December reports/Tedbits
January reports/Tedbits

FEB. 28 (Evening)
TEDBIT
  Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale last night claimed his 400th win . . . in 17 seasons and game No. 490. Check out the list below to see where he stands overall.

FEB. 28
TEDBIT
  Last night's win (in the Class AAA City Title -- seven in a row, by the way) was No. 400 for Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale. He ranks first in wins per season with 23.53 among the guys on the list -- Roman's Dennis Seddon is now second at 23.45 -- and his winning percentage of .816 places him third behind .827 by West Philly's Joe Goldenberg and .818 by Gratz' Bill Ellerbee. William "Speedy" Morris, who leads the way in total wins with 681, was Arrigale's coach at Penn Charter in the '83 and '84 seasons. N-G's season is not over. The Saints will compete in the state playoffs.

FEB. 27
CITY TITLE TRIPLEHEADER
AAAA: Roman 58, King 57
AAA: Neumann-Goretti 77, Imhotep 74
AA: Conwell-Egan 67, Freire 31
(At Saint Joseph's University)
  High school games. College arena. NBA feel . . . At least in the second two games. You know what people say. That many NBA games are only compelling in the last two minutes. To some degree, that was the story tonight. Don't get me wrong. Both games were respectable beforehand. But even though decent crowds were in Hagan Arena, the noise level was mostly low because few people appeared to have dedicated rooting interest. They sat and appreciated good plays, but major juice was lacking, especially in comparison with the recent CL and PL finals. And then in the AAAA contest, as the clock hit 2 minutes, there we were with Roman on top of King, 51-50. Roman jr. PG Tony Carr then turned a fastbreak opportunity into a three-point play at 1:30 and King sr. PG Sammy Foreman answered with one of his own at 1:10. Roman spread the floor and jr. WG Nazeer Bostick hit both ends of a one-and-one at 32.4. King jr. WG Jabri McCall missed a layup, but gained possession of the loose-ball rebound in heavy floor traffic and was able to signal for a timeout at 15.6. After taking an inbound pass from Foreman, McCall then drove along the right baseline and drew a foul at 13.0. He hit the first of two free throws and Carr grabbed the rebound of the second-shot miss. TC went to the line for a double-bonus at 10.4 and drained both attempts to make it 58-54. At 3.6, McCall took a pass from Foreman and, bang!!!, swished a right-wing trey. Bostick was chopped at 1.8 and missed the first half of the double-bonus. Ditto for the second -- on purpose -- and King sr. PF-C Tyere Marshall could only whip a desperation, nowhere-close shot from right to the side of the basket. This game had oddities. Carr did not post his first official field-goal attempt until 3:15 before halftime. Bostick made just one of eight shots from the floor. Sr. WG-SF Gemil Holbrook scored eight early points, but finished with only 13. Soph WG D'Andre Vilmar, usually a worker-bee second (even third-fourth) banana, became very aggressive in the third quarter while scoring eight of his 13 points. A King assistant, for getting much too animated over a call he didn't appreciate, drew a tech early in the fourth quarter and Carr's two free throws made it 48-46. Proved to be a killer. Other stats for Roman guys: Bostick (seven) and Carr (four) were the rebound/assist leaders. King was able to almost win despite going 19-for-60 from the floor. Not one guy shot at least 50 percent. Foreman mixed 12 points with five assists. McCall hit three treys while posting 22 points. Sr. WG Ladji Fofana, the sixth man and a recently-approved, fifth-year senior (transfer from Frankford), had 13 points and 10 rebounds. A key performer is no longer part of King's squad. Coach Chris McNesby told sr. F TreVaughn Wilkerson, out all season with a knee injury, to accept the plaque. In the locker room, we were setting up for a team pic when the coolest man in world history, Roman assistant Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna, came barreling into the room. We made him hit the floor in front of the first row and the guys all celebrated his appearance by belting out Puck's famous "Yo, Boy" greeting. Ha, ha, ha . . . Given his druthers, N-G coach Carl Arrigale would have MUCH preferred to have claimed his 400th win four nights earlier in the CL final at the Palestra. Instead, the Saints fell to Roman, failing to seize a seventh consecutive title, in part because they shot 1-for-7 (two front ends) at the line in the fourth quarter. Tonight? They went 18-for-22 and hit 15 of their first 16, and now they HAVE won seven consecutive CTs! Jr. WG-SF Zane Martin led the way, hitting his first 12 and finishing 14-for-16. Pretty amazing. Oh, N-G also sniped 50 percent on treys (13-for-26) and the game was won on a threeball by soph WG Quade Green. In this one, with 1:57 left, N-G was up, 69-68. Imhotep took a 70-69 lead as sr. PF DeAnte Robinson bullied for a close-in bucket. N-G sr. WG Lamarr "Fresh" Kimble, who'll play at Saint Joe's, scored inside on a tough move. Imhotep sr. F Devin Liggeons got fouled on a follow and hit both shots. Kimble drained his fifth trey to make it 74-72. Soph WG Daron Russell, a Kyle Lowry play-alike, turned a brassy move into the tying basket at :26. N-G's possession began with Kimble on the left side. He guided the ball into the middle for jr. PG Vaughn Covington. VC made slight penetration, then whipped the rock to the right corner and Green -- don't act as if you're surprised -- took everybody to Splash World with a controversial trey. As major discussions took place, the number on N-G's side of the scoreboard went from 77 to 76 and back to 77. Exactly 1 second remained. Liggeons inbounded for Imhotep. A halfcourt pass to jr. WG Jaekwon Carlyle produced a halfcourt heave (from right by the press table) that came only remotely close. Green shot 9-for-13 (four treys) en route to 25 points. Martin (22) and Kimble (17, five treys; he swears he doesn't do extra workouts in Saint Joe's gym -- smile) also scored in double digits while soph PF-C Dhamir "DaDa" Cosby-Roundtree offered seven rebounds, five blocks. Russell (21), Robinson (18) and Carlyle (12) topped 'Tep. Robinson added 10 rebounds and sr. G Khalief Tinley manned up to take four charges. Impressive! The Panthers went just 4-for-14 beyond the arc . . . As for the AA contest (or lack thereof), who could have predicted this? After waiting 51 years for its second postseason win in school history, C-E (Bishop Egan through the 1992-93 school year) triumphed by 36 points. The 1963-64 school year was the Eagles' first in the CL and in that era the playoffs included only semis and a final. Egan bumped off Neumann, then fell to Cardinal Dougherty. (After this game, long-time sports writer Frank Bertucci claimed to be Egan/C-E's good luck charm. He was a student at Neumann in '64 and saw that semifinal, which was held at the Palestra -- smile. I wonder how many more of tonight's spectators also saw that long-ago win?) C-E jumped to a 10-3 lead as sr. WG Chase Kumor hit a pair of threes. The halftime score was 26-16 as Freire went just 1-for-9 in the second quarter. Jr. PF-C Vinny Dalessandro finished with 14 points (four dunks), 13 boards and five blocks. Jr. PG Stevie Jordan had 15 points and four apiece of assists/steals. Jr. WG-SF LaPri McCray-Pace went a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor while scoring 16 points. He also had three assists while showing yet again that he is becoming quite the controlled, heady player. Kumor's 11-point outing was highlighted by three triples. The other starter, jr. F Sean Kelly, claimed six boards for second-year coach Frank Sciolla. No one scored in double figures for the outsized/outstrengthed Dragons. Sr. Gs Calil Moultrie and Joel Grant managed nine and eight points, respectively. Moultrie added four steals and sr. C Jason Battle fought for six boards. Amauro "Amar" Austin and I teamed to do full boxes for all three games. They'll appear in Monday's Daily News. In the locker room afterward, the Eagles were celebrating by bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet when Dalessandro soared a little too high and -- oops -- dislodged one of the foam-like ceiling tiles. Also, his head might have hit one of the brackets because he let loose with an ouch. Hey, it's not easy to rejoice without incident after your school's first hoops playoff win in 51 years! (smile). Congrats to the Eagles for getting off a serious schneid!

FEB. 27
TEDBIT
  Thanks to victories Thursday night by Carroll and last night by La Salle, the Catholic League has now won 75 percent (24-8 record) of the District 12 playoffs that have taken place since the CL joined the PIAA for the 2008-09 season. Included are seeding games and City Titles. In the CT Series' original go-'round, the Pub won the final six battles (1975-80). Here's a breakdown . . .
  UPDATED: The CL won all three City Titles. It's now 27-8 for .771. Neumann-Goretti is 7-0 in AAA.

FEB. 26
DISTRICT 12 CLASS AAAA SEEDING GAME
(To Determine Third Seed, Loser Out)
La Salle 73, Washington 44
(At Southern)
  There are better ways to head into an elimination game than to have one of your top players, an All-Public honoree, quit the squad over a dispute about how he was disciplined for violating a team rule. Not saying the kid's presence would have made a gigantic difference, but the Eagles' mindset was no doubt affected. After the first quarter ended with only a one-point margin -- 17-16 for Washington -- it appeared we might be in for a goodie. So much for that. As the night wore on, La Salle looked an awful lot like a classic, old-school, go-up-and-down Pub squad . . . with rained-down threes mixed in. The Explorers wound up hitting eight treys as four guys nailed two apiece -- sr. Gs Najee Walls, Shawn Witherspoon and Dan "Sniper to the" Corr and sub jr. WG-SF Ryan McTamney. McTamney's came in back-to-back fashion to end the third quarter, out of the right corner, and they provided his squad with a 52-35 lead. Shortly beforehand, sr. F Dave Krmpotich snagged an offensive rebound from a spread-eagle position and impressively canned a wraparound layup. Then, Witherspoon scored on an all-in-one-motion, catch-and-push-the-ball-hard-off-the-glass follow. Two very impressive plays. Washington was cooked by the time that flurry was over. Krmpotich (Colgate) contributed 21 points (two dunks) while shooting 8-for-13 and 5-for-6. He added 10 rebounds. Witherspoon and Walls, who usually seem to score in close-together numbers, had 21 and 15 points. Each had four assists, 'Spoon snagged seven boards and Walls managed four steals. One of those guys also uttered this late-game comment -- "We're bustin' your ass" -- toward some relentlessly animated/sassy Washington fans that were behind the south basket. They were there to support one guy, sr. WG Elmange Watson. Many had Watson's face plastered on wooden sticks. Five sported bue shirts with the letters of his nickname -- M-A-N-G-E (pronounced MAN-gee) -- and others wore black shirts with the hashtag #teamwatson. At one point, a gal in the group offered me one of the face-sticks while saying with a smile, "It's gonna be worth money someday." If so, I'll regret not taking one home (smile). La Salle finished with 17 assists and the snappy passing was still visible even in the waning moments. The happiest late-game Explorer was sr. F Matt Dessner, who fed soph WG Matt "The Next Dan Corr" Paulus for a trey, then scored on a follow. The way the season ended had to be a big disappointment to the Eagles, who'd beaten St. Joseph's Prep, Ryan and even Chester AT Chester in December. Star sr. WG-SF Charles Brown, who'll wind up playing Division One, made his first two shots, but missed his last eight en route to 10 points. Jr. WG Quadere Allen, formerly of Germantown and Archbishop Carroll, had 12 points while sr. PG Asante "Redz" Ali, a lefty and very aggressive, had 10 along with seven assists. Watson settled for nine points. Many, many dignitaries: Aaron "Ace" Carter, Mark "Frog" Carfagno (PA announcer), Jack Creighton, Tommy DeFelice (son Chris was one of the refs), Ben Dubin, Bernie Fitzgerald, Dan Fitzgerald, Joe Fite, Jerry Greenberg, Keith Hines (helped Frog), Troy Holiday, Ed Monaghan, Ed Morrone, Frank "Roscoe" Natale, Joe Parisi, Bob Peffle, Big Steve Reid (stats with Ace), Arthur "Bunky" Russell, William "Skip" Singletary, Tom Stewart, Thomas Terry, Bill Williams, Ed Wright, Rich "Yankee Doodle" Yankowitz, Lou Zambino and apologies to anyone I missed. Dinner was a soft pretzel. Very tasty!

