I’m guarding.”

The Friars led even before the opening tap. Jackson drained a couple of technical free throws, after the Hawks were assessed a pregame technical foul for dunking during warmups. Then Bonner-Prendie took over when the game began, surging out to a 17-6 lead by the middle of the first quarter.

The Friars did it by their usual way - nailing threes, playing fast, and defending with backdoor steals.

By halftime, it was Bonner-Prendie, 36-22.

“What I like right now is that we’re focused, and our message is that we always want to come out and attack,” Friars’ coach Bill Cassidy said. “We executed that tonight and that gets us going. We get into a rhythm and we go from there. It’s still early. There are a million things we still have to clean up.”

Like the Friars’ fourth quarter. Clark saw what he wanted to see from a young team with only two players with varsity experience, Julian McKie and Will Lesovitz, and that was a constant effort to play hard. On the other side, Cassidy saw what he did not want to see—a team that lost focus and took its collective foot off the gas.

“We got sloppy, uncharacteristic passes and we were undisciplined,” Cassidy said. “We have to finish quarters better and games better. It’s the first thing we addressed after the game. We lost to Prep last year after being up by 12 with two minutes to go. We don’t forget those things.”

The Friars will host Judge on Friday night at 7 p.m. and they did not look ahead at the defending PCL and state champs. Bonner-Prendie responded the way it should have.

“Our group is together, they are relentless and they respond,” Cassidy said. “We’ll get back to practice and happy to get a road PCL win on a Monday night.”

Francis walked away with a scholarship offer from La Salle with Explorers’ new head coach Darris Nichols and assistant coach Colin Curtin in the stands watching.

As for Clark and The Prep program, “patience” is the operative word. Clark comes with a glistening resume and college level experience at Temple. He knows it will take time to build the Prep program and he saw some glimpses of what could be ahead Monday night.

“We have good kids who work really hard and everyone who is playing is in a different role than last year. We have a long way to go, but we are a lot better now than we were two weeks ago,” Clark said. “Patience will be important. I’m not satisfied where we are, but I see growth. We’ll be fine. Everything is new. I’m being patient, and holding the guys accountable to a standard.

“These guys played pretty well against a possible PCL contender. Bonner-Prendie is right there with the Romans, Neumann-Gorettis, Judges and Woods.”  

By Quarter
St. Joseph’s Prep (6-6, 1-1 Catholic League):  14  | 8  |  12  | 19 || 53
Bonner-Prendie (8-2, 2-0 Catholic League):  24  | 12  |  21  |  14 ||  71

Scoring
St. Joe’s Prep: Jayden Howlett 14, Julian McKie 12, Will Lesovitz 10, Myles Peterson 6, Luke Maransky 5, Justin McKie 5, Alonzo Ellis 1.

Bonner-Prendie: Kam Jackson 18, Korey Francis 17, Jakeem Carroll 15, DaShaun Holden 10, Masen Price 8, Aydin Scott 3.

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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.