Takin' a Mulligan Basketball '06 Return to TedSilary.com Home Page   Tom Mulligan, a junior, is an Episcopal Academy football lineman/kicker with an interest in writing and keeping things light.   He will file reports and we're glad he opted to remain in our nutty group (smile).   Tom may be contacted at tmull89@comcast.net.

FEB. 7
INTER-AC
Episcopal 70, Penn Charter 43
   No really, this was actually supposed to be the “championship game.”  Many people figured it would be worth coming to considering Penn Charter gave Episcopal a good game earlier in the year at Arcadia University.  A new discovery has recently surfaced, though.  At the Inter-Ac coaches meeting back at the beginning of the year the coaches from the non-Episcopal Inter-Ac schools realized that if they didn’t beg coach Dan Dougherty to make one of his early league games close, they might as well just give the already-inscribed trophy to the Churchmen, and then remove the bleachers from all of their gymnasiums.  So, out of pure pity, Coach Doc kept that game interesting, and did a great job of acting “bewildered” by PC’s schemes, angry with the refs/his players, etc.  But when it came time for the real deal, each team’s true colors came out.  Quakers in general are a very peaceful group, so I guess Penn Charter was trying to stick with their identity when they played the most passive basketball I have ever seen a team who is not made up of middle school girls play (zing).  In the first part of the first quarter Episcopal dominated – I really can’t allow myself to give them too much credit though, because my CYO team would have opened up 10-0 as well with the way those Charter kids were playing, and we’re in last place.  It was really cute though, how Penn Charter rallied their troops and brought a handful of students wearing their good ole blue and gold to our gym.  Of course as much as Penn Charter was outplayed on the court, they were outchanted and outnumbered in the stands.  They had more shape-ups on their kids’ heads though; I’ll give them that I guess.  In the actual game, Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington showed PC’s Sammy Zeglinski why Duke and North Carolina will continue their winning traditions in the coming years. I’ll give Sammy credit, though, he can shoot the lights out, but that’s the last thing Virginia needs as they continue to dwell in the shadows of Duke and UNC. G had 20 and grabbed 14 rebounds, most of them on his way up, and Wayne had 21 with 7 rebounds.  I’m still not sure if Sammy actually played in the first half, but in the third and fourth quarters he put together a few nice threes, but finished with just 11.  His teammate R.J. Lyons had 8 points and the same number of boards.  Episcopal big man Mike Yocum scored 15, had 12 rebounds, and swatted 5 balls - and he played the entire second half with an eye-patch from his 5th grade pirate Halloween costume.  I asked him if that was a little risky, considering we were only up 23 at halftime and we really needed this win, but he insisted.  Halftime came around, and since Ted’s only correct piece of information in his retelling of my half-court shot story was calling me a legend, I’ll give you what really happened.  Little Episcopal Middle School Kid was shooting baskets during halftime with his 6th or 7th grade peer, Little Episcopal Middle School Girl.  The kid was quite confident and stepped back to the three point line, then stepped back to NBA range, then Wayne Ellington range, and before you knew it, he was chucking them from half-court.  Now, I’m not gonna brag or anything but I am the best half-court shooter you’ll ever meet in your entire life.  Guaranteed.  No questions.  So, after the kid missed four shots I yelled “Are you kidding me?! I’d make one out my first four, easy.”  He gave me the hand motion that said “Come out here and prove it, punk.”  Needless to say my heart was in it.  So as I ran out the Penn Charter kids put away their tissues and started yelling at me, and after I missed my first two they were going crazy.  So on my third, I focused, and launched FROM A FOOT BEHIND THE HALF-COURT LINE, not ten feet in front; I then saw it heading for the basket, called “Bank!” and started jogging back to our student section with “#1” raised above my head by my right arm before the ball hit off the backboard and in.  And when it did, the volume level shifted across the gymnasium to the good guys, and all was well with the world.  Nothing too different happened in the second half, except for PC started hacking pretty hard. 
   After this one, Episcopal went to CHA and toyed with the Blue Devils, and then had a 5-point win over nationally ranked St. Patrick, from Elizabeth, New Jersey.  All that’s left now is the Inter-Ac Showcase Tournament – kind of anti-climactic as far as the season goes, but even Episcopal will take a couple extra wins every now and then.