FEB. 26
TEDBIT
**Updated post from last season/corrected at 11 p.m.**
  Maybe the color red gets them going. Whatever the reason, Carroll certainly has found a second home at Ryan in the seven years that the Catholic League has been part of the PIAA. Last night, the Patriots upped their record to 7-2 in playoff games contested at Ryan, and the margin od defeat in  their two losses (both to Philly Electric) was three points. The biggest win, no doubt, occurred in a Class AAA quarterfinal in '09. That triumph over Neumann-Goretti helped Carroll become the CL's first state champ (and it remains the school's only win over N-G in the last 31 meetings).
  Thanks to Shawn Lewis for reminding me of last year's loss in the state playoffs.

FEB. 25
DISTRICT 12 CLASS AAA SEEDING GAME
Carroll 71, Audenried 46
(To Determine Third-Fourth Seeds)
(At Ryan)
  This was a do-or-do game. See what I did there? (smile) It wasn't a do-or-die game because both teams, going in, were assured of living to see another game. This contest was held only to determine seeding spots. As you might expect, it was rather loosey-goosey. In the first quarter, especially, a playground aura was prominent as the teams flew up and down. Oh, and Carroll sr. F Derrick Jones (UNLV) almost flew through the ceiling. He finished the session with three dunks and two were all-timers. (Many of his dunks are, come to think of it.) He added one more slam in the second quarter -- two of his four came on follows -- and then he spent the second half mostly in spectator mode. While still playing! Jones usually stationed himself beyond the arc and never went running toward the basket for alley-oops, etc. Please believe me when I tell you this: If Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk had wanted him to, Jones could have finished with double figures in dunks. As it was he scored just five of his 20 points beyond intermission. Early in the second quarter, Ryan football coach Frank "Five" McArdle said with a smile, "My biggest concern is, can our rims take the pounding? We don't ever see this." Oh, well. The rims are still in tact (though soph WG-SF Dave Beatty did uncork a thunder-slam in the fourth quarter). After scoring the first 12 points of the third quarter, Carroll led by 49-21. It was pretty much coast time thereafter. Jones notched 13 rebounds and eight blocks in addition to his 20 points. Beatty had 12 and eight boards while jr. WG Ryan Daly added 13 points and seven rebounds. Jr. PG Josh Sharkey dealt five assists and two subs, sr. G Damone Jones (eight) and jr. F Tony Thomas (six), enjoyed making respectable dents in the scoring column. Audenried, as many know by now, is actually a AAA school for hoops purposes, but mistakenly competed throughout the Pub playoffs at the AA level. Once the honchos became aware of the glitch, Audenried was scheduled for a game against Del-Val for the Pub's second AAA berth. That contest occurred yesterday and 'Ried, despite its status as a second-class citizen (comparatively, in Division C), knocked off the Division A Warriors. Congrats to coach Kenyatta Bey (West Philly '81) and his players for that feat! Tonight was a rough go. The only truly impressive Rocket was sr. WG Eddie Lewis, who knocked down three treys in the first quarter and finished with four (15 points). Soph Nyseem Smith showed some brass at PG and soph WG-SF Nisheem Wright used some late success to reach 12 points. Though I'd heard some nice things about sr. SF Devon Jacobs, a leaper with decent strength, tonight he struggled mightily. As in, he didn't score. Jones and others challenged pretty much every shot he took. 'Ried had a nice turnout, considering that Ryan is not exactly around the corner from its school (right off the Schuylkill Expressway on the western edge of South Philly). Among the dignitaries: Phil Consalvo, Fran Dougherty, Mike Frain, Dennis Hill, Jim Gentile, Barry Kirsch, Joe Sette, Marvin Stinson (Audenried assistant, star at Dobbins in '91), George Todt, Erik Zipay . . . Barry formerly coached Carroll's boys, then girls, and he was telling me a story about former Carroll star Joe Rogers. Joe played at 'Nova and roomed with Whitey Rigsby, whose son, John, now plays for Carroll. Barry said Whitey and Joe became such good friends during their Wildcat days that Whitey named a son Joseph Rogers Rigsby. Cool! Also had a nice talk with Sharon Bey, a female ref who formerly whistled a fair amount of Pub boys' games. (She still does some, just not as many. Not related to Kenyatta.) She always reffed with confidence and had the respect of all players/coaches. In '02, she did half a game by herself because her tooting partner was a half a no-show (smile). She handled tonight's girls' game -- Carroll thumped Gratz -- and was displaying a semi-limp. Earlier this year, she tore an MCL while working a game . . . on her birthday! Rough! Meanwhile, in the first half, Audenried committed a foul on offense, away from the ball, and the teams walked down the other end for free throws. Innnncorrect. We knew it immediately (that rule was changed a good 10-15 years ago, maybe) and during halftime Sharon pulled a rulebook out of her travel bag to confirm that a mistake had been made. She then kidded the refs when they returned to the gym for the second half. Nice! Meanwhile, part II . . . Saw another of my teammates with the East Germantown Rams 12-and-under squad from the winter of 1962-63. This time it was Joe Magarity, an assistant to Carroll's girls' coach, Chuck Creighton. Joe played his high school ball at La Salle and his oldest brother, Bill, was the starting point guard for the Explorers' 1963 CL champs. (A cousin, also named Bill Magarity, starred at Cardinal Dougherty, Class of '71, and later became a franchise player in Sweden.) Great to see you, Joe!

FEB. 25
TEDBIT
  Monday night at the Palestra, Roman's Chris McNesby became the eighth city-leagues coach over the last 45 seasons to guide a team to a championship after having played for a title team at a city-leagues school. He was a substitute guard for Roman in the '93 and '94 seasons (and made appearances in both finals; scored two points in '93) and then was a starter for the '95 squad. St. Thomas More, which closed in June 1975, was located at 47th & Wyalusing, in West Philly. Sean Colson, Tom Ingelsby and Fran O'Hanlon played in the NBA/ABA. Vince Miller (RIP) was Wilt Chamberlain's lifelong best buddy and a scout for the 76ers. O'Hanlon now coaches Lafayette. Fran Dunphy coaches Temple. Eddie Burke (RIP) coached Drexel. Note: It's possible that Lee Jackson, who coached Penn Charter to Inter-Ac titles in 1970, '71 (tie) and '72, was a deep-sub member of PC's '56 championship squad. Still trying to nail that down. He was not among the nine rotation members. His primary sport was football and he twice earned All-Inter-Ac honors before graduating in '58. As confirmed by John Burkhart, the go-to guy for PC sports history, Jackson did NOT play basketball while at PC. Thanks for the hustle, John.

FEB. 24 (Evening)
TEDBIT
  In recent seasons, the Pub's divisions have been set up to reflect perceived strength. But, as you can imagine, the theory doesn't always hold and that's a good thing. This afternoon, Audenried claimed its second win of this postseason as, shall we say, a "divisional underdog," by edging Del-Val, 67-64. As Ace let us know, Devon Jacobs had 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks while Nisheem Wright tallied nine of his 13 points in the fourth quarter. That's seven wins for the lesser lights and this was the second time a team posted a win over a two-divisions-up squad. Audenried is actually a Class AAA team, but league officials did not catch the mistake until a day or two prior to the quarterfinals (also the classification finals). Audenried was allowed to remain in the AA fold and wound up topping Freire, 70-61. Afterward, officials decided to make Freire the Pub rep for the AA City Title and gave Audenried a chance to still earn its way into the state playoffs with a clash against Del-Val. Now, Audenried will play Archbishop Carroll tomorrow night at 7:30, at Archbishop Ryan, to determine the third-fourth seeds.

FEB. 24
TEDBIT
  Look below for a glance at the streaks of 20 consecutive playoff victories (six titles therein) by Roman (1989-95) and Neumann-Goretti (2009-15). The Cahillites used 23 starters while the Saints got by with 19. The teams' victory margins were pretty similar, except in quarterfinals. In the '95 final, Carroll upset Roman as Paul Romanczuk, currently the Patriots' coach, totaled 16 points (7-for-7 floor) and 11 rebounds. Chris McNesby, Roman's current coach, started at guard that night for the Cahillites . . . In '88, Roman fell in a semifinal to Bonner, 66-59, thanks mostly due to current Penn State assistant Brian Daly (28 points, 13 rebounds). His sons, Ryan and Colin, now play for Carroll. In '08, N-G was eliminated in the quarterfinal round by Bonner, 63-53.

