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Wood hands Roman stunning loss at home

02/06/2015, 11:00pm EST

By Aron Minkoff

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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With the spotlight on Roman’s senior day, it was a freshman from Archbishop Wood who stole the show.

As the final buzzer sounded, the two teams shook hands, and there was a sense of controlled chaos in the Roman gym. A feeling that reverberated through the rest of the Catholic League.Wood accomplished something that hadn’t been done this decade, dethroning the previous Catholic League frontrunners with a 64-58 win. You would have to go all the way back to 2011 to find when Roman last lost in their own gym.

Inside the Cahillites’ post-game locker room, there was dead silence. Nobody moved, except for Roman coach Chris McNesby, and all he did was shake his head from side-to-side.

To the contrary, Archbishop Wood’s locker room was filled with smiles and jubilation, for they had just pulled off what very few teams have been able to accomplish.

In the middle of that celebration in the Wood locker room was freshman Tyree Pickron, who registered 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Pickron only scored three points in the first half, all off free throws, and shot 0-6 from the field. After not taking a single shot in the third quarter and with Roman Catholic narrowing and ultimately taking the lead away from Wood, the freshman stepped up and scored 11 huge fourth-quarter points down the stretch to earn the Vikings a victory.

“I think he was a little nervous in the first half,” Mosco said. “He settled down and then he realized that he could play with them, He is just as good as them. I think he had 14 rebounds, you know he rebounds incredibly well, especially since they are a tough team to rebound against.”

The 6-foot-3 guard’s double-double stole the thunder from Roman’s seniors, Manny Taylor and Gemil Holbrook, who combined for 15 points and three rebounds.

After the game, you could have easily mistaken Pickron with a child who just got a brand new bike for his birthday. The smile was unmistakable as it stretched across his face from ear to ear.

“I do not know what to say, I am out of words,” he said. “I was a little nervous, it was my first time playing them, big time players. After that I came out of halftime and my coaches told me to go play and play my game. ”

The win serves as Wood coach John Mosco’s most signature win since taking over the program in 2013, after serving as an assistant coach to Carl Arrigale at Neumann-Goretti.

“I had 27 messages, a call from my wife, and a call from my second wife Carl,” Mosco said jokingly about his former boss and mentor. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. He was really supportive when I left in giving me some pointers in how to manage the game, the bench and staying calm with the referees.”

The game started just as most seem to begin for the Cahillites. They used transition defense to start a 12-0 run to end the first half with a 20-10 lead. With most people in the gym expecting Roman to pick up right where they left off, something uncharacteristic of Roman happened.

After Holbrook hit a jump shot to begin the second half, Wood held the Cahillites scoreless for the next five minutes and finished the first half with a 27-24 lead.

“The first quarter, I think our kids had to adjust to how the court is, how the building is, you know it’s small,” Mosco remarked. “I think once we adjusted to it, we were able to play our game and push the ball…we came back in the second [quarter] and we came into the locker room at halftime and I said to them ‘listen that’s nothing, they’re gonna come harder and harder and harder, this is their home gym and it’s senior day.”

With Wood leading 50-38 with about five minutes remaining, Roman–more specifically Tony Carr–stormed back. Carr recorded 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Cahillites used a 15-2 run to take a 53-52 lead with 3:03 remaining in the game and force the Vikings to burn a timeout.

“I was getting a lot of pressure from my coaching staff to call a timeout,” Mosco said. “Finally I gave in and called one and I think it calmed me down more than it calmed them down. And we scored, but you know they are going to come after you.”

With Roman regaining the lead for the first time since the 0:55 mark in the second quarter, Pickron responded with clutch shot after shot from the corner to put Wood back on top and secure the win.

Following the loss, McNesby was at first not willing to comment on his team’s performance. He would, however, say “credit to them, they earned it, they played great.”

Tony Carr led all scorers with 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while the senior Taylor chimed in 10 points. No other Cahillite scored in double figures.

Wood senior Luke Connaghan led the Vikings in scoring with 21 points and nine rebounds to go along with Pickron’s big night. In addition, junior Tom Funk chimed in 11 points with seven rebounds and six assists as well as Collin Gillespie who recorded 13 points, including a perfect 3-3 from three-point range.

Even with the win, Wood needs a win over Archbishop Carroll at home on Sunday to have a chance at finishing anything higher than seventh in the ultra-tough PCL. If they don’t win at Carroll, that means–assuming they beat the 10th seed in the first round–that Wood’s matchup in the PCL quarterfinals would be against Roman Catholic once again.