City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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DREXEL HILL, PA — There was less than a second in Kam Jackson’s small world as he toed the foul line Friday night amid a cacophony of sound so loud hardly anyone could hear themselves speak. The 5-foot-10 Bonner-Prendie junior guard kept flicking out his hands, openly telling himself to stay calm, while cautioning the echoes in his head to sloooowwww evvvverythinnnngggg dooowwwwnnnnn to a point where he could catch his own heartbeat.

Once inside his bubble of solitude, Jackson was able to shut out the thunderous student section to his right; the free throw chatter from Father Judge’s players in front of him; and his own Bonner-Prendie teammates and fans encouraging him on his left.

Just him, the ball, the basket, and three free throws to make with :00.1 hanging on the clock in Bonner-Prendie’s Philadelphia Catholic League showdown with defending league champion Judge.

Kam Jackson (above) hit three free throws with 0.1 seconds left to deliver Bonner the win. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Jackson’s first shot bounced off the iron, touched the front of the rim, and fell through. His nerves eased. His second and third shots hit nothing but net—raising the Friars to a thrilling 64-63 victory over Father Judge (4-8, 1-2 Catholic League).

Bonner-Prendie now sits undefeated atop the Catholic League at 3-0 and is 9-2 overall, thanks to Jackson’s three free throws and 16 points, Korey Francis’ 17, and Jakeem Carroll’s 11, which offset the game-high 22 points from Judge’s 6-8 junior Jeremiah Adedeji, Nazir Tyler’s 17, and Derrick Morton-Rivera’s 13 points.

It was not the Palestra in late February, but it felt like it. The Bonner-Prendie gym was converted into the world’s largest sauna, with an overflow crowd pinched in, filling every available inch. The atmosphere was so intense, the court was sweating.

But the telling moment of the game did not come on Jackson’s winning free throws. It came about 10 minutes earlier, when Friars’ coach Billy Cassidy pulled Jackson from the game with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter for failing to be assertive.

As soon as Jackson walked off the court, Cassidy put his arm around his shoulders, pressed his forehead to Jackson’s and kept repeating, “I need you to attack, I need you to attack, I need you to attack …”

Seconds later, Jackson was back in the game—attacking.

It bothered Jackson, he said, because he felt he was letting his teammates down at that juncture.

“I wanted Kam to play the way Kam can play, and when the game is not going your way, you can’t let that dictate the next play. We have gone through those battles the last two-and-a-half years,” Cassidy said. “Kam just needed to be Kam. I put him right back in. I needed him to attack. He just needed a wakeup call.

“I knew Kam would make the free throws in the end.”   

Jackson scored six of his 16 points in the fourth quarter—all coming after he was momentarily pulled.

“Coach Cassidy needs me to make plays, and I wasn’t getting downhill and playing to the fullest, like I usually do,” said Jackson, who beat Judge, at Judge, with a dramatic buzzer-beater last year with 4.8 seconds left on the very same play that set up the final free throws. “Coach Cassidy needs to challenge me like that. I needed that challenge. I did press a little when I first got back out there, but I settled down and got downhill.

“This was the same play, ‘Duke,’ as we ran against Judge last year, only in reverse. The option was to take the three-pointer at the end. I knew I was fouled. I didn’t know whether I would get the call. I was never in a situation like that before. I knew I had to slow everything down around me. I was in my own little world and had to make all three. The Judge guys were talking me on the line, and the first shot scared me a little. After that went in, I knew I would make the next two.”

Korey Francis shoots in the first half of Bonner's win over Father Judge. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Judge’s Adedeji was a matchup problem for the far-smaller Friars. He kept banging inside, and with 5.1 seconds to play, was fouled with the game knotted at 61-61. Adedeji nailed both free throws, giving the Crusaders a 63-61 lead, setting the stage for Jackson.

Jackson inbounded the ball to DeShaun Holden, who had hit two clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter, then Jackson took the ball back over midcourt, where he was met by the Judge defense.

He wound up getting a quick open look on the right wing, and let it fly, bouncing off the side of the rim. The shot left Jackson on the floor, a whistle blew, and Jackson went to the line for the game-winning shots.

“These were two top-five teams in our league playing against each other, and every night in the Catholic League is a war,” Judge coach Chris Roantree said. “This is not an easy place to play, and credit to Jackson and to Bonner-Prendie. I’m actually happy the way we played. Two weeks ago, we were not playing very well. We were trying to find our identity. We are playing better right now, with two league losses by (six) points. We have to start winning some of these 50-50 games.

“We felt we could use our size against (Bonner-Prendie), but they are scrappy. I’m disappointed we lost, but I like the direction we are headed. I’ll tell you this, anyone who didn’t think Bonner-Prendie is not legitimate is crazy. They have top guys back in Francis and Jackson. Everyone should have taken them seriously before tonight. They didn’t need to beat us to prove that they’re legitimate.”

Judge's Jeremiah Adedeji posts up in Friday night's game against Bonner. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Judge came out in a 1-3-1 halfcourt zone, the first time, Roantree said, the Crusaders deployed that. The Crusaders’ length and size disrupted the rhythm of the Friars’ halfcourt sets, but when Francis started getting open down the baseline, that seemed to open things up for Bonner-Prendie.

What could not get lost in the Friars’ win was the contributions by subs Tariq Warner, a 6-3 junior, and 6-4 junior Masen Price, who helped inside on Adedeji and provided rebounding, while Warner got the Friars going with a big corner three in the first quarter.

Judge got out to a 10-2 lead behind the 1-3-1 halfcourt zone, and once Bonner-Prendie broke the code, the Friars closed the quarter on a 14-4 run. Judge led 37-30 early in the second quarter, when Bonner-Prendie began raining threes again to finish the half leading 48-45.

Judge scored over 80-percent of its points in the paint, hitting one three pointer during the game. In contrast, Bonner-Prendie hit nine three-pointers and as a team shot 11-for-22 in the second half, with five of the Friars’ 11 buckets three-pointers.

Because of the crowd storming the court after the game, there was no postgame handshake between the two teams. In a small token and classy gesture not viewed by many, Jackson went over to the Judge team coming out of a classroom in the main lobby to shake their hands, including Roantree.

“Why not, they played a great game, and they deserve the respect,” Jackson said. “I made the winning shots, but no one really deserved to lose that game.”    

By Quarter

Father Judge (4-8, 1-2 Catholic League):  14  | 15  |  16  | 18 || 63

Bonner-Prendie (9-2, 3-0 Catholic League):  16  | 12  |  20  |  16 ||  64

Scoring

Father Judge: Jeremiah Adedeji 22, Nazir Tyler 17, Derrick Morton-Rivera 13, Max Moshinski 7, Khory Copeland 2, Ahmir Brown 2.

Bonner-Prendie: Korey Francis 17, Kam Jackson 16, Jakeem Carroll 11, DeShaun Holden 9, Tariq Warner 5, Masen Price 4, Aydin Scott 2.

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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.