City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For about as long as he’s been at St. Joseph’s Prep, Speedy Morris has had a Griffin on the roster.

First was John Griffin, son of the former Saint Joseph’s University head coach of the same name, who starred at the Prep (2000-04) before heading onto a terrific career at Bucknell (2004-08). John’s younger brother, Matt Griffin, played at Prep from 2003-07 and then went on to play two years at Rider and two at Boston University.

Their cousin, Tom Griffin, graduated from Prep in 2009, though he was a deep reserve for a head coach who’s known for only going one or two players into his bench at most.

Now, once again, Morris has a Griffin contributing at the varsity level.

Senior guard Brian Griffin, Tom’s younger brother, is the last of this generation of Griffin boys that will come through the 17th and Girard institution to play for the venerated coach.

“I grew up coming to watch my brother play, always being around, being in the gym here, coming to Speedy’s summer camps,” he said. “so I’ve always been a part of Prep basketball.”

This isn’t the first generation of Griffins to play for Morris, either. Both John Griffin Sr. and Tom Griffin Sr. played for Morris his first time as a high school coach, at Roman Catholic in the 60s and 70s.

“A lot of Griffins,” Morris said. “Great kids, all great kids. Great families."

Unlike his brother, Brian is part of the starting lineup as a senior, chipping in to help a Prep team that’s looking quite competitive early in Catholic League play. The 5-foot-10 guard chipped in eight points to the team’s most recent win, a 49-41 decision over Archbishop Ryan on Monday afternoon.

“You put in all the work, coming here since 4th grade, this is what you want to do for all those year,” he said. “It’s awesome to see that come to fruition, and I’m so happy to be able to play and get wins like these, so it’s awesome."

Prep (8-3, 2-1 PCL) blitzed Ryan (10-2, 1-2) from the outset, jumping out to a 15-0 lead over the game’s opening six minutes. Griffin played a big part in that, knocking down one 3-pointer, driving for a layup and dishing out two assists during the stretch.

Junior forward Ed Croswell chipped in mightily during that time as well, with two big-time blocks on driving layups by Ryan star Izaiah Brockington as well as two buckets of his own during the stretch.

Back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers by Griffin, senior forward Gabe Arizin and junior guard Kyle Thompson, helped by two assists from junior Darius Kinnel, threatened to run the Raiders out of the building early.

“We got off to a good start because we were making shots, running the offense,” Morris said. “And then the six-minute mark of the first quarter we just stopped.”

The next two quarters flip-flopped momentum. Ryan took the second 14-5 to close the gap to one at half, briefly taking the lead to begin the third quarter before Prep rallied to lead 41-28 going into the fourth.

“First and third quarters I thought we were playing pretty good, very good, terrific,” Morris said. “Second and fourth quarters got a little shaky. I was happy with the team, we won the game, beat a good team.”

They did that despite not scoring for the first six-plus minutes of the fourth quarter, until a Thompson layup made it 43-36 in Prep’s favor. The Hawks didn’t exactly seal it at the foul line, making 6-of-13 in the final quarter (10-19 overall), but it was enough.

Thompson led the way with 15 points, grabbing four rebounds. Kinnel added seven, three boards and three assists.

Croswell, a 6-7 forward, finished with a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds, as well as five blocks.

“Ed’s a monster,” Griffin said. “Every time somebody takes it in the lane, he’s blocking everything. He’s just a beast inside.”

Brockington, an NJIT commit, led Ryan with 17 points, the only member of his team in double figures. The loss was Ryan’s second in a row after winning 10 straight to start the season.

The Raiders get their next chance on Friday at Bishop McDevitt.

Prep is also on the road Friday night at Lansdale Catholic; three of the Hawks’ next four and six of their next nine are on unfriendly courts.

There’s still one twist left in the Griffin saga coming up a little later in the season.

Brian’s final regular-season home game of his high school career will be on Sun., Feb. 12 against a Roman Catholic squad coached by his older cousin, Matt.

“We’ve talked about it, it’s more talking to other family members about it, they don’t know which side of the court they’re sitting on,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but it’ll be funny to watch. It’s our last home game and it’s senior night, so it’ll be special.”