Conwell-Egan outlasts Archbishop Wood in PCL shootout

WARMINSTER >> After Tom Funk hit a three pointer with 3:34 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the game with Collin Gillespie hitting the one of two free throws to take the lead on the next possession, it was almost forgettable that Archbishop Wood actually led the game after the first quarter of Friday night’s Philadelphia Catholic League matchup with Conwell-Egan.

“It’s a good ol’ Friday night Catholic League battle,” Vikings coach John Mosco said.

Trailing 17-10 after the first quarter, Vinny Dalessandro spear-headed a second-quarter offensive outburst for Egan highlighted by 14-0 run featuring a three ball made on four consecutive possessions, three coming off the right hand of Dalessandro. Dalessandro ended the quarter and the game with four three-pointers made and finished with 22 points, 14 in the second quarter.

“I think the first play of the game really got Vinny in rhythm,” said Mosco of Dalessandro’s dunk on the first possession of the game. “He came out to play and he shot the ball great tonight.”

As the final quarter hit, the Vikings found themselves down 12. With 2:41 left in the fourth, Wood had a four-point lead after Gillespie hit a three pointer to cap a 12-0 Viking run. The comeback bid came from a lot of wherewithal from Wood. At the time of the comeback nothing was going the Vikes’ way. They weren’t hitting shots, Egan was. They weren’t getting calls, and Egan was.

“We started battling, I think in the second quarter we stopped pressing a little bit,” Mosco said. “We had the lead, I wanted to show them different looks and the second half we just pressed the whole half and we battled back.”

Three guys led the comeback attempt. Funk, who scored 12 points in the quarter. Tyree Pickron, who scored seven and Gillespie, who netted 13. The three scorers represented the only scorers for Wood in the quarter.

Unfortunately, the effort of the Vikings trio couldn’t match that of Conwell-Egan senior Lapri McCray-Pace, who scored 19 points in the fourth quarter and took 13 trips to the free throw line. Most importantly, he hit the game-tying three with 50 seconds left which ultimately sparked the Egan run to close out the game. McCray-Pace finished with a game-high 33 points and 18 free throw attempts, just four fewer than Wood had as a team.

“We tried to change up, played zone one time, I’m not a big zone guy, and he made a shot with a hand in his face its not like he was wide open” Mosco said. “I got T’d up that’s all I can say. There were a few questionable calls, 13 times one guy going to the foul line, a few of the them were ticky tack.”