City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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Joe Zeglinski has had plenty of time to reflect on his team’s run last year. After leading Archbishop Ryan to the back-to-back appearances in the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs as well as the school’s first appearance in the PIAA Class 5A semifinals, it was one of the best runs in schools history.

He knows that the school’s all-time leading scorer Izaiah Brockington (St. Bonaventure) is not coming back nor are Matiss Kulackovskis (Bowling Green), Fred Taylor (West Chester) or Chris Palantino, all of whom were integral parts to last season’s success. A new season brings about a new set of challenges and Zeglinski knows there will be some growing pains with his new group. On Saturday, the Raiders were back in action.

Archbishop Ryan committed 15 turnovers and trailed by as many as 18 points as it dropped its season opener to Boys’ Latin (Md.), 60-49.

On a snowy and frigid afternoon, the Raiders started off ice-cold, not scoring their first bucket until the midway point of the first quarter on an Amin Bryant layup.

Boys’ Latin (6-0) stormed out of the gate, opening with a 14-5 run. Kenny Lewis scored seven of the Lakers’ 14 points in that opening quarter.

The Lakers success continued into the second as they rattled off 12 straight points to push their lead to 35-17.

For Zeglinski, he knows the transition from not having that deep senior to rely on will take time.

It’s obviously going to be a process but we have a competitive bunch,” Zeglinski said. “We could go nine or ten deep all year. Tonight, we got off to a slow start and that was possibly due to nerves.”

One of the main aspects of Archbishop Ryan’s (0-1) success last season was its ability to get out in transition then find shooters when the opposition collapsed in the lane. This year’s group still knows how to do that.

The Raiders got things going in third quarter as Colin Reed, who led the way with 15 points including five three-pointers, drain two treys in the quarter, the second which cut the deficit to 41-34. 1:35 remaining in the first half.

After an and-one by Boys’ Latin’s Jaylin Andrews, the Raiders answered with a trey from Glenn Smith (six points) and another from Reed to make it 44-40 heading into the fourth. Reed, a member of last year’s team who is now a starter, understands that he and several other players must take that step as players for this group to be successful

“It’s the same [despite] the transition. We still want to bring that family culture and keep bringing energy,” Reed said. “It’s hard because we’re young and don’t have a lot of seniors. As young guys, we have to step up. We’re working in a lot of new people.”

Reed’s trey to begin the final quarter got the Raiders within one but that was where the run would stop. Cameron Spencer (12 points) hit a free throw then a huge three-pointer to push the Lakers lead to 48-43 with 7:02 left to play. Andrews hit five free throws, the last of which increased the lead to 57-45, in the final quarter to eventually put the Raiders for good.

Two of the players who are going to need to provide scoring for the Raiders had tough opening games. Bryant, the only returning starter from last season, had six points, four rebounds and three blocks but shot 2-7 from the floor. Fellow junior Jaquill Stone finished with six as well but shot just 2-15.

A bright spot was senior forward Kevin Lezin, who had eight points and five boards. After suffering a broken foot as a sophomore and having to sit out the year, Lezin was still getting used to playing in the Catholic League as junior while playing behind Taylor and Kulackovskis.

It wasn’t the way Zeglinski wanted to begin the year but he sees this game as the first step in this team’s maturation process.

“We’re trying to change our style and getting the team to gel together as we’re pretty inexperienced right now,” Zeglinski said. “We’re going to continue to work hard and guys are buying in so we’ll be ready for Catholic League play.”

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