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FEB. 23
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Roman 64, Neumann-Goretti 59
(At the Palestra)
  All's well (again) in the Roman Empire. After going without a championship since 2007, and seeing their hoops archrival poised to break their very own record for consecutive crowns, the Cahillites decided they'd experienced enough frustrating moments. Does this triumph negate the uncommon dry spell? Hardly. But smiles will be plastered on guys' faces for days, weeks, maybe even months and years and not even a top-notch plastic surgeon could remove them. Before we go any further, major props must be doled out to the Saints. Coach Carl Arrigale's ballclubs won six consecutive CL titles, tying the mark set by Dennis Seddon's Roman crews from 1989 through '94. Imagine how tough that is. Much more, even, was on the line tonight. Arrigale, who's in his 17th season, needed ONE win to reach 400 and this crown would have been his 11th, enabling him to nudge past Seddon. Why didn't it happen? Multiple reasons, but one stands out in bold relief. In the fourth quarter, after using a wonderful third session (23-12 advantage) to storm back from a 38-23 halftime deficit, N-G shot 1-for-7 at the foul line. Even worse, two of the misses came on front ends, so bye-bye was waved to eight possible points. The two front ends were flubbed when the Saints were trying to erase a one-point deficit (58-57), first at 2:56 and again at 2:07. Who knows? If N-G goes ahead or at least ties the score, maybe the entire stretch run unfolds in different fashion. Maybe the Roman guys are thinking, "Despite how great we played for a large part of this game, maybe this damn thing is just NOT meant to be." We'll never know, obviously. Since we're here anyway, we'll stick with the latter moments . . . Jr. WG Nazeer Bostick, who might as well have been a power forward in this one, canned a tough, reverse layup at 1:41 to make it 60-57. N-G sr. WG Lamarr "Fresh" Kimble airballed a teardrop and Roman used its final timeout at 56.3 after snagging the rebound. At :41, soph G D'Andre Vilmar posted a three-point play after taking a high-to-low feed from sr. PF-C Manny Taylor, the sixth man. That play was an absolute killer, folks. N-G soph WG Quade Green, mostly outrageously outstanding/amazing all night, converted a drive at :34, but missed the tagged-on free throw, with the rebound going to Roman jr. PG Tony Carr. Carr missed a front end at 32.6 and Green claimed the board. Jr. WG Zane Martin tried a drive, but Bostick recorded a block at 25.2. Soon Kimble was making a drive a shade beyond the right side of the lane and, after a slight hiccup, the ball was bouncing off his chest out of bounds at 16.8. Roman sr. WG-SF Gemil Holbrook missed a one-and-one at 15.4 and Kimble rebounded. He penetrated, then passed back out to Martin, a lefty, for a rather deep, straight-on trey. No good. Bostick notched the final point by hitting the back end of a double-bonus at 5.7. Four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . Bedlam time! The Roman people, and especially the out-in-terrific-force students, went absolutely berserk. Though they were prevented from storming the court by security personnel, they belted out the school song and enjoyed tremendous interaction with players who scrambled over to celebrate. Soon, the plaque was being handed out and guys kept taking turns grabbing it to pose for pics. The net at the east end also endured many snip-snips before coach Chris McNesby completed the task and held it high for all to see. Much later, everybody was finally together in the locker room and a group celebration pic was snapped. As you likely know, N-G entered this game at 23-1 and the lone setback had come courtesy of Roman. Taylor was a gigantic factor in that one, but in the early moments of his appearance tonight, two of his shots, on the same possession, were blocked by soph C Dhamir "DaDa" Cosby-Roundtree. C-R then sprinted down the floor and took a feed from Martin for a layup. Uh, oh. Or at least that could have been an uh-oh omen. Instead, Roman began to assert itself and junior soccer star Billy Stermel, dressed in a gladiator costume, inspired the students, with assorted antics delivered in animated fashion, to provide great juice. Roman seized a 24-13 lead and N-G to that point was 6-for-19 from the floor. Truthfully, the only remotely successful Saint was Green, who nailed his first six shots to finish with 14 points. When the Saints came back out, I almost expected him not to be there and to hear PA announcer Dan Hoban say, "Quade Green is no longer playing for Neumann-Goretti. He has declared for the NBA draft." (smile) He was THAT good. In the third quarter, pretty much everyone contributed for the Saints. Kimble, 0-for-6 prior to halftime, came out of his funk and jr. WG Rasheed Browne was important for two reasons -- he hit two treys for six points and played in a role in preventing Carr from even attempting a shot in the quarter. Roman's pad was down to four, at 50-46, by the end of the stanza. Bostick wound up owning the fourth. His aura said again and again, "We are NOT losing this game," and, as he'd done earlier, he attacked the offensive glass for follows. In all, Bostick finished 9-for-13 (one trey) and 4-for-7 for 23 points while snagging/seizing/claiming 13 rebounds. Holbrook (14, three treys) was the only other Cahillite to reach double digits in points. Taylor and Carr halved 12 rebounds while Taylor -- yes, Taylor -- led all players in assists with four. Green (21), Martin (13) and Kimble (11) topped N-G in points. Only Cosby-Roundtree (seven, also four rejections) plucked more than four rebounds. Martin and jr. PG Vaughn Covington managed to post three dimes apiece. In upcoming City Titles (Friday at Saint Joseph's University), Roman will battle King in AAAA while the AAA contest will pit N-G vs. Imhotep. Lots of great help along press row from Amauro "Amar" Austin, Mark "Frog" Carfagno, Big Steve Reid and Keith Hines. Thanks, guys! . . . N-G did win the girls' game, by 50-45 over Wood. That one was supposed to start at 6:45, but it was delayed until 7:15 because Wood experienced transportation miseries and didn't even hit the floor until 6:51. Sub Kimayah Smalls (14) and Ciani Cryor (13) scored in double figures for N-G. Bailey Greenberg (24) was the only Vikingette (?) with more than eight points.

FEB. 23
TEDBIT
  The combatants will enter tonight's Catholic League final, set for approximately 8:30 at the Palestra, with only three total losses. That's the fewest for teams heading INTO the title game since 1997, when 24-3 Neumann stunned 27-0 Carroll, and it's tied for the top spot going back to at least 1970. N-G will be trying to claim the CL record for consecutive titles (seven) and a win would give coach Carl Arrigale No. 400 in his 17-year career with the Saints (nee Pirates).

FEB. 22 (Evening)
TEDBIT
  Imhotep's Andre Noble today became the 14th coach in Public/Catholic history to win at least five league championships. He claimed this one in his 11th season and he can claim a tie for fifth place in the quickest-to-five-crowns contest. (Pub info is available only from 1917 onward.)

FEB. 22
TEDBIT
  The 2015 Pub final will take place today, with roughly a 3 o'clock start, at Saint Joseph's University. And here's hoping at least one guy rain downs points. An individual outburst always makes the viewing more enjoyable. In Pub history, 28 guys have scored at least 25 points in championship games. Wilt Chamberlain, known as "Dippy" to friends/teammates but often called "The Stilt" in newspapers (he hated that nickname), owns three of the top six performances with 40, 34 and 33. Here's the list . . .
  UPDATED: to include Kimar Williams' 27-point performance for Constitution.

FEB. 21
TEDBIT
  In the Inter-Ac this century, and especially over the last seven years, underclass MVPs/MOPs have become quite common. This year's winner is Episcopal's Nick Alikakos, who's believed to be only the second soph in league history to win the award as a solo act. Episcopal's Charlie Hickman did so in '79. In 2013, Haverford School soph Levan "Shawn/Shizz" Alston shared the award with Germantown Academy senior Julian Moore.

FEB. 20
PA. INDY TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL
Phelps 88, Haverford School 71
(At Malvern)
  It's always cool to see a team storm back from a deficit, showing all kinds of energy and causing the opponent to experience at least a hint of consternation. This isn't cool: The rally begins with the spread at 26 points. After allowing Phelps to notch too many second-chance buckets and too many successful jumpers by a way-too-open wing sniper, the Fords trailed by 61-35 in the waning moments of the third quarter. Back they came! And hard! But the closest they got was 12 points and all hope vanished with 2:14 remaining when star jr. F Lamar Stevens incurred his fifth personal. Phelps, a boarding school in Malvern, features three former Pub stars in center Mike Watkins (Penn State), forward Mustafa Traore and guard Anwar Epps. All played well while getting tremendous help from sr. WG Antonas Krimelis, an animated kid who delivered daggers again and again from beyond the arc (5-for-10 on treys) or off quick moves. In all, he rained down 29 points and 17 were registered in the 38-21 first half. Watkins (one dunk) worked well with Traore (three) in high-low fashion and HS had trouble keeping both guys off the offensive glass. More disturbing was the fact that some of the guards also scored on put-backs. In the fourth quarter, Epps shot 10-for-12 at the line. Watkins fouled out with 5:18 remaining and the score at 65-47. The Fords said collectively, "This is our chance," and it was for a while. As often happens in these situations, though, so much energy is expended to get things semi-close that the final leg of the comeback never happens. Two senior starters -- PG Levan "Shawn/Shizz" Alston (Temple) and WG-SF Derek Mountain (Holy Cross, for football) -- played in their final game for the Fords. Alston packed 11 of his 26 points into the final quarter while adding six total rebounds and two steals. He finished his career with 1,458 points, third in school history to coach Henry "Doug" Fairfax ('99, 1,577) and Mike Edelman ('78, 1,550). The No. 4 guy, Cameron Youngblood ('02, 1,251), kept the Fords' scorebook tonight. Mountain saved seven of his nine for the fourth; he also posted four boards and two steals. They departed together with 13.5 seconds remaining, then received warm receptions from Fairfax and others. Stevens and frosh G Cameron Reddish added nine and eight points, respectively, jr. F Jack Marshall hustled for four points and six rebounds in not much time and sr. deep sub Logan Atkins, a guard, was able to end his career with a late field goal. Nice! Also, jr. G Micah Sims scrambled for four steals. The night's highlight occurred near the end of the Shipley-Episcopal girls' game when a childhood buddy walked over. Hey, it's Frank Moffatt! We grew up a block apart in East Germantown and in the winter of 1962-63 were teammates on a city-runnerup, 12-and-under team, the East Germantown Rams. (Jim Fitzpatrick, uncle of Wood mad bomber Cody Fitzpatrick, was also on the squad.) After his freshman year at Cardinal Dougherty, Frank moved to Cherry Hill and wound up starring for nearby Bishop Eustace. He became a point guard starter at La Salle College and had a great coaching run on the AAU girls' trail; his three kids are daughters. One of Frank's best buddies, it turns out, is forever NBA ref Joe Crawford. I saw Joe one night earlier this season at O'Hara and gave him some play on the website. Frank said Joe was lovin' it and playfully bragging. Wow, now Frank is getting the attention and he'll be able to bust Joe's cubes by saying HE is just as famous. Well, on this website anyway (ha ha). Better than nothing, right? Great to see you, Frank!! G-town 4-ever!! Click here to see Frank's bio from La Salle's 1972-73 media guide (his junior year).

FEB. 20
TEDBIT
  Two things about the modern-day Pub: the presence of the so-called Power Division, plus a bunch of competitive non-league/showcase/tourney games, makes it harder than ever for the league champion to finish the season with a very impressive overall record. Sunday at Saint Joseph's, at approximately 3 p.m., Imhotep will meet Constitution for the 2015 crown. Constitution is 19-7. Imhotep is 18-8. Here are the most defeated Pub champs since 1950 (and probably ever). There are no City Titles in Class A, so the most games Constitution could lose by season's end is nine. Imhotep could lose 11, depending upon what also happens in City Title and state playoff clashes. 

FEB. 19 (Evening)
TEDBIT
  Last night's Catholic League semifinal doubleheader featured two tight games. Not outrageously tight, but enough to earn a spot on the list below. The total differential was eight points as Roman beat Carroll by three and Neumann-Goretti beat La Salle by five. The record: three. In 1986, Dougherty topped North, 42-41, and Roman bested O'Hara, 42-40. In '72, North edged Ryan, 66-65, and the hero (17 apiece of points/rebounds) was Doug Romanczuk, the father of Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk. From '79 through '86, no semis had a total spread HIGHER than 13. 

FEB. 19
TEDBIT
  Last night, Neumann-Goretti's Quade Green (26) and Lamarr "Fresh" Kimble (23) became the 10th teammates to score at least 20 points apiece in a Catholic League playoff in this century. Two guys -- SJ Prep's Miles Overton and Stephen Vasturia -- twice accomplished the feat together.

