Jones helps Carroll soar to state final
BOGGS TWP. — Derrick Jones turned to the crowd and flashed a wry smile after he jammed over an unsuspecting Erie Cathedral Prep player in the first half of Tuesday night’s PIAA Class AAA semifinal game at Bald Eagle Area High School.
It was showtime.
The Archbishop Carroll senior was feeding off his opponent’s boisterous student section, which had egged him on during warmups.
“You can’t shoot! You can’t shoot!’
It’s nothing Jones hasn’t heard before, but the Cathedral Prep faithful released the hounds on him. The fans pulled back no punches. Jones was cool with it. In ways, he welcomed the jeering.
“It gets me going,’ Jones said after a thoroughly dominating 59-32 victory that propelled the Patriots to their second state final in three years. “It makes me play harder, it makes me want to shut them up.’
The UNLV recruit scored a game-high 22 points, but he made his money defensively and on the glass. Jones was a monster, posting five blocked shots and 22 rebounds roughly half of which came on the offensive end in putback style.
“That’s just the player I am,’ he said. “I’m a showtime player.’
And it’s because of his effort, and the fact that Cathedral Prep appeared extremely hesitant to test him, that Carroll is back in the PIAA Class AAA final for the third time in program history, chasing its second championship in boys basketball.
It will be an all-District 12/Catholic League showdown Friday night at 8 o’clock at the GIANT Center in Hershey. The Patriots (22-6) face off against Neumann-Goretti, which claimed a 75-67 decision over Imhotep Charter in the other semifinal.
“We worked all season for this moment, and here it is,’ said senior guard Ryan Daly, who netted 12 points.’After losing Ernest (Aflakpui) early on (to a season-ending injury) and the Catholic League playoffs didn’t go our way, we have a chance to win a championship and it’s the biggest. We’re just happy we can get here.’
To get to Hershey,the Patriots relied on their usual suspects. Jones was the master of his domain. He patrolled the paint without so much as leaving a glimmer of hope for Cathedral Prep to establish any sort of inside threat.
The Ramblers were irrelevant in that regard, forced to rely on its long-distance attack, which was quite good in spots. But if they weren’t jacking up 3-pointers, they weren’t scoring much at all. In the first half, the Ramblers were 1-for-12 from everywhere inside the arc. That’s a lot of red dots on the old shot chart.
At halftime, the Ramblers (22-7) had one 2-pointer, three 3s and a pair of free throws, production that forshadowed the end of the road for the District 10 champs. Things didn’t improve drastically by any means in the second half.
“They were going to have to continue to shoot the ball well from long range because Derrick had made such an impact early on the game as far as not only blocking shots, but changing the trajectory of shots,’ Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said. “Knowing that he’s around I think is a lot for some of these guys (on Cathedral) to keep attacking.’
Other players for Carroll (23-6) made a big impact to disrupt the Ramblers’ deliberate schemes on offense. The Ramblers tried to take the air out of the ball early, so Romanczuk called for heightened man-to-man pressure. The Patriots’ half-court press was lethal. They created 18 turnovers, including 13 steals. Junior Josh Sharkey (16 points) led the way with nine, while sophomore David Beatty (six points) added four.
“Me and Sharkey, and really everybody on the team, we’re just a bunch of dogs,’ Beatty said. ‘˜We attack and we go after the ball as hard as we can. We know when we go after the ball, we gonna get it.’
One of Romanczuk’s best kept secrets coming into the season, Beatty has developed into a multi-faceted combo guard. Beatty, Sharkey and senior guard Samir Taylor controlled the defensive tempo from the top of the key. Daly and Jones, of course, took care of the middle.
“We wanted to make sure they weren’t comfortable … because they can hit their shots and stay close,’ Daly said. “We didn’t want them feeling they could win this game.’
To the Ramblers’ credit, they did stay within striking distance for a short while. Joe Fustine drilled a 3 to make it 17-13 late in the second period. On its next possession, Cathedral Prep turned the ball over, as it was accustomed to do on this night. Taylor’s steal and layup on the other end gave Carroll a six-point lead and the Patriots had a seven-point cushion at intermission.
The Patriots scored eight of the first 10 points in the third quarter and used a 15-6 spurt to pull ahead comfortably. The Ramblers tried to keep things at their pace, but Carroll’s athleticism stymied them. Carroll got into the flow creating offense off its defense and Cathedral had no answers.
“We’ve got some teams in our league that will grind you out, that will be deliberate, structured and patient. But we haven’t seen a team like that (Cathedral) in quite a while, a team that is purposely deliberate,’ Romanczuk.said.
Now the Patriots will look to avenge a regular-season loss to Neumann-Goretti. It’s a match made in Philadelphia Catholic League heaven.
“People had us pegged like, ‘˜This team is going to do a lot, this team is going to be in the state championship.’ It’s not that easy,’ Romanczuk said. “A lot of hard work goes into it, a lot of luck. … This team has really battled and I’m really proud to be where I hoped the season would end up.’
