City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It isn’t taking Arcadia’s freshmen long to get adjusted to college basketball.

Despite starting three freshmen who are part of 11 first-year players on the Knights’ roster, Justin Scott's squad is off to quite a start to the season after knocking off Gwynedd Mercy, 90-77, in an unfriendly gym on Tuesday night.

The win moves the Knights to 3-0 after knocking off Centennial Conference schools Muhlenberg and Haverford College over the weekend. And suddenly a team that was picked ninth out of nine teams in the MAC Commonwealth is establishing itself as a program to watch this season.

“I was expecting a little more young, inexperience from the guys but they’ve grown up quick,” said John Landro, the team’s only senior in the starting lineup. “This is three tough teams that we’ve played and we’ve shown that we’re competitive.

“We were picked ninth out of nine in the conference and we took that to heart.”

That Arcadia's made it through the first week of the season with an unblemished record doesn't shock Scott, now in his fourth year at the helm of the program.

But the manner in which they've done it has certainly opened his eyes.

"I always knew that if we could put it together, we could be in games with a chance to hopefully win them down the stretch," he said. "But I didn’t think we would have three wins with double figures in these first three games, to be completely honest with you.”

Freshman forward Phil Pierfy, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound Wilson Area (Pa.) graduate, continued a strong start to the season with a 20-point, five-rebound outing, upping his season average to 17.3 ppg along with 5.0 rpg.

“We just came in to try to take it one game at a time and try to get better,” he said. "With all the young guys, everybody has a lot of enthusiasm and we’re always working and we’re pushing each other.”

Pierfy wasn’t the only Arcadia rookie who made his presence felt in this contest. Guard Josh Scott led the Knights with eight assists to go along with seven points in 31 minutes, while Evan Slone, the third starting freshman, made his six points count with some big buckets during the second half.

Though Arcadia’s freshmen provided a good deal of the offensive spark, it was Landro who had the most important defensive assignment--guarding Gywnedd Mercy senior guard Darnell Artis.

Artis, a two-time All-CSAC First Team selection and a dynamic 5-9 point guard, still finished with 13 points and nine assists, but was just 6-of-16 from the floor and was often frustrated by the Knights’ defense.

"(Artis) hurt us in transition more than anything, and I don’t think John was matched up on him in transition," Scott said. "When our defense was set, and John was matched up on him, I thought John did a hell of a job on him.”

Landro (15 points, four assists) also hit one of the Knights’ many daggers in the second half, a triple from the right wing to make it an 80-70 game with 4:35 remaining. Junior point guard Ryan Kelley (18 points, five assists) rounded out the Arcadia players in double figures.

The loss drops Gwynedd Mercy to 0-2 on the season, though the Griffins’ first loss was by one point at Division II West Chester, a game they led by 26 at one point.

It certainly helped Arcadia’s frontcourt that Gwynedd Mercy was still without the services of 6-6 junior Arron Goodman (foot injury), who averaged 16.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg a year ago but has struggled with injuries his whole college career; when he returns to the court is still unknown.

John Baron still does have 6-3 junior Cedric Elleby, who led the Griffins with 32 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort, at his disposal.

With Artis, Elleby and senior guard Julian Hyden (20 points), Gwynedd Mercy is still expected to compete for the CSAC championship along with the likes of Neumann and Cabrini. Their next opportunity to get in the winning column comes on Friday with a game against Wesley as part of the Stockton Tip-Off Tournament.

Arcadia next plays in this weekend’s NYU Tip-Off Tournament with Old Westbury, Moravian and NYU, followed by a home date against Misericordia (Nov. 29) and then the start of MAC Commonwealth play against Lebanon Valley on Dec. 2.

And though these Knights are young, they’re not getting caught up in the excitement of their strong start.

“We’re looking more at the things we need to clean up more than the things that we’re doing well,” Pierfy said. “So we just know that we take a couple of things that we did wrong and make them better and then we can be really successful.”