FEB 3
INTER-AC
Episcopal 74, Germantown Academy 51
   When I walked into the gym Friday night and saw GA’s 6’11 center and Villanova recruit Andrew Ott in his school clothes amongst his teammates in their warm-ups I almost left.  Then I realized it meant that Episcopal was going to toy with the Patriots from GA, and that’s basically what happened. There were a plentiful amount of dunks and even a couple oops, especially an insane serve from junior guard Pat Kelly. Standing about 5 feet behind the three-point line at the left elbow, to Wayne Ellington cutting backdoor.  That throw-down gave Wayne two more points to add to his 30.  The 6’4 guard also pulled down 11 (10 if you ask Ted -- ha ha) rebounds and dished out 7 assists.  Earlier in the school day, Kelly had spearheaded a continuous contest of trivia questions from the late 80s/early-mid 90s TV show, "Full House."  It became quite the activity for the juniors, and sometimes became a little heated.  By the end of the day, Mike Yocum and Gerald Henderson got involved.  Yocum was superb, and made his case to take my #2 spot on the most-knowledgeable list, behind Kelly, who is absolutely ridiculous.  Henderson on the other hand was so-so, but by the third quarter of the game, he seemed to be coming around.  During a break in play I asked him what the name of the Tanners' dog was (yeah, really easy, I know, but he’s an amateur), and he correctly responded “COMET”.  Henderson went on to score 23 points and record 6 steals on defense in the game.  Yocum had 10 points and 5 rebounds.  Because of Ott’s absence, it was expected that junior guard Kyle Griffin would step up, but Episcopal applied relentless pressure and he scored just eight points.  Matt Turner had the best game for the Patriots with 16.  Not only did Episcopal win on the scoreboard, but also in the cheer department, and I don’t mean the student sections, because we always win that, but the cheerleading.  GA’s girls came out at halftime and delivered your typical “watch us while we pick each other up and yell” cheerleading kind of thing, which drew boos from both Episcopal students and the girls’ mothers, realizing that they were about to get shown up by the newly created Episcopal dance team.  In between the third and fourth quarters, the girls shimmied and shaked to Missy Elliot’s  “Lose Control” and forced everyone in the building to stand up, and I swore I even saw coach Dan Dougherty “crip-walking” on the sideline.
          **This game is being shown on CN8 at 3 o’clock Saturday, so I suggest you check it out.**
          The Churchmen play Malvern Saturday night at 7:30 at home.

JAN 29
NON-LEAGUE
Oak Hill (Va.) 65, Episcopal 56
   After a disappointing 82-47 win over The Haverford School (I went to the game, it’s just not worth reporting), the Churchmen suffered this loss to #1 Oak Hill Academy.  In the days preceding the game against Oak Hill, which has seven D-1 players, many thought that Episcopal had no chance and the blowout was all but guaranteed.  The Churchmen proved that wrong, though, scoring the first five points of the game, and keeping it close throughout.  Oak Hill averages over 100 points per game and beats teams by over 35 a game.  No, they really do.  Episcopal played with them, though, and found themselves down by 6 with a little over 6 minutes left, when Oak Hill controversially held the ball for over two minutes at halfcourt in order to get star point guard and future UNC Tar Heel Tywon Lawson (20 points, Oak Hill MVP of the game) back in the game, as he was out with 4 fouls.  I agree that it may not be the wrong thing to do, but as Episcopal head coach Dan Dougherty mentioned, if you have seven D-1 players and you’re number one in the country, you probably have someone who can step up.  That clock-killing is a nod to the Episcopal team, and not just the big names - role players like guard Tim Ivory.  T.I. has been making a name for himself on the floor this year; while the obvious focus of teams have been Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson, and Mike Yocum, he has made it difficult for teams to forget about him, as he can hurt you in many ways, especially his accuracy from behind the arc.  Tim hit 2/3 from three-point land in this one, and he was the third leading scorer (9 points 3/5 shooting) behind Ellington with 23 and Henderson with 29.  Ellington shot 9 for 23 and led all scorers, but the Oak Hill defense affected him and he turned the ball over five times.  Yocum was kept quiet on the offensive end; he only scored three points, much to the credit of junior Michael Beasley who was down-low in the middle on defense.  Beasley is disgusting on the offensive end as well, he has an athletic 6’9 frame, but not really a center’s body, but he more than makes up for it with his explosiveness, and he showed it by causing problems for EA.  Future Duke guard, junior Nolan Smith, had 10 points and a couple of steals.  The best part of the game was during the two-plus minutes while Oak Hill was holding the ball, an “OVERRATED” chant that started in The Episcopal student section was adopted by what seemed well over half of the Palestra, as many fans were upset as well.
   After this loss, Episcopal handled Malvern and then went to The Peddie School (NJ) and won while scoring 104 points as team.