FEB. 18
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Neumann-Goretti 70, La Salle 65
(At the Palestra)
  CAUTION: Trying to Cover This Guy Will Prove to be Very Difficult. Those words should have been printed on the strips of yellow tape that covered the tender left shoulder of N-G sr. WG Lamarr "Fresh" Kimble, who'll play his college ball at Saint Joseph's. Come to think of it, the tape/warning could have also been sported by soph WG Quade Green. Those two guys combined for 49 points while shooting 18-for-23 from the floor. And guess what? N-G came within a whisker of missing out on a chance to play for a seventh consecutive CL championship come Monday night (vs. Roman) at the Big House. How in the world? Overall, the Saints shot 24-for-38 (63 percent) from the floor and 17-for-22 (77 percent) at the line while committing just six turnovers. Also, they sported a 15-point lead (55-40) with 6:34 remaining after scoring the first four points of the fourth quarter. But in the waning moments, there La Salle was, using its final timeout to formulate a plan to create a tie at 68-68. Unbelievable. Just like last Friday at St. Joseph's Prep, the bucket that began the comeback came courtesy of sr. WG Dan "Sniper to the" Corr in the form of a right-wing trey. Soon, sr. WG Shawn Witherspoon was draining the Explorers' third triple of the session (sr. PG Najee Walls had the other one) and the spread was down to five, at 55-50. Though N-G did regroup, it could not recreate a comfortable cushion and for the rest of the way it was Ballgame Time, Baby! (Our condolences to those folks who left the 'Lestra at the end of the third quarter -- smile.) With 2:00 left, Walls hit a right-corner three on a pass from Witherspoon -- the ball rolled quite rapidly around the rim before finding net -- and the deficit was down to one, at 61-60. Four free throws by N-G jr. WG-SF Zane Martin surrounded two by La Salle sr. F Shane Stark to make it 65-62. Walls missed a teardrop at 1:08, Kimble hit the first of two free throws at 1:03, Walls canned a drive at 55.9 and Kimble nailed two more free throws at 33.9 to make it 68-64. On another drive, Walls was hacked at 28.2 and hit the first of the freebies. Though Walls missed the second, Witherspoon Mr. Clutched to grab the offensive rebound and La Salle used that aforementioned final timeout at 21.9. Witherspoon inbounded from a spot beyond La Salle's bench toward midcourt and the shot wound up being a contested, slightly-off-balance trey by Corr from the left corner. It did not succeed and Martin, who finished the evening 8-for-8 from the line, drove  stakes Nos. 1 and 2 through the Explorers' collective heart. What a memorable fourth quarter. One minute, DN statman Big Steve Reid and I were discussing how the stretch run would likely become a challenge because the teams' deep subs would be out there running around in search of any kind of stat. The next . . . Hmmm. Maybe the Saints were having that same thought, which caused the foot to not press as hard on the pedal. Whatever the reason, all neutral observers were thrilled the comeback happened because it capped a very special night at America's best basketball venue; Roman beat Carroll in the first one, 61-58. Kimble finished 8-for-11 and 7-for-9 for 23 points while adding three steals. Green racked up 26 points while shooting 10-for-12 and an unconscious 5-for-6 on treys. Pretty sure every one was a perfect swish, too. Phew! Martin had 12 points while soph C Dhamir "DaDa" Cosby-Roundtree had eight points, seven boards and four blocks before fouling out at 21.9. La Salle's headliner was springy/"swivelly" sr. F Dave Krmpotich. He shot 10-for-14 and 2-for-3 for 22 points, snagged a game-high eight rebounds and offered a classic, eyes-bugged-out look after wolfing down a follow dunk late in the first half. Walls (13) and Corr (10) also scored in double figures while 'Spoon dished out seven assists. Jr. F Ryan McTamney and soph WG Matt Paulus, a pair of subs, hit one three apiece. La Salle's season is not over, but it's win or go home from here on out. Only three AAAA teams from District 12 will compete in the state playoffs this year, so the Explorers will need to beat Washington, of da Pub, in a showdown for the third seed. In search of a seventh straight CL championship, N-G will be trying to eclipse the record of none other than its opponent, Roman (six in a row from 1989-94). One of the coolest things about Palestra visits is looking around the stands during timeouts and seeing the faces of many guys who played for the participating teams back in the day and want their alma mater to have a wonderful experience. The names don't always come to mind, but that's part of being ancient (smile). The night ended with a quick visit from Wood 2013 grad Mike Drumm, who was this website's final Best Teammate. Great to see you, Mike! And no doubt you appreciated the efforts of tonight's Best Teammates, Kimble and Green.

FEB. 18
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Roman 61, Carroll 58
(At the Palestra)
  Here's a strong guess: Paul Newman will never, ever come close to forgetting his first points of the 2015 CL playoffs. Newman, a jr. PF-C, has been starting for roughly half the season while sr. PF-C Manny Taylor, a football lineman bound for Rutgers and formerly a starter, has been mostly thriving in a sixth-man role. Last Friday, in a quarterfinal win over Wood, Newman experienced some leg issues and hardly played. Tonight, in a pretty-much-packed Palestra, he again started, but owned zero points (0-for-2 from floor) after Carroll sub jr. WG John Rigsby hit the second of two free throws with 8.8 seconds remaining. On the inbound play, Newman wound up with the ball -- doubtful that was the plan, especially in the backcourt -- and was hacked at 5.0. Now imagine . . . You have to yet to score in the playoffs and have attempted no free throws. Plus, you're not exactly accustomed to being mistaken for Mr. Deadeye. Oh, and as you step to the line, roughly 8,000 people are watching. First shot is up . . . swish. Second shot is up . . . ditto. What a clutch performance by the lefty! Newman's heroics made the score 61-58, so Carroll still had a chance to force OT. Didn't come close to happening. Jr. PG Josh Sharkey launched a hurried, contested trey from deep on the left wing and the ball hit against the upper portion of the backboard. Ballgame. As the Patriots left the building, and deep into the night, again and again they thought assuredly thought about what could have been. They rolled to an 8-0 lead in the first 2:52 and even led by 41-30 with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter. Alas, they missed eight free throws in the fourth quarter while adding 1-for-8 struggles from the floor. They also had trouble preventing jr. Gs Tony Carr (point) and Nazeer Bostick (wing) from often imposing their will. Though Carr and Bostick are righthanded, more than a few times they finished drives with their left hands while going to the opposite side and using the rim for protection. In quite the surprise, Carroll finished with just two blocked shots. Often this season, star sr. F Derrick Jones (UNLV) has swatted that many attempts on the same possession. Amazingly, Roman missed 15 of its first 16 floor attempts and did not notch field goal No. 2 until 6:26 remained in the second quarter. The play that put Carroll ahead by 41-30 was a steal/layup combo by sr. G Samir Taylor. Carr began the Cahillites' rally with a drive and Taylor capped it with a pair of right-place, right-time tip-ins. Just before the buzzer, off a pass from Sharkey, Jones drained a trey from the right of the top of the key and Carroll hustled/bustled to its between-quarters confab with a 44-40 edge. That bucket lifted Jones' point total for the night to 19 and, yes, it was cool. A gigantic moment had occurred a few minutes earlier, however. With a basket off a feed from Rigsby, Jones upped his career total to 1,494, thus enabling him to break Carroll's record for points in a career. Guard Juan'ya Green, now at Hofstra, posted 1,493 points. (Jones was fouled on the sequence and completed the three-point play.) Roman roared to the first six points of the fourth quarter and from then on back was mostly followed by forth. At 1:00, Bostick scored down low on a pass from Carr and Roman was up, 57-54. More back and forth action resulted in a 59-57 Roman lead at :27. Sharkey's attempt off a drive was blocked by sub soph G Jon-Paul Sanders and Carroll maintained possession. Behind press row, during the timeout, an adult Carroll supporter said aloud, "I think they go with get it to (jr. WG Ryan) Daly for a three." No chance for that was presented. Soph WG Dave Beatty inbounded from the right wing and Rigsby was bumped maybe 35 feet from the basket as he caught the pass. As mentioned above, he hit the second of two shots. Something very strange happened on the first one. As Rigsby was letting loose, Carr, standing on the side of the lane, up close to Rigsby, slightly shook his raised hands from side to side. No violation was called, but referee Kevin Clay addressed Carr between the shots and almost certainly told him not to repeat that gesture. (We know what you're asking, "If the ref spoke to Carr between attempts, why wasn't a violation called?" My guess: Clay thought the waving was just short of being blatant enough to justify a do-over.) We have already detailed the final moments. Carr (17), Bostick (15), soph G D'Andre Vilmar and Taylor (10 apiece) scored in double figures. Bostick (12) and Taylor (10) led in rebounds while Carr dished four assists. Jones paced Carroll with 23 points, 13 rebounds and four steals. Sharkey, Daly and Beatty added 11, 10 and nine points. Daly posted seven boards and Sharkey/Taylor halved six assists. Huck was on hand to work with me on stats for the Daily News' full boxscore. Amauro Austin, Frog Carfagno and Big Steve Reid were also in the Big House and Ace Carter, of course, wrote his newspaper(s) story. Carroll's season isn't over. Four AAA D-12 teams will compete in the state playoffs and Carroll will be one of them. The Patriots will meet Del-Val to decide the third-fourth seed. Aside from playing for the overall CL crown, Roman will also tangle with King for the AAAA City Title. Most amazing sight of the night: Maybe a dozen Carroll kids, wearing only white T-shirts up top in the fr-fr-fr-freezing cold, standing outside the Palestra (northwest corner), waiting to gain entrance, maybe 75 minutes prior to gametime. Major props, young-'uns! Here's hoping no one suffered frostbite.

FEB. 18
TEDBIT
  The Catholic League's 2015 semifinals will take place tonight at the fabled Palestra and three very experienced schools will be among the combatants. The  semifinal round goes back to the 1941-42 season and Roman (37), Neumann-Goretti and forerunners (34) and La Salle (33) hold the top three spots on the most-appearances list. Also, Roman and N-G rank 2-4 in winning percentage while La Salle checks in at No. 6. You'll likely be floored to discover that the No. 1 berth belongs to Conwell-Egan. In 1964, the school, then known as Bishop Egan, claimed a win in its only semis appearance. That was also the Eagles' first season as a Catholic League member. C-E is the only "fully suburban" school with a winning record in semis. (I used "fully suburban" because La Salle, until the early '60s, was located in Philly at 20th and Olney, still the site of La Salle University.) If you're going to the Big House tonight, have fun!     

FEB. 17 (Evening)
TEDBIT
  Last year at around this time, I posted a list that included all lefties who'd earned first team All-Catholic honors since the 1975-76 season. Well, here we go again. Though there are no new names, Carroll's Derrick Jones has added another season. Worldwide research indicates 10 percent of people are lefthanded. This year? Ten guys earned A-C honors. Jones was the only lefty. Ten percent, baby! Ha, ha.
  UPDATE: We have added '78 O'Hara grad Chris Manning. Thanks to former Malvern football star Bob Carey for the heads up. His sister is married to Chris.

