City of Basketball Love

Tyler Sandora (@tyler_sandora)
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Throughout the early season, defense has been Neumann-Goretti’s biggest weakness.

Although the Saints were off to a 5-3 start entering their Catholic League opener at Archbishop Carroll on Tuesday night, they’ve been held back by their defense -- or lack thereof -- to begin the second half of various games.

At a holiday tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina a week ago, the Saints held Asheville Christian Academy to 53 points in the first game, but then dropped two consecutive matchups to Lincoln (NY), and Providence Day, both games only losing by a combined 13 points.

“We have been stressing we were very poor defensively in parts of games in Carolina,” head coach Carl Arrigale said. “Our offense was good, but we didn’t dig in defensively.”

But in their first game back in the state and on the opening night of Catholic League play, the Saints looked just like their normal selves.

After jumping out to a seven-point halftime lead against Carroll, Neumann-Goretti kept its foot on the pedal and proceeded to a 73-58 win in front of a Carroll-heavy packed house.

“This was definitely a game we were looking forward to playing in,” junior guard Christian Ings said. “So we came out and were very hype about trying to come in and beat them on a road win, after the couple games we played in North Carolina where we came out slow and didn’t finish it off in the third quarter. We had to turn around when we got home. When we came out we had a lot of energy to make sure we could keep that lead and expand it.”

Defense has been a priority the Saints have stressed throughout practice this year. When you lose a 6-foot-9 shot blocker like Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, who’s now at Villanova, you’re going to need to adjust your game plan.

Neumann-Goretti’s only true post players are 6-8 senior Marcus Littles, and freshman Taquan Woodley. While they’re both great defenders in their own right, it’s hard to replace someone like Cosby-Roundtree.

“We are playing a little different now,” Arrigale said. “We funneled everything to Dhamir last year and he blocked the shots. We have a shot blocker in Taquan Woodley but he plays half the game with his minutes, with Marcus Littles in there he is more of a positional guy, so we’ve been stressing that we need to try to be in help and to help each other.

“We have played poorly in the third quarters quite a bit this year,” he continued, “So I wanted to make sure we did nothing in the first half but get a little lead and put ourselves in the right position, but we still had a ways to go.”

Coming out of the halftime break, the Saints looked like they had new life. With its full-court pressure now being applied, Neumann-Goretti’s guards were having a field day intercepting passes and taking them to the cup for easy buckets.

The relentlessness of the Saints defensive efforts resulted in Carroll’s star sophomore A.J. Hoggard being held to just seven points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field.

Ings was the spark the Saints needed in the second half, as the 6-1 guard scored 10 of his 16 points in the third and fourth frames. Ings’ hot streak started right before half, when the bouncy guard split a double team and slammed home a dunk just before the buzzer.

When he came out in the second half, Ings was pestering on defense, getting up in his defenders face and making it difficult for Carroll to create much offense.

“When we come out with more energy, we know that nobody in the Catholic League likes us at all because we win,” Ings said. So it’s like we come into an opposing gym and we have a chip on our shoulder knowing we have to win.”

One of three seniors on the Saints roster, Dymir Montague played perhaps his best game of the young season, scoring 20 points and was a spark that helped extend Neumann-Goretti’s lead in the second half.

The 6-3 guard was nifty in his offensive moves, getting to the basket with ease and taking advantage of Carroll’s relatively small front-court.

On one play in the third quarter, Montague snatched a long offensive rebound from the left side of the court, took two dribbles, and threw down a poster dunk on a Carroll defender. In addition to getting the crowd off its feet, Montague's dunk helped to lift the spirits off his teammates. After all, the Saints are at their best when they play up-tempo and with tons of energy.

“As a team, if we can continue doing that every game, nothing can stop us,” Montague said. “We have in our heads that if we put on minds to it, we can do it. There aren’t many things that can stop us when we’re on a roll.”

“We want to play fast,” Arrigale added. “That’s what we build our program on. We haven’t been, and it’s been a thing that we practice fast and try to play fast, and we had to try and change our defensive mindset.”

A pleasant surprise on Tuesday night for the Saints coaching staff was the defensive efforts of Woodley. The 6-6 freshman as extremely long arms and a quick second jump, which allows his to deny his opponents at the rim.

“He was unbelievable,” Arrigale said of Woodley’s 15-point, five-block performance. “He has been deferring the ball on offense, and we’re encouraging him to do more and on defense he plays way beyond his years.”

Carroll was led by 6-5 junior Luke House, as he poured in 19 points including three 3’s. Senior guard Justin Anderson added 18 while Hoggard and Keyon Butler both chipped in seven.

With the win, the Saints improve to 1-0 in Catholic League play, with a win over a Carroll team which has a chance to make some serious noise come postseason play. Neumann-Goretti’s next matchup will be at home against Conwell-Egan on Friday. Next week, the Saints will take on a young Cardinal O’Hara team and then face off at home against rival Roman Catholic.

If tonight is any indication, the Saints have a chance to do some damage in one of the country’s most challenging high school leagues.

“If we play together,” Montague said, “we are unstoppable.”