JAN. 18
NON-LEAGUE
Episcopal 65, Neumann-Goretti 64
   Episcopal has now been in three games in the past two years in which the Churchmen and their opponent have been in the top 3 in the city, and all three games have been won by Episcopal by one point: last year’s memorable GA game, 52-51; Roman 2 weeks ago, 49-48, and now this, a game that was probably better than each of them by a long shot.  Mostly because the opportunity for an out-of-nowhere comeback surfaced for N-G, only to be shattered by a 15-foot jumper from Wayne Ellington with 2.6 left on the clock - similar to his and-1 layup last year that gave EA the win over GA with 2.1 remaining.  The game was witnessed by 5,317 in the Palestra and many, many more on ESPN2.
   he contest started off well for Episcopal.  After being down 3-2 following a trey from N-G senior D.J. Rivera, who had a fairly weak performance (3-12 for 7 points in all 32 minutes of play), the Churchmen held the lead until the fourth quarter.  The first half success can be accredited to the smoothly run offense and a handful of N-G shots that rimmed out, or easy put-backs that weren’t converted.  It seemed that the Saints had a hard time getting rolls all game, but especially in the first half.  Gerald Henderson played a tremendous game, scoring 25 points on 11-18 shooting with seven rebounds and four assists.  Fellow senior PG Tim Ivory knocked down 2 first quarter threes and finished the game with 7 points and 3 assists.  As T.I. was shooting his second three, one of the N-G football players in the stands asked, “Hey, isn’t that the same kid who played quarterback for Episcopal and torched us for like 7 first downs with his feet alone? And then picked a pass off on defense?”  After the ball swished in the hoop, Tim replied, “Yeah, and that was only through two and a half quarters.”  The kid asked for his autograph after the game, and Tim declined.  After a second quarter that the Churchmen won 19-9, the score at halftime was 38-25.  Halftime consisted of an agility session presented by Summit Sports in which The Masked Man dominated the little Neumann kids with their cool gold “Sixth Man” shirts on.
   Neumann won both the third and fourth quarters behind solid play from junior big man Rick Jackson (20, 9-16, 11 boards) and senior Earl Pettis (21, 9-13, 11). One of the Saints flipped me off twice during the game.  Good for him, it got him some press in my Game Reports section.  Hopefully he can read it (Ba-Dum, Chhh!).  Another example of bad behavior occurred when Mike Yocum intercepted their desperation inbounds pass as time expired and a N-G player swung at him.  Mike then handed the Neumann kid the ball and said, “Fine, have it, I’ll take the win.”
   As the Saints made their comeback, their student section was louder than ever, going nuts as Henderson and Ellington missed fouls shots.  But, as Wayne’s jumper dropped in the hoop, the electricity shifted across the court and Episcopal’s students absolutely exploded.  The N-G kids had dropped jaws and hands resting on top of their heads. It was awesome.  Ellington’s shot earned #3 on ESPN’s SportsCenter the next day, which is kinda cool.