FEB. 17
TEDBIT
  Here the top underclass career scorers through Feb. 16. The cutoff was going to be 500 points, but since two guys were right on the doorstep and their seasons are still alive . . . Conwell-Egan's Stevie Jordan, LaPri McCray-Pace and Vinny Dalessandro are three-year starters. In city history, three classmates have never reached 1,000 at the same school. Now-closed Cardinal Dougherty came within ONE point in 2004. Shane Clark scored 1,090 and never played elsewhere. DeSean White scored 1,462 after notching 176 as a freshman at Strawberry Mansion. Kyle Lowry, now killin' it with the Toronto Raptors, scored 999 after posting 393 as a soph at Northeast. Neumann-Goretti's Class of 2010 missed by 19 points. Tony Chennault scored 1,621 and never played elsewhere. Danny Stewart and Tyreek Duren played for Haverford School as freshmen. They scored 1,038 and 981, respectively, at N-G after 255 and 64 at HS. Masterman's Liam Shanahan and Jesse Turkson are only sophs. In terms of prolific scorers, the Pub's junior class is incredibly weak. As ninth-graders, Haverford School's Lamar Stevens and Roman's Tony Carr played together at a non-city league school, Abington Friends. Those points are not included. If I missed anybody: tedtee307@yahoo.com.  

FEB. 16
TEDBIT
  Only four players scored for St. Joseph's Prep in its quarterfinal loss to La Salle last Friday and, though unusual, such an occurrence is not unprecedented. Over the last 40 seasons (160 games), nine teams have placed only four players in the scoring column in Catholic League quarterfinals. The Prep came the closest to having just three scorers, but Pete Gayhardt hit the second of two free throws with 1:33 left. For the nine teams (2-7 record), the other players combined to shoot 0-for-51 from the floor and 0-for-1 at the line.  

FEB. 15
TEDBIT
  In the winter of 1972-73, a teachers' strike (which turned out to be quite lengthy) halted Public League basketball after only two league games were played. In time, Sonny Hill stepped in and play resumed with coaches in the summertime Hill League running the various Pub teams. Games were played in rec centers. For the postseason, quarterfinals again became part of the playoff process and that has never changed. (Previously, there'd been quarters only in '52, '53 and '65.) Anyway, Audenried, coached by former West Philadelphia guard Kenyatta Bey ('81), yesterday topped Freire, 70-61, to claim its first quarterfinal win in season No. 20 (1991-05, no team from '06 through '10, 2011-15). From 1973 on, the Rockets' wait was exceeded only by Northeast, which claimed its first quarterfinal win in '02. Some schools, of course, have never won a quarterfinal. Bok (now closed), Lincoln, Roxborough and Washington were around in '73 and have yet to win a quarterfinal. Here's a list . . .

FEB. 14
PA. INDY TOURNEY FIRST ROUND
Haverford School 55, Germantown Friends 48
  A high school basketball player who loves the game never wants his career to end on Valentine's Day, right? We'll take that as a "yes." HS sr. PG Levan "Shawn/Shizz" Alston (Temple) must believe that statement because he was quite the fourth-quarter force. As the third quarter wound down, jr. F Lamar Stevens put HS ahead for good, at 39-38, with a tough baseline drive that ended with a wraparound layup. Sixteen points were scored by the Fords over the final eight minutes and "Shizz" made it his biz to dominate . . . in perfect fashion. He scored 15 points while shooting 4-for-4 (one trey) and 6-for-6 and the Fords were in sound control by the time the buzzer sounded. Overall he contributed 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals and such an impressive afternoon was needed because GFS provided stiff opposition. The undersized Tigers were a pleasure to watch. They talked like crazy on defense -- "Shooter on the baseline! . . . No. 11 on the right block!" -- and made the ball talk on offense thanks mostly to twin sr. Gs Jalil and Jamil Pines-Elliott. Also, sr. WG-SF Ray Leon was quite the brassy player. He played throughout with his head tilted slightly back, as if to indicate, "Yeah, I'm the jawn. Get used to it!" Leon was on fire in the third quarter, hitting his first five shots (two treys) and having more and more fun as time went on. With Leon at 4-for-4, Jalil P-E then followed his own miss for a bucket and GFS owned a 33-26 lead with 4:45 left in that session. Luckily for HS, sr. WG-SF Derek Mountain also wanted no part of a career-ending game. He sparked the comeback with a pair of triples and, as mentioned earlier, the Fords were in the lead as the session ended. Stevens was steady throughout. He totaled 17 points, 10 boards and three apiece of steals/blocks and it was great to see a frontcourt guy go 7-for-7 at the line. Mountain completed the day with nine points (all on treys), six rebounds and three assists. Frosh G Cameron Reddish hit just one of seven attempts from beyond the arc, but did have five boards and made a couple of nice passes to Alston in the fourth quarter. Seventeen minutes prior to gametime, only 17 people were in the stands. It was snowing hard and it was impossible not to ask, "Will this place be a ghost town?" Thankfully, little by little, a decent amount of people showed up. Among them: AJ Jones, Haverford's top receiver in 2009 (thanks for stopping by!), Michael Bradley (HS grad and sports writer) and Ted Rauch, a hoopster for late '50s champs and still a strong supporter. Ted mentioned that the New York Post earlier this week published the top basketball players to come out of New York City's five boroughs. Click here to see the list. A great squad, obviously, but Ted thinks Philly's all-timers would be better and of course we agree!

FEB. 14
TEDBIT
  Those rich kids certainly know how to play defense . . . (or not play offense -- smile). For the second consecutive year, a quarterfinal involving the Catholic League's only fully-private schools, La Salle and St. Joseph's Prep, was not exactly a pointfest. Quite the opposite, in fact. In 2014, the Explorers won by 38-33. Yesterday, they triumphed by 37-33. Since 1951, three of the CL's lowest scoring playoffs have featured La Salle vs. Prep . . . all within the last seven years.  

FEB. 13
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Roman 64, Wood 50
(At Philadelphia University)
  I'm going to start this report with a bit of plagiarism. From some guy named Ted Silary. Back on Jan. 7, Roman beat Neumann-Goretti in this same venue and here's what I wrote about jr. PG Tony Carr: Roman's overall headliner was Carr, who saved eight of his 16 points and four of his nine assists for the final eight minutes. Also, be hopped around from here to there and back to claim 12 rebounds. He's a very fluid kid and possesses the silent-killer trait. While he gives off a most-popular-kid-in-school aura, deep down he is ALWAYS trying to cut your heart out. After watching him tonight, I second that. In the somewhat early stages of the fourth quarter, the score was tied at 45-45. And then it wasn't even close to that because of good, ol' TC. It wasn't that he got piggish. Not even close. He just saw opportunities and knew it made sense to take advantage. In rather quick order, he roared hoopward for a layup, tossed in a teardrop and knocked down a jumper from roughly the right edge of the foul line. Just like that the Cahillites' lead was 51-45 -- over a team, you no doubt recall, that had recently emerged victorious from Roman's opponents-never-win-there gym -- and it wasn't long thereafter that all hope disappeared for the Vikings. In all, Carr posted 11 markers in the fourth quarter and made some snappy passes as well. Overall, he finished with 18 points, six rebounds, six assists and even four rejections. This game provided quite the contrast to the afternoon tilt that produced a 37-33 win for La Salle over St. Joseph's Prep. Wood followed the all-brass route and the teams zipped up and down the court with no hesitation. Wood had the better of it early, too. Thanks to two treys apiece from sr. WG Cody Fitzpatrick and frosh WG-SF Tyree Pickron, the Vikings led after the first quarter by 21-16. Strangely, no one wearing black hit a triple the rest of the game (0-for-16). Roman finished with very balanced scoring. Jr. WG Nazeer Bostick (16) and sub sr. PF-C Manny Taylor (12) joined Carr in the doubles club while sr. WG Gemil Holbrook and jr. WG D'Andre Vilmar had nine apiece. Bostick claimed 11 boards while Taylor/Holbrook halved 12. Wood's starters contributed nine to 11 points: 11 apiece for jr. PG Tommy Funk and Pickron; 10 for Fitzpatrick; nine apiece for sr. F Luke Connaghan and soph WG Collin Gillespie. Pickron (eight), Funk (seven) and Gillespie (six) were the rebound leaders and the former added five assists. Thanks to The Puckster (Roman) and Blair Klumpp (Wood) for their help with the extra stats. The Vikings shot just 7-for-26 from the floor in the second half and one has to wonder if this played a role: They arrived back to the court with only about a minute left before the start of the third quarter and, thus, attempted no warmup shots. Connaghan had a frustrating evening. He picked up his second foul with 2:15 left in the first quarter and was never quite himself for the rest of the night. He sat for significant stretches. Filling in quite admirably, on defense, was sr. PF Ryan Neher. He battled hard against Taylor and mostly kept him off the scoreboard when faced with that difficult assignment. The highlight of the night: Having a brief exchange with THE Herb "1,000" Magee. He has always been the very definition of a class act and it was great to see (from afar) his ascent to such tremendous heights. This was NOT great to see (from behind the far-end basket): A fight in the stands between adult fans. It occurred toward the end of the first quarter as Roman was bouncing back from a 10-2 deficit. Play was never halted. Not sure if punches were thrown, but some hard shoves were definitely doled out, along with salty language. Scheeeeez. What the heck caused that ruckus? (It happened about two-thirds of the way up behind the scorers' table, a shade toward Roman's bench.) Prominent spectator: Pretty sure I saw ex-Roman QB (and basketball starter) Andre Sloan-El. Dennis Seddon, Roman's wildly successful previous coach, was also on hand.

