City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Del-Val Charter spent a while celebrating its Public League Championship on the court at St. Joe’s Hagan Arena last Saturday. Players even eventually doused their head coach with the water cooler.

Still, the Warriors weren’t done leaving their mark on that court.

Del-Val continued its impressive postseason run on Friday evening, beating perennial powerhouse Neumann-Goretti, 81-79, to win the District 12 AAA title. It’s the second loss of the week for the Saints, who fell to Roman Catholic in the Catholic League title game on Monday. Meanwhile, it’s the third major victory in 13 days for the Warriors who knocked off Imhotep and Constitution to win the Public League title before winning the city championship.

“Our guys are playing our style of basketball,” Del-Val coach Jason Harrigan said. “We’re playing hard, executing and we came in the game to win. That’s 17 (wins) in a row. Neumann is a good team, they fought hard, but we were the better team today.”

The Warriors style on Friday included a trio of 20-point games from Makhi Morris (24 points), Semaj Motley (21) and Antwuan Butler (20). And it also featured a solid middle two quarters in which Del-Val outscored the Saints, 46-33 and allowed the team to open a lead as big as 13 points.

Nuemann-Goretti was not going away quietly, though. Carl Arrigale’s team trailed by 11 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but cut that deficit to two points with still more than three minutes on the clock. However, the Warriors never relinquished the lead.

Del-Val answered every big basket when it needed to, and though it had some struggles at the foul line in the final minutes, Butler hit a few clutch free throws to put the game away.

“He’s our point guard and he has poise,” Harrigan said of Butler, who is just a sophomore. “He stepped up in the clutch and made his free throws and protected the ball to put the game away. We’ve had great balance all year. There’s always four or five guys who all come ready to play and trust each other.”

The win for Del-Val was one of the more surprising results of the Philadelphia high school season, as Neumann-Goretti came in as the top-ranked team in the state as well as the defending District 12 and state champion. But that clearly didn’t affect Del-Val.

“Every game this year people have been doubting us,” said Motely, a senior guard who hit eight field goals. “So we try to come out and play hard. We know we can play with these teams, so we just come out and play.”

The Saints, a traditional power out of south Philly, had two losses all season entering the week, but had that number double in five days. And, like they were against Roman on Monday, they could not find their stroke from long range against the Warriors.

Neumann-Goretti hit just two 3-pointers, both of which came in the fourth quarter, after going 2-of-20 in the loss to the Cahillites. Big man Dhamir Crosby-Roundtree had a game-high 32 points – all of which came at the rim – and junior guard Quade Green scored 22, but they did not get much other help from a team that was firing on all cylinders offensively until this week.

The Saints will still have the chance to defend their state title, entering the field as the No. 2 seed out of District 12. Meanwhile, Del-Val will have, on paper at least, the easiest path of any Philly team to reach Hershey. Harrigan thinks his squad should be considered the favorite to win the Class AAA title, a sentiment that is tough to argue with after the last two weeks.

But the Warriors weren’t always riding high this season.

During late December and early January, Del-Val lost three games in a row, including a 24-point drubbing at the hands of Imhotep. And while the team could’ve become unglued in that moment, Harrigan was impressed with the way his players stayed together, which made Friday all the more rewarding.

“The last two weeks have just been the icing on the cake,” Harrigan said. “In mid-season, we lost three games in a row and Imhotep beat us really bad. But our guys never flinched. They never questioned anything, never questioned the coaches, never questioned each other.

“They stuck to our principles. So the last two weeks has just been a culmination of that. I believe that if you put in that work every day, you’ll see the results. And right now we’re seeing the ultimate result.”