JAN 11

NON-LEAGUE

Episcopal 49, Roman 48
   For a game matching the top two teams in the city, this game was about as sloppy as one could imagine – right down to free throws, where some might say the game was won for the Churchmen, as they shot 17 of 24 compared to a pathetic 4 for 20 for Roman.  It’s a solid argument to say that this was Roman’s game to win, as they had multiple opportunities in the final 30 seconds but couldn’t pull through - their hideous performance at the foul line obviously didn’t help matters either.  The Cahillites did a very good job on both Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington, holding them to 9 and 14 points, respectively.  Ellington had 9 rebounds and three steals.  Henderson had an off night.  He had 8 rebounds and two assists, but fouled out in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over four times - at least half of those turnovers can be accredited to Ray “Doodles” Sims, who seemed to snatch the ball every time one of the bigger guys put it on the floor.  I’m sure Henderson didn’t really care by the end of the night though, as (after the W) he was able to go home and listen to Dick Vitale mention his name on national television when praising the Duke’s incoming recruiting class, who just added junior Nolan Smith out of Oak Hill Academy to their list of recruits.  Henderson and Smith will meet on January 29 at the Palestra when the Churchmen face off against Oak Hill.
   Episcopal’s player of the game was senior Mike “Straight Outta Da Poconos” Yocum, who schooled Roman for 14 points and 12 rebounds, not to mention tapping the ball out from under the basket and allowing time to run out at the end of the game.  Besides the clip of one of his three nasty dunks shown on a couple of 11 o’clock news stations, Ted gave him an entire article in the DN.  Said Yocum, “Not gonna lie, it used to be harder than you’d think for a guy with my astonishing looks to get a number, but now all I gotta do is flash this insane pic of me slamming one home and their jaws drop like you wouldn’t believe.”  Maybe Yokes should give Brian Sugden a little lesson.  You probably don’t know who Brian is, but he writes for the site too – He’s really not too bad; so check him out – 6 sections below myself on the Game Reports list, working his way up along with his partner, Dan Jordan.  As much as I don’t approve of being mentioned in their latest article, I will say that they blow the other “couple”, Fordging Ahead, out of the water. 
    Hats Off to the Episcopal Bench and starters Charlie Barks, who was faced with the task of covering the very quick Sims the entire night, and Tim Ivory, who fought off ankle and knee problems to score 8 and dish out four assists.  Only 50 tickets were given to Episcopal to be sold at school, which would be the reason for the dominance of Roman’s student section, as, supposedly, they were given 500 tickets – ok, bigger school, home game, whatever.  Although their “Stage Crew” ventured into the dangerous waters of starting a verbal fight with EA ’05 grad Joe Rosati (let’s just say we’re all lucky that they left immediately after the game) I’ll give them credit for the “Gerald Henderson” sign they made which included a picture of Gerald from Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold!.  Myself, along with a former regular in the Episcopal student section, The Masked Man, who claims to be making a comeback in the near future, found that to be pretty funny.
   Next Game(s): Tuesday @ GA; Wednesday, 7:30 at the Palestra against Neumann-Goretti – on ESPN2.

JAN 7
INTER-AC SHOWCASE
Episcopal 58, Penn Charter 54
          This game consisted of three players who will be playing in the same conference against one another in college.  Wayne Ellington (UNC), Gerald Henderson (Duke), and Sammy Zeglinski (UVA) took the floor in this contest which turned out to be much closer than expected.  Some expected Episcopal to mop up the smaller Quakers, but Penn Charter had a different idea.  Their tough defense and the fact that they continuously took advantage of opportunities were two of the main reasons for the game being tied after the first quarter (14-14) and at the half (27-27).  Penn Charter showed that you don’t need to shut down the duo of Henderson and Ellington in order to have a chance, as Ellington had a more or less normal offensive day, scoring 22 with 5 assists, and on defense notching 8 rebounds and a steal.  Henderson had 10, including the two foul shots and the end that iced it.  He grabbed 6 boards and his defensive presence was felt throughout the contest, most noticeably with his 2 steals.  Zeglinski bettered both Wayne and G in the steals column with three, but was a little quieter than usual with juts 15 points, although his 7 rebounds were impressive.  Down low, Mike Yocum stepped up for the Churchmen, scoring 15 with 8 rebounds and three assists.  The play of Penn charter’s R.J. Lyons was notable, as he topped even the 6’9 Yocum with 9 boards and added 8 points of his own.  The surprise of the game was Penn Charter’s junior guard Leland O’Connor.  O’Connor seemed to be very, very on as all of his 13 points seemed to come off big shots which included three 3s and a beautiful up-and-under reverse lay-up.  Episcopal PG Tim Ivory stepped up as the two other point guards (Pat Kelly, mono, and Jim Byrne, ankle) were out with injuries.  T.I. hit three first half threes, just as he had against Friends’ Central, and ran the offense efficiently.  Episcopal’s 7-point gain over Penn Charter in third quarter proved to be enough to hold on to in the fourth.  The game proves that even though they have a schedule which includes Roman, Neumann-Goretti, and Oak Hill, no team should be taken lightly. 
   Next Game:  Wednesday night @ Roman (Philly U) -- #1 in the city vs. #2 in the city, but expect the rankings to switch.