FEB. 13
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
La Salle 37, SJ Prep 33
  Of all the people who were crammed inside the Prep's gym last Sunday for a regular season finale, here's guessing that Dave Krmpotich had the most trouble falling asleep that night. "Krump" is a sr. F for La Salle, which fell to the Hawks in one, two, three overtimes. And he no doubt felt horrible about going 0-for-4 from the so-called charity stripe in the first OT. Can you guess where we're going here? Today, after Prep jr. PF-C Pete Gayhardt hit the second of two free throws with 1:35 remaining to create a tie at 33-33, La Salle, with the Prep's blessing except for some token chasing early in the possession, held the ball until the waning moments. Then, sr. WG Shawn Witherspoon had it out front and began a sashay down the lane. He dumped a pass to Krmpotich and an attempt at a shot was made. Tweet at 3.7! Krmpotich strode to the line and . . . I wonder how many thoughts were popping around in his head and whether negatives were outnumbering positives? I guess they weren't. He hit both shots! During the timeout, the La Salle kids bellowed, "Why so quiet!?" Their counterparts responded with, "Let's go, St. Joe's!!" When La Salle coach Joe Dempsey got a look at the Hawks' alignment after the timeout, he also asked for a TO. When play resumed, the look was the same. Sr. WG Jack Henkels was going to inbound and franchise G-F Chris Clover was going to be stationed almost at the other end. Henkels was handed the ball. Clover broke toward the foul line, and beyond, and Henkels fired a football-type pass. It sailed over Clover into the arms of the leaping Krmpotich. Hack. He stepped to the line again at 1.4 and calmly nailed both ends of a one-and-one. Now that's called righting a wrong. In a moment, the Prep kids were filing as briskly as possible out of the VERY packed gym and the La Salle kids, still up in the stands toward the southwest corner, were waving bye-bye and enjoying themselves immensely. Granted, the score was quite low and the shooting was mostly woeful (the teams combined to go 25-for-70 from the floor), but this rematch offered great entertainment, as does pretty much any contest in any sport between these intense, fully-private rivals. Now let's go back to a scenario that unfolded maybe 45 minutes prior to gametime. La Salle was warming up at the east end and sr. WG Dan "Sniper To The" Corr was putting on quite the show. Standing in or toward the left corner, he kept nailing a high percentage of threeballs from a short distance in front of the Prep kids who'd already filed into the gym. They gave him respect. "He doesn't miss!" one yelled. Another offered, "He's cookin'!" Then the game began and Corr was ice c-c-c-cold. Through the first 27 minutes, he went 0-for-5 from the floor on 0-for-4 on treys. But just when La Salle needed him to come through, he did. Thanks to a fastbreak layup by Henkels off a pass from sr. G Brendan Burns, the Prep owned its biggest lead at 31-26. Corr followed with a dial-from-distance attempt from the right corner. Nailed it! Just 13 seconds later, Witherspoon hit two free throws and, just like that, the game was tied and the Hawks were not going to run away and hide. The Hawks' final two points came courtesy of one free throw apiece from Clover and Gayhardt. Krmpotich notched a bucket on a feed inside from 'Spoon. This game was beyond bizarre in some respects. La Salle roared to a 12-3 lead and the total distance of its six field goals was maybe 10 feet. Each one was a layup. Meanwhile, the Hawks were launching only three-pointers. Somehow (yes, tighter inside defense played a role), the Explorers scored just 14 points over the next 24-odd minutes! Crazy! At least they were able to regroup and show clutch tendencies in the latter moments while avoiding what would have been a football/basketball sweep for the 2014-15 school year. Krmpotich and Witherspoon halved 22 points. The former snagged six rebounds while the latter dealt four assists. With eight boards, sr. PG Najee Walls also was prominent. As you likely recall, Clover exploded for 37 points in that regular season tussle. Today he managed 19 while shooting 8-for-15 (one trey) and 2-for-3. Keeping him off the line was vital because he'd gone 18-for-22 last Sunday. Sr. F Shane Stark and Witherspoon mostly covered Clover, but Krmpotich and sub jr. F Ryan McTamney (very briefly) also tried their hands. No one else scored in double figures, but Gayhardt claimed 11 rebounds Thanks to everyone who helped with the extra stats. With the win, La Salle assured itself of a spot (with Roman) in the Class AAAA state playoffs. The Hawks' season is over and coach Speedy Morris' ballclub deserves major props in light of the fact Clover was the only returnee of anything close to note. La Salle will meet Neumann-Goretti in the second game (roughly 8:45) of Wednesday's semifinal doubleheader at the Palestra. Roman-Carroll will tip off at 7. On the way out of the building, I was asked to mention that Chris Foy deserves to be in this report. He starred for the Hawks in '77, then played college ball at Boston College. He still lives up that way, but traveled down for this game, according to a former grade school teammate at Seven Dolors in Wyndmoor. Mention worthy, right? (smile) Hey, hold on. SD is maybe 3 minutes from La Salle. Wonder why Chris didn't go there?

FEB. 13
TEDBIT
  Over the last 40 seasons, 10 times Roman has been led in Catholic League scoring by a guy with an average of 16.5 or lower. Four of those efforts have been posted in the last five seasons and 2015's leader, Gemil Holbrook, checks in at No. 2 with 14.2. The '11-'12-'14-'15 teams combined to go 43-9, so it wasn't as if the lack of a big-time scorer caused problems. This year's squad had three more guys in double digits -- Nazeer Bostick (12.5), D'Andre Vilmar (11.3) and Tony Carr (10.9) -- and two more -- Manny Taylor (7.3) and Paul Newman (6.7) -- were not THAT far away.

FEB. 12
TEDBIT
  Over the last 30 seasons, 24 Catholic League teams have gone winless in league play. Bonner-Prendie did so in 2013-14, but this season bounced back with a 5-8 record. Not spectacular, obviously, but definitely a respectable climb upward. In 1996 (Neumann) and again in '98 (North Catholic), two teams followed oh-fers with 10-4 records. Below are the Top 10 "rally-backs" over the last 30 seasons. B-P checks in at No. 7. Fifteen teams followed with three or fewer wins. Now-closed Kennedy-Kenrick (Norristown) went winless seven times from '94 to '08.

FEB. 11
TEDBIT
  It's nice to know some website visitors appreciate off-the-wall feats as much as yours truly (smile). Early yesterday an email arrived from Joe Winning, a football assistant at La Salle, and he wanted to point out special circumstances involving the family of Wood basketball player Luke Connaghan. Luke earned coaches' first team All-Catholic honors in voting that took place Monday night. So now, five first cousins have earned all-league honors . . . while doing so at different schools! Luke's brother, Pat, played hoops at Chestnut Hill Academy (now SCH Academy). His first cousins: brothers Jim (McDevitt) and Jeff Curtin (Germantown Academy) in soccer; Mark Zoller (St. Joseph's Prep) in basketball. Jim (Villanova) and Jeff (Georgetown) played pro soccer after starring in college and Jim is now the head coach of the Philadelphia Union. Mark (Penn) also starred in college and played pro ball overseas. Pat Connaghan was a four-year starter at D-II University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and is now coaching/mentoring in Ireland while studying for his MBA. I spoke yesterday with Paul Connaghan, dad of Pat/Luke, to get some more info for this nugget. Turns out Paul is the youngest of five "kids" -- JoAnn, Mary, Terry (sisters), Jay and Paul. All attended McDevitt. Terry is the mother of Jim/Jeff and JoAnn is Mark's mom. Paul said his sisters never played sports in high school, but were active with the band/color guard. I covered Jay ('78) and Paul ('83) during their high school careers in football-basketball. Jay was McDevitt's leading scorer in '77 (11.7 in CL play; 9.8 as a senior) and Paul was a second team All-Catholic lineman in '81. He also was a basketball rotation member for two seasons. Jay, who died last June (RIP), attended Villanova and was part of an intramural basketball team that won a national championship. Also, in '96, he was part of a squad that won a national crown for barbecuing. The Philly Pigs were the only team (of almost 50) not from the South. Paul said Jim Curtin, dad to Jim/Jeff, played d-back for McDevitt and was known as the team's No. 1 tough guy although he was maybe 5-9, 130. Meanwhile, Joe Winning grew up in Oreland, Montgomery County, and is friends with the Curtins (also Oreland) and Zoller. He also knows a little about off-the-wallness (smile). Reason? While playing QB for La Salle in 2002, he was known as Joe F. Winning because his first cousin, Joe W. Winning, was on the team as a productive two-way back!         

FEB. 10
TEDBIT
  For the kids involved, breaking a negative record is never a good thing. But if you're going to do it, you might as well make sure it's truly a memory-maker. Yesterday, vs. Constitution in a Class A quarterfinal, Parkway West was held to 11 points. That broke a city playoff record that had stood since 1933! In that season, in the second of three games to decide the Public League championship, Northeast fell to Southern, 18-13. Back then, almost all games were very slow-paced and low-scoring because a center jump occurred after every basket. Rob Moore, Constitution's coach, said his team exclusively played zone against PW while never pressing and never trapping. All starters were limited to four to eight minutes of playing time. Fast breaks were not allowed, nor were dunks. Also, at least five passes had to be made on every possession. Constitution is in Division A (a k a The Power Division) and Parkway West is in E, the lowest of five based on perceived skill levels. "We didn't want to make a mockery of it," he said. Had Moore wanted to, he could have had the Generals flying up and down in search of 100 points. By halftime. In a Class A quarterfinal last year, MC&S scorched GAMP by 100-21. Chad Andrews-Fulton led Constitution with 12 points. For PW, Nasir Madison, Donald Rollerson and Anthony Tucker had three points apiece. Manny Wortham added two. The halftime score was 29-2 . . . By the way, the Catholic League record for fewest points in a playoff is 18. Roman beat St. Joseph's Prep, 22-18, in the 1925 final and La Salle beat Salesianum (Del.), 19-18, in the middle game of three to decide the 1937 championship. In modern times, the low number is 26. In a 2006 quarterfinal, Ryan beat Judge, 39-26.  

FEB. 9
TEDBIT
  Yes, the game went three OTs, but we're not going to hold that against him (smile). Yesterday, sr. G-F Chris Clover notched 37 points to lead St. Joseph's Prep past La Salle, 79-74, and that gives him a tie for the No. 3 spot in Catholic League games, playoffs included, over the last five seasons. Carroll's Juan'ya Green, now at Hofstra, posted his 39-point outburst in a quarterfinal. He and Roman's Kyle Locke (vs. Dougherty in the '92 final) are tied for the top-ever spot in playoffs.   

