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Wood, Carroll pick up wins at All-City Classic

12/22/2017, 12:45am EST
By Josh Verlin

Karrington Wallace (above) and Wood knocked off Girard 67-60 on Thursday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Before the season started, Archbishop Wood coach John Mosco had to have a somewhat-delicate conversation with senior forward Karrington Wallace.

Though Wallace, a 6-foot-7 forward, was one of four seniors in the Viking rotation who had either committed to or will commit to a Division I basketball program, Mosco needed him to do something most seniors in his position wouldn’t dream of.

 

Come off the bench.

 

“It was just, ‘I know you’re not starting, but just come out and play hard, don’t let that affect you in the game,’” Wallace recalled.

Though Wallace admitted he had been hoping to start, he didn’t protest the decision. Playing for a program that’s coming off its first-ever Catholic League, District 12 5A and PIAA Class 5A championships, with its sights set on repeating in all three, Wallace wasn’t about to put himself in front of everybody else on the Vikings roster.

And so he’s serving as the sixth man for a Wood squad that improved to 3-1 on the young season with a 67-60 win over Girard College on Thursday night at Bishop McDevitt, in the second game of an All-City Classic doubleheader.

“He’s a great kid, a great player, he’s been tremendous for the four years he’s been here,” Mosco said. “He just wants to win so bad. He was satisfied that he got a scholarship, now [he does] whatever it takes.”

This past October, Wallace committed to Central Connecticut State, following in the footsteps of classmates Tyree Pickron (Quinnipiac) and Andrew Funk (Bucknell) in finding a fit at the Division I level. A fourth senior, 6-10 center Seth Pinkney, has several open scholarship offers but is playing out the season to see what else comes along.

Funk, Pickron and Pinkney are all in the starting lineup, along with freshman point guard Rahsool Diggins and junior wing Julius Phillips. It’s a starting group that features everything from scorers in Funk and Pickron to ball-handlers in Diggins, Funk and Pickron, to shot-blocking in Pickron and rebounding and versatility in Phillips.

With Mosco bringing him off the bench typically midway through the first and third quarters, Wallace gets the first few minutes to analyze what’s going on, and where his team is struggling. And when his number is called upon, he tries to come in and fill the gap.

“[I’m looking for] the things that we don’t do -- if we’re not rebounding, doing that,” he said. “Just effort plays and everything.”

“He does so many things for us,” said Funk, a 6-4 guard who led the way with 22 points in the win. “He can score underneath the basket, rebound, he can block shots, he’s a great energy guy and spark off the bench.”

Wallace’s presence off the bench not only helps give the Vikings depth that mean teams around will struggle to match, he continues a recent string of super-subs for Mosco, a fifth-year head coach who was previously a longtime assistant at fellow Catholic League powerhouse Neumann-Goretti.

“We had Andrew Funk coming off the bench [last year], he had 11 scholarship offers,” Mosco said. “The year before, [Lock Haven freshman] Matt Cerruti came off the bench. So the groundwork was set that anybody can come off the bench and still play a lot of minutes and still be a valuable piece.”

Wallace came off the bench in the first half Thursday night and blocked two shots, during a span when Pinkney only blocked one. When Pinkney asserted his rim-protecting skills with six second-half rejections -- the lanky center earned team MVP honors for his 13-point, 7-block effort -- Wallace got his four points, to go along with five rebounds and the two rejections.

He also came up with the game-sealing steal with 25 seconds left, at which point Girard finally relented on its comeback attempt.

Wood is relying on Wallace and his classmates to make those types of plays this year. There’s no more Collin Gillespie, the PCL MVP a year ago and current Villanova freshman, nor Cerruti or Moravian freshman Keith Otto, all crucial pieces from last year, not just on the court but in the leadership department as well.

“They kept us together, a lot of the times when we were down, they kept us controlled and stayed with it,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to fill that role and do all those things this year.”

The future looks good for Wood, as Mosco’s freshman class is particularly impressive. Diggins, a 6-1 point guard with long arms, scored 10 points against Girard and looked rather smooth in doing so, adding six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Another freshman, 6-5 wing Dae’shon Sheppard, had two points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in some valuable fourth quarter minutes.

“And we’ve got three other freshman on the varsity roster, and they’re understanding what it takes to win and prepare for the season,” Mosco said. “They believe in what we’re preaching, and they’re buying in.”

~~~

Without its leading scorer and do-everything guard Sam Sessoms, the Shipley School hung with Archbishop Carroll for most of the first half but not much more than that as the Patriots ran away for a 71-39 win.

A 13-0 run to close out the first half was just the beginning of the snowball for Carroll, which opened up a 22-point lead by the end of the third quarter and cruised through the fourth with its backups in.

Sessoms, who sprained his MCL last week, was on the sideline in a soft brace; he’s expected to miss two-to-four weeks. Without the Binghamton commit, the Gators’ offense struggled to get easy shots. Shipley (4-3) was led by 10 points and 14 rebounds from junior big man Ray Somerville.

Carroll (4-2) had four players score in double figures: senior forward Devon Ferrero (12 points), senior guard Justin Anderson (11), senior forward Keyon Butler (10) and sophomore guard Ny’mire Little (10).


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