Roman Catholic nips Archbishop Carroll
PHILADELPHIA — Archbishop Carroll and Roman Catholic showed up to play Wednesday during the Philadelphia Catholic League semifinals at The Palestra.
It was a hard-fought, drag-it-out type of game that had the student sections representing both schools screaming with excitement.
Although the Patriots were able to control much of the game, it was Roman Catholic that came out with a 61-58 win that came down to the wire to reach the PCL final against the winner of La Salle/Neumann-Goretti (which ended too late for this edition. Go to GameTimePa.com for the result).
The Cahillites were paced by Tony Carr’s 18 points, while Archbishop Carroll’s Derrick Jones led all scorers with 23 points.
Roman Catholic was able to eclipse the Carroll lead in the final frame, when it tied the ballgame at 44 with six minutes remaining and then went up 46-44 on a pair of D’Andre Vilmar free throws.
From there, the Patriots were able to tie the ballgame on several occasions at 47 and 50, but with time waning down it was the Cahillites that were able to knock down clutch free throw after another, and edged the Patriots by the slightest of margin.
The Patriots were able to start the game fast, flexing their muscles as they recorded eight straight to commence the festivities.
On the other side of the coin, the Cahillites struggled mightily from point-blank. Roman had difficulty with its finishing touch, as many efforts from the paint missed the mark.
Carroll’s Derrick Jones showed why he’s one of the premier talents in the area as he scored seven points in the first quarter — two coming from a monster put-back jam over a couple Cahillites to end the quarter 12-3 in favor of AC.
Roman roared back in the second quarter, however, as it outscored its opponent 19-12 and cut the Patriot lead to just 25-22.
Dakquan Davis gave his Cahillites a much-needed lift off the bench with five points, as he and Gemil Holbrook knocked down back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to make it a 16-12 scoreline with just over 5:00 remaining in the first half.
Roman got to within one point at 21-20 in the first half, but the Patriots kept their cushion at 44-40 after three quarters until the Cahillites broke through the Patriot defense in the fourth quarter.