FEB. 8
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
SJ Prep 79, La Salle (3 OTs)
  This one was scheduled for 4 o'clock, almost the exact instant I hit the parking lot after Carroll-Wood. Hmmmmm. If the traffic isn't too bad, maybe I'll make it down to Prep in time for the fourth quarter. So you know what happened, right? I wound up behind the slowest four-five drivers in world history. One good thing: This game must have started a shade late, because just under six minutes remained in the third quarter as I entered the packed premises. How was it going? Well, La Salle seemed to be in command, at 34-24, and one had to wonder whether major juice would make an appearance. But it did. Boy, did it EVER! If you were in attendance, here's hoping you had an extra, say, 30-plus minutes to spare because this baby went three OTs. And when the final buzzer sounded, it was the elated Hawks who went bounding down the hallway toward their locker room as the shocked Explorers stood around in silence. Before we go further, let it be known that my intention was only to take some pics. But this was turning into such a classic, I began to text myself play-by-play details so a report could be slapped together. Aaron "Ace" Carter and Amauro Austin were on hand for the paper(s), and thanks to them for help with numbers. The over-the-top hero was Prep sr. G-F Chris Clover, who poured in 37 points while shooting 9-for-23 (one trey) and 18-for-22. Yes, 9-for-23 is not to be confused with sensational, but Clover (bound for Saint Joseph's) was double-teamed again and again and again. At least during the action I saw, Clover was covered by sr. F Shane Stark. Then, as Clover would get near the basket on drives, sr. F Dave Krmpotich would ditch his man to try for late blocks. More than a few times that strategy worked. But Clover also showed his ever-present body control and that enabled him to darn near live at the charity stripe. Also, while La Salle had some struggles at the line, Clover did not. OK, time for some key moments. Pristine texts are not my strength, so please forgive any mistakes. With 24.6 left in regulation, La Salle sr. WG Dan Corr hit a left-wing trey at the exact instant an off-the-ball foul was being called against the Prep. Thus, Krmpotich (20 points, 15 rebounds) stepped to the line for a one-and-one and his two free throws sealed a five-point play to provide a 55-53 lead. Clover and sr. PG Najee Walls (29 points) then traded field goals and Clover sank two free throws with one tick left. There was an ugly moment between those tosses. A La Salle kid came running down from the other end of the gym and planted himself right beyond the baseline behind the Prep's basket. (I learned later it was Isaiah Henrich, a JV player.) He was going to try to distract Clover. Instead, as the kid was starting his act, he was roughed up from behind by an adult Prep supporter. The guy grabbed him forcefully and yanked him away from the baseline while telling him, in effect, he had no business being there. The kid was stunned/upset and so were some adult spectators who witnessed the situation. Some even approached the adult to ream him out as the teams prepared for OT. A woman, who scurried over from the side stands, railed at him, "That was NOT right. You should NOT have done that." (I learned later the woman was Krmpotich's mom. Cool!) Agreed. I'm almost positive the man said nothing to the kid before blindside-grabbing him and tugging him backward. (At the other end, meanwhile, the Prep kids had occasionally tried to distract La Salle's free throw shooters. Once, a kid ran from the right corner across the baseline and did a head-first slide -- ha ha.) With 2:31 left in the second OT, La Salle owned a 68-63 lead thanks to a follow by Krmpotich and a three-point play off another drive. Soon, Clover was hitting a deep shot and most folks, especially those nearby along Prep's bench, could have sworn it was a trey. No hands went up, however. After a brief confab, the field goal was ruled a two. Walls followed with two free throws and Clover answered with a three-point play at 22.3 to make it 71-71. Off an inbound play, the session ended as Krmpotich missed a short shot off a spin move. On to the third OT. The big moment came at :49 as jr. F Chris Montie converted a follow off a miss by Clover. La Salle called time at 31.3. Soon, Walls was dribbling toward the right corner. He lost his footing and sr. WG Jack Henkels came up with a steal. Sr. PG James McGovern (18 points) closed out the scoring with four free throws, which sandwiched a lengthy miss by Corr from a shade to the right of the top of the key. To no one's surprise, the Prep kids big-time stormed the court. Will we see a rerun later this week? Hard to predict, but these teams will meet again in the quarterfinals. This result earned Prep another home game, too. Details TBA.

FEB. 8
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Carroll 77, Wood 47
  At some point this afternoon, most likely in a 30-5 third quarter, many folks had to be asking themselves, "How did Wood beat Roman AT Roman?" Here's a better question: How did Carroll star Derrick Jones score just THREE points in a game Wednesday night at Judge? The guy is 6-7/6-8, can almost jump INTO the basket and is bound for UNLV. Judge plays no one taller than 6-2. Yes, Jones did suffer through severe foul trouble, but three points? That's an all-timer. Wood's lineup is not exactly packed with redwoods and Jones, for the most part, frolicked from the get-go. Counting attempts from the floor and foul line, he let loose with 12 shots in the first quarter alone. By the time he departed for good with 4:20 left, as did all of Carroll's mainstays, he owned 29 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and four blocks. Along with three dunks. In all, the lefty shot 12-for-22 and 5-for-7 while scoring in multiple, on-the-move manners. He notched Carroll's first bucket on a third chance and that turned out to be quite telling. This was Senior Day for Wood and the gym was packed. The students, most of whom wore costumes, turned out in great force and the early vibrations were positive, thanks mostly to jr. PG Tommy Funk. Though Funk is a lefty, he has a strong right hand as well and he's tough to cover. He had a terrific stretch to help Wood claim a 13-4 lead with a trey, a righthanded layup off a steal and a baseline drive. What happened from there? Ouch, not much from the Vikings' standpoint. By the end of the third quarter, the score was 63-34 -- a 59-21 run! -- and Wood's students were sitting down to mostly stay quite for the rest of the tilt. In that 30-5 third quarter, Carroll shot 13-for-17 from the floor as Jones, soph G-F Dave Beatty (eight of his 16 points, two dunks) and jr. WG Ryan Daly (10 of his 12, two treys) went berserko. Unfortunately for the Vikings, that stanza had the look of a varsity team versus a freshman team. Hey, it happens. You just don't want it to happen on Senior Day when you're coming off a tremendous road win. In that period, Jones had a PERFECT, flush-it-hard dunk. Beatty missed and the ball came off the rim in the exact place Jones would want it. It was almost as if he'd tossed it off the glass to himself. Bang!!!! Later, Beatty missed a dunk. He slammed the ball so hard off the rim that it reached the ceiling. Sheeeesh. Wood's scoring leaders were Funk (15) and sr. F Luke Connaghan (11). No one else had more than six. Connaghan (eight) and frosh G-F Tyree Pickron (seven) led in rebounds while Funk had four steals. For Carroll, Beatty, Daly and sr. G Samir Taylor thirded 18 boards and jr. PG Josh Sharkey had five assists. Thanks for the extra-stats help to Mark "Frog" Carfagno, who today made his first-ever trek to Wood. I made into the parking lot at an instant after 4 o'clock and decided to head to La Salle at St. Joseph's Prep. On to that report . . .

FEB. 8
TEDBIT
  Thanks in part to manager-turned-player Glenn Shapley, Northeast now owns the No. 2 spot (in a tie) for most points scored in a Public League playoff. Glenn, who has cerebral palsy, hit two late free throws and drained a left-corner trey (Click here) in the final seconds Thursday as the Vikings bested visiting Edison, 103-73, in a Class AAAA prelim. Deshan Brown led the way with 27 points. The No. 1 spot belongs to Strawberry Mansion, which outlasted Hope Charter, 113-87, in a Class AA quarterfinal in 2008. No Catholic League team has notched as many as 100. The Inter-Ac League has never had "meaningful" playoffs, as in games that decided the champion.

FEB. 7
TEDBIT
  This season marks the 60th anniversary of the Richie Kohler Outburst. The what? In the 1954-55 season, Kohler exploded for 50 points (16 field goals, 18-for-21 at the line) as Penn Charter clinched the Inter-Ac title in Game No. 8 by swamping Germantown Academy, 86-56. Oh, and Ollie Powers added 27 points. (Somehow, the Quakers dropped their final two league games.) Last night, in the league finale, Tim Guers poured in 33 points as visiting GA rolled past Episcopal Academy, 74-50, to win the championship. The list below shows performances of at least 20 points in title-winning games, only for outright champions, over the last 61 seasons. The top five outings: 50 by Kohler, 42 by Malvern's Charlie Floyd in '73, 34 by GA's Matt Walsh in '02, 33 by Guers and 31 by Haverford School's Henry "Doug" Fairfax (now the Fords' coach) in '99.

FEB. 6
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Germantown Academy 74, Episcopal 50
  The team with five returning starters captured the I-A championship. Eyebrows should not exactly be touching the ceiling. Overall, the return trip to Titleville was hardly a cakewalk, but on a night when a win HAD to be collected, or else, the Patriots wound up dominating, even semi-frolicking. Outside the locker room maybe 10 minutes after game's end, coach Jim Fenerty said dryly, "Geez, now we have to find money to buy these guys championship jackets." Not the first time, folks. This is the third consecutive crown for GA and No. 15 (11 outright) in 26 seasons for Fenerty. Also, this win gives him a third threepack (also 2000-02 and 2007-09; 2008's was shared) and earns him a tie for second in Inter-Ac annals when it comes to outright crowns. Many guys made contributions, of course, but the most outrageous performance was turned in by sr. WG Tim Guers, who's bound for D-II St. Anselm in New Hampshire. Frankly, considering Tim's production at both ends, this was one of the best performances I've ever witnessed. In effect, he finished with a plus-28. Aside from pouring in 33 points, he yielded just five to jr. WG Matt Woods. Per Mike Herron, EA's go-to guy for sports nuggets, Woods entered the evening with 60 treys on the season and 30 in Inter-Ac play. Tonight, though he ran Guers ragged from here to there to everywhere while trying, almost completely unsuccessfully, to get open, Woods was able to launch just two shots from the floor. The first official one was sent hoopward with 5:41 left in the game (he did sink two free throws in the second quarter) and though Guers was right in Woods' face, three points resulted. Alas, the bucket reduced the Churchdudes' deficit to only 58-37. Matt's other attempt was also a trey. Tim was not as close that time, but the shot did not connect. On offense, Guers shot 11-for-19 (3-for-7 on treys) and 8-for-8 while adding five apiece of rebounds and assists. He saved 27 of his points for the second half and was an absolute whirlwind (16 points) in a 21-13 third quarter. What kind of shot did he NOT hit? Oh, yeah. He didn't dunk (smile). But he had two treys and hard drives for layups (with a reverse or two mixed in) and he was just completely FEELIN' it. The wizardry continued through the fourth quarter, as well. As impressive as Guers' outburst was, you could very much make the case that the game was won in the second quarter. The Patriots carved out a 13-7 advantage and imposed their second-chance will. They posted six field goals in that session and four came on follows against the smaller, not-as-cut Churchmen. Sr. F Sam Lindgren and soph G-F Kyle McCloskey had two follows apiece. No doubt those buckets served to demoralize the EA guys. In the teams' first go-'round, coach Craig Conlin (Fenerty's former assistant) and EA pulled off an upset win at GA. In that contest, however, sr. PG Mike Jolaoso was quite the force. For four games now, he has been unavailable (school issue) and everything he brings to the squad from tangibles to intangibles was sorely missed. When Jolaoso is playing, his quick penetration creates double-teams. At times he's STILL able to score and, if not, he's able to hit others for layups or kick-it-out treys. Tonight, EA got very few easy looks. McCloskey, the football QB, followed a nice performance Tuesday at Haverford School with 17 more points tonight, plus seven rebounds. Soph F Evan-Eric Longino (nine, seven boards), Lindgren (seven, seven boards, two blocks) and jr. PG Devon Goodman (six, seven assists) helped out and sr. G Matt Perricone repped the subs with a late bucket. Thanks to assistant Marty Weiss for the extra stats. For EA, soph F Nick Alikakos had 20 points while sr. G Mike Hinckley managed 14. Alikakos scored almost exclusively on the move and each time I see him he appears to be a shade more fluid. Nice trait. Hinckley is a master of quick-burst, still-controlled drives. Soph G Conner Delaney posted eight points. GA jr. G-F Gabe Alter, out all season with an injury, was able to dress tonight. His teammates loved seeing him in uniform. Both schools had outrageous student sections. Right before the opening tap, EA's chanted, "Free Jolaoso! Free Jolaoso!" Didn't work (smile), though it's expected that "Jeezy" will be back in action for the state prep school tourney. The refs -- Harry Edwards, Kevin Clay and Jared Black -- turned in a strong performance. With 6:11 left in the second quarter, EA assistant Tom Kossuth went scrambling over to the students. Reason: Someone was wielding a laser pointer. The kid tossed it down from the stands and the game continued. At halftime, EA sr. football-baseball player Ben Burman went out to halfcourt to launch some shots. Two of the four almost succeeded. A GA kid, Gideon Sawyer, then came out to challenge Burman to a shootout. EA athletic director Gina Buggy intervened. Soon, a teacher (?) was tossing the ball into the stands and Tristan Dudek, a sr. who last year played on the varsity, was launching a shot from up there. Bang! He nailed it. With 3:24 left and the score at 64-42, some folks began to leave. Each team's deep subs entered with 1:32 to go. Tonight's coolest spectator? Not even a contest. Former EA coach Dan Dougherty in an outrageous landslide. That'll be the case every time he's spotted on the trail.