JAN 5
NON-LEAGUE
Episcopal 59, Friends’ Central 29
  This game was yet another packed event as Episcopal took on Friends’ Central in front of a capacity crowd that included Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and Episcopal ’05 alums such as West Virginia University Mountaneer Greg Isdaner, fresh off a nice victory over Georgia in the Nokia Sugar Bowl.  The game itself started off fairly slow, much of the blame falling on Friends’ Central’s pitiful execution of their offensive strategy.  They had been hoping to hold the ball for as long as possible so that the game wouldn’t quicken, thus allowing Episcopal to gain momentum and build a sizable lead.  But after Friends’ Central had held the ball for a minute and a half on their first possession, senior guard Justin Plummer crossed the ball from his left hand to someone sitting in the first row of the stands.  I guess most strategies will fail when your ballhandlers can’t handle the ball.  So after Episcopal’s press rattled the Friends’ Central team and senior point guard Tim Ivory (10 points, 3-3 from behind the arc) nailed two of his first half threes, FC was forced to call timeout with a 9-2 deficit midway through the opening quarter.  The quarter ended with the Churchmen leading 14-4, and the dominance continued into the second.  The Phoenix defense was no match for North Carolina-bound Wayne Ellington, who tallied 10 of his 21 points (3 quarters of play) in the second period.  Episcopal big man Mike Yocum (13) got some fans to stand up with one of his four dunks in the game on a nice find from fellow senior Gerald Henderson.  At halftime the score was 34-16.
   The third quarter was juts more misery for Friends’ Central and their fans, who really thought they had an outside shot at winning this game.  Haha, c’mon.  Episcopal poured it on and was leading 53-20 as the bench from each team took the floor for the final quarter.