FEB. 6
TEDBIT
  The club Tacony Charter joined yesterday is not exactly exclusive, but it neither is it large and it had not admitted a new member since 2010. With a 66-62 win over visiting World Comm in a Class AA prelim, Tacony became the ninth team in Pub history to win a playoff game in its first season.  In a 9-0 run to open the third quarter, Justin Steers (12) scored the first six points and Joe Purnell buried a trey. Tyler Taliaferro (11), Justin Johnson and Ervin Merrone (10 apiece) also reached double digits. The game was played at Tacony's middle school building with a 6 o'clock start and here's guessing the atmosphere was electric. All time, 77 schools have played Pub hoops. This year's other new members -- KIPP DuBois, Motivation and Parkway Center City -- will have a chance to gain entrance to this club on Monday in classification quarterfinals. Waaaaay back in the day, the Pub had no playoffs. Then things went from four teams, to eight, to 16, to prelims mixed in, to 32, to all teams with players who can breathe "earn" a spot (slight exaggeration -- smile). Anyway, congrats to coach Sean Riley and his crew.
  UPDATED on Feb. 11. In a first-round game played Feb. 9, Parkway Center City, another first-year Pub member, topped Strawberry Mansion, 69-64, behind Cole Ruley (21), Jemal Sheppard (13) and Hyzeem Banks (12).     

FEB. 5
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Bonner-Prendie 56, McDevitt 48
  There must have been a full moon tonight. Just looked it up. The full moon was Feb. 3. Close enough (smile). This was an incredible night and the wacky developments did not stop when the final buzzer sounded. Where to start?
  How about this one? McDevitt wing guard Jaron Macon, a promising frosh who last Friday night scored 22 points vs. O'Hara, started tonight in TWO games -- JV and varsity.
  How about this one? Twenty-five personals were called in the first half of the JV games and one ref was likely responsible for 18 of the whistles, if not more.
  How about this one? In the varsity game, only two guys scored for McDevitt through the first 17 minutes, 33 seconds -- 11 points for soph guard Qadir Burgess and six for sr. G Jayson Clark. With 6:26 left in the third quarter, sr. PF Allen Harmon finally broke the dominance by hitting two free throws after getting fouled on a follow. The Lancers' first non-Burgess/Clark field goal didn't come until 1:34 remained in that session when sr. WG Zach "Zackie Robinson" Coates hit a trey. Previously, the other Lancers aside from Burgess/Clark had gone 0-for-7 from the floor.
  How about this one? B-P notched 15 field goals in the first three quarters and EVERY SINGLE ONE came off an assist. Amazing! As the third quarter ended, sr. WG Tom "Clooooon!" McLoone missed a right-corner trey and sr. F John Hargraves converted the follow . . . a mini-second after the buzzer sounded! As the fourth quarter began, jr. PG Keith Washington made a steal at half court and drove hard for a layup at 7:54. No assist on that one, of course. For the game, B-P finished with 20 field goals and 17 assists. The other two FGs without dimes: a right-wing trey by sr. F Marques Jackson (he held the ball too long before launching) and a reverse layup by Jackson off a lengthy left-baseline drive.
  How about this one? On the way home, after driving the famous Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna to the Far Northeast, I received a cell phone call from my daughter, Kristen. Along with a work friend and several other gals, she'd visited a medium. Much of what she was told was beyond incredible (and true!), but check this out: The house where the session was held, in a South Jersey town, was on a street named Theodore (my official first name, of course). The street on the other side of the nearest corner? Brubaker. I'm adopted. That was my birth mother's surname.
  How about this one? A short time later, I received a cell phone call from Stan Laws, who's in his second stint as the hoops coach at Strawberry Mansion. Stan traveled to Maryland tonight to watch his daughter, Tamyra, a soph, play for Frederick Community College against Howard Community College. Aside from family members, Stan had to tell someone/anyone about the night's amazing occurrence and since he knows I live for off-the-wall circumstances, he decided to ring-ring me. Frederick won, 88-75, and Tamyra, a product of Neumann-Goretti, scored 24 points. Oh, she also claimed 42 rebounds!! With 18 off the offensive glass. By the way, she's a guard. She stands 5-8.
  Otherwise, my night was pretty normal (ha ha).
  This was Senior Night at B-P and the six seniors received a framed seniors-only pic. Also with the Friars in the pic were three Bonner all-timers -- Frank Corace ('60), Mike Hauer ('66) and Rodney Blake ('84) -- and SJ Prep coach Speedy Morris (he helped at Bonner on an unofficial basis in the 1981-82 season) along with current coach Jack Concannon and the school president, the Rev. James Olson. The all-seniors starting lineup included McLoone, G Brendan Kelly, swingman Joe Oquendo and frontcourters Tyler Higgins and Dillon Haas. Jackson is also a senior, but this is his first year at B-P so I'm sure he understood why he was tabbed to serve as a sub. B-P won the first quarter, 19-4. McDevitt played zone and McLoone torched it with 3-for-3 sniping on treys. He also had two assists in the session. The Friars led the rest of the way by almost always eight to 10 points. A VERY deep trey by Macon did enable McDevitt to advance within 51-45 with 46.7 seconds remaining, but the semi-suspense disappeared after Washington fed Hargraves for what became a three-point play. McLoone (missed some time with a shoulder ding) and Jackson halved 22 points while Haas had 10. Oquendo and Higgins dished four assists apiece while McLoone and Washington had three apiece. Hargraves (two) and Haas (one) raised the total to 17. Higgins had seven of his eight rebounds in the first half. Burgess (17) topped McDevitt while Clark and Macon evenly split 20 markers. The long drive with Puck was entertaining, of course. To some degree, I got him to talk about his family and that hardly ever happens. Puck, who's 64, is the oldest of six. The other five are gals (no twins). His mom and dad are 91 and 88, respectively. Very, very cool. God bless them! When I asked Puck how many nieces and nephews he has, he responded, "Too many to count." And this coming from a guy who LIVES for numbers! Violation! (smile)

FEB. 5
TEDBIT
  Two equally important Inter-Ac League basketball games will take place tomorrow night. At 7 o'clock, in a matchup between a pair of 8-1 squads, Episcopal Academy will host Germantown Academy to decide the championship. Maybe you're thinking, "How can another game possibly be important as one that will decide the championship?" Welllllll, you know we're always looking for the off-the-wall stuff, so here goes . . . In another 7 o'clock game, Penn Charter (0-9) will host Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (1-8) with the hope of stay OFF the list that appears below. Football in the Inter-Ac began in 1887. Basketball wasn't an official league sport until the winter of 1923-24. In 92 school years, only three times have schools suffered nothing but league losses in the football/basketball combo. The Quakers were 0-5 in football. If they make the list, they'll have the worst total record at 0-15. This season's first PC-SCH hoops meeting occurred on Jan. 9. SCH won, 51-49, as Paul Dooley (17), Justin Anderson (14) and Dylan Parsons (11) led the way. Parsons hit a trey at the buzzer after accepting a pass from Dooley. How fitting! (smile). Dooley (QB) and Parsons (WR) were upper-echelon football stars and they paced the Blue Devils to a 53-51 win at PC back on Oct. 11. (Pretty cool: The football game outscored the basketball game, 104-100.) Montgomery School was an Inter-Ac member for 11 seasons (1928-38) in basketball and for four (1928-29, 1931-32) in football. Its total league record in those sports was 21-94-8 (ouch). Back then, the school was on Montgomery Avenue in Wynnewood. In 1943, it dropped the high school. It moved to Chester Springs in the summer of '88 and still maintains a K-8 format. Through the years, meanwhile, there have been winless basketball teams at schools that did not compete in Inter-Ac football (or at all).
  UPDATE: The Quakers avoided making the list! They defeated SCH Academy, 58-41, as football player Patrick McCain (19 points) led the way.

FEB. 4
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Neumann-Goretti 67, SJ Prep 44
  This tilt was quite weird. Somehow, on its home floor, the Prep did not score until jr. PF-C Pete Gayhardt hit the second of two free throws with 4:10 remaining in the first quarter. To that juncture the Hawks were 0-for-3 from the floor with six turnovers. Zip ahead to the fourth quarter . . . It started with the Hawks facing only a four-point deficit at 40-36. Over the next 3:43, N-G stormed to 11 consecutive points while SJ Prep was going 0-for-7. Crazy. With 3:53 remaining, there wasn't exactly a mass exodus by the students and some others, but a medium exodus is definitely a fair description. And with 2:20 left, having been waved to the table by coach Speedy Morris, five deep subs entered the game with the score at 58-38. One of the cool things about watching sports is occasionally getting surprised. Today, the provider was N-G jr. WG Rasheed Browne. He's a sub and all he did was shoot 4-for-4 (one trey) for nine points in meaningful stretches. In the outburst that started the fourth quarter, he contributed a left-wing trey on a pass from jr. PG Vaughn Covington and later scored on a follow. N-G has not been the deepest team ever this season, so coach Carl Arrigale no doubt was pleased to see Browne come through. Jr. WG Zane Martin (16) and sr. WG Lamarr "Fresh" Kimble (15) scored in double figures while, surprisingly, no Saint claimed more than four rebounds. Covington had four assists and five steals according to Mr. Stats, Big Steve Reid. The late-game highlight? No doubt. A pair of bombs-away treys by football DB Jack Taylor, a sr. WG. For SJ Prep, sr. G-F Chris Clover, covered all game by his future Hawk Hill teammate, Kimble, and with Phil Martelli watching, shot 7-for-15 (one trey) and 2-for-2 for 17 points. Gayhardt toughed his way to 10 points and nine rebounds while sr. PG James McGovern had four assists. Late in the third quarter, during the rush that got the Hawks back in the game, sr. WG Brendan Burns nailed a triple from the left corner and another from straight on. The Hawks' late-game highlight was a three-pointer by frosh G Kyle Thompson. Those were his first varsity points and, yes, don't confuse him with '14 starter/grad Kyle Thompson (no relation). Not a big day on the legends trail. In fact, I'm drawing a blank. It was cool, however, to see six Prep football commits gather in the library for a major photo op. Lots of family members/students/school employees turned out and congrats to Bill Avington, the Prep's director of alumni and public relations, for pulling everything together.

FEB. 4
TEDBIT
  Maritime's Zahir Stewart seized the Pub scoring title with a 28.8 average and, yes, that's rather impressive. But this is the Pub, folks. Through the years the games have almost always been pointfests and that was especially true when the gyms in many of the older schools were much smaller. Thus, Stewart's average gives him "only" a tie for 44th place since 1950.