DEC 14
NON-LEAGUE
Episcopal 59, West Catholic 31
   For an afternoon game on a weekday this was a lot more crowded than usual.  If any of the spectators were looking for a contest, they might have a had a little hope during warm-ups, as it was revealed that senior guard Wayne Ellington was not in the building.  Ellington had gone home sick earlier in the day, and with an injury to previous starter Jimmy Byrne on Monday at practice, the starting 5 took two big hits.  Ellington, as many know, is a huge contributor on the floor in all categories.  Byrne is a hustle player who takes good care of the ball, plays solid D, and knocks down open shots - he also attended grade school at St. Denis in Havertown, which is basically a legend-factory.
  As the teams entered the floor to start the game, a West Catholic player pointed at Episcopal point guard Pat Kelly, and laughed with his teammates as he compared him and his shaggy blonde hair, to Ronnie “Sunshine” Bass, the back-up quarterback from Remember the Titans.  Kelly was not fazed though, he told me after the game, “I didn’t really care about his witty comparison.  In fact, I found it quite ironic that in the movie, Sunshine is forced to step up and play QB for the injured Jerry “Rev” Harris.  And don’t ya know? He led his team to victory.  Just like how Wayne couldn’t play today – I had to step up, and that’s EXACTLY what I did.”  Kelly was in on every big play in the opening quarter, and a handful of them all game, while tallying his first double-double (10 points, 10 assists) since second grade.  After an early charge taken by senior guard/quarterback Tim Ivory, Kelly got things rolling with a nice back-door pass to Gerald Henderson, who then threw it down and got the crowd into it.  Senior Mike “Smoke 'Em” Yocum (15 points) got into the action early as well, getting an assist with a flashy look to Kelly, who was hiding underneath the basket.  At the other end, Yocum swatted an attempted shot and the ball ended up in the hands of Henderson, who found Kelly streaking down the floor for a basket.  EA led at the first break 21-10.
  The second quarter was much quieter than the first, with Episcopal’s defense holding the burrs to five points, which was as many as Ivory had, who went 2 for 2 from the line in the period and knocked down a nice three-ball.  He also found Henderson for another dunk and the foul.  West Catholic’s strongest player through the first two quarters was senior guard Chris Mayo who had 7 points (9 total) but was also faced with the task of guarding Henderson the entire game. At the half Episcopal was comfortable with their 38-15 lead.
   The third quarter might have been the most exciting of the game, as Henderson showed the fans some athleticism with two acrobatic dunks.  On the first, he flew down the right side of the court and took off, double-clutched with defenders around him and threw it down with two hands.  On the second dunk, G jumped out of the building, and it looked as if he held the ball above the box on the backboard before slamming it in.  Both of the dunks were downright filthy and had fans on their feet.  Henderson finished with 20, and a few assists, including a nice look to Kelly after a hustle play from senior guard Charlie Barks.  Barks, who doesn’t shy from going after loose balls, wrestled for the ball on the floor before looking up and tossing it to Henderson.  The third quarter ended at 54-26, and in the fourth, the teams split five points apiece while the bench players got some minutes.
   The team returns to the City of Palms Classic in Fort Meyers, Florida on Thursday (http://www.cityofpalmsclassic.com/) and then will head directly for another tourney in North Carolina.  When they return, they’ll take on Friends’ Central on 1/05 and then begin Inter-Ac play.

DEC 6
NON-LEAGUE
Episcopal 61, Germantown Friends 35
  After two very competitive games, Episcopal was granted a joke of a contest.  In their first game the Churchmen were handed a surprising loss from an Abington Friends team with a very strong frontcourt.  Following that disappointment, EA recovered with a come-from-behind victory over American Christian and sophomore star Tyreke Evans.
  This third game was nothing near the first two, as Episcopal started strong and never looked back.  EA won the tip, and senior guard Wayne Ellington scored the games first basket 4 seconds later.  A harassing press rattled the GFS players and Episcopal was able to take advantage of 6 first quarter turnovers and turn each of them into points.  Ellington added six more points in the quarter (he finished with 14 in 2 quarters of play) and with the help of five first quarter points from Gerald Henderson (12 in 2 quarters), Episcopal held a fairly favorable lead after one period, 21-2.
  Other than 2 nasty dunks from Henderson, including a left-handed slam in transition, the second was dull.  GFS junior guard Omari Phillip stepped up as much as he could, scoring seven in the quarter on a three pointer and four foul shots.  But, Ellington, Henderson, and fellow senior guard Rob McCallion, who helped with a bucket and a steal on D, continued to pull away and at half the Churchmen lead 36-11.
  After Episcopal coach Dan Dougherty sat Henderson and Ellington, the other member of the backcourt, junior G Pat Kelly, was able to touch the ball. “Finally…” said Kelly, as the two stars sat down.  Patrick scored eight points in the third and played menacing defense, but GFS started making some noise - obviously not enough, but you’ve got to give a team like this a break every now and then.  They scored 13 points as a team in the third, and were quite generous with one another in the high-five category because of it.  Unfortunately, they had yet to break the halfway-there mark, and were down 50-24 heading into the fourth.
   In the fourth, a player from each team had a good showing.  GFS junior G David Gould scored 9 of his 13 in the quarter.  For the good guys, junior big man Mike Nealis had all 6 of his points, along with a few rebounds while playing solid D.  Although this game was the kind of game where you can show up and win, Episcopal still needs to improve a little on the inside, especially with scoring.  Germantown Friends, while being an unremarkable group, did show potential, as all five starters were underclassmen, including two freshmen.
   Episcopal went to North Catholic on December 7th and played a close game, going into OT but eventually winning.  The Churchmen are 3-1 and head to Blair Academy in N.J. to take on the Hill School on Saturday, which makes absolutely no sense at all.