Germantown Academy races past Hill School, into PAISAA title game

PHILADELPHIA >> On the backs of Evan-Eric Longino and Devon Goodman, the Germantown Academy Patriots will live another day.

The pair combined for all 23 GA points in the decisive third quarter Friday night against the Hill School, clinching a PAISAA title game date against Westtown with a cruising, 72-58 win over the Rams.

“We ran,” GA coach Jim Fenerty said. “That’s what we do.”

They certainly ran away with this one, though the first two quarters were close. The Rams held a two-point lead going into the game’s half, and GA coach Jim Fenerty knew that his team was going was going to have to make some adjustments.

“They just wanted to prove it,” Fenerty said, of his Patriots. “In the first half, they were a little bit nervous. Fourteen turnovers is not what we normally do.”

“But,” he went on, “we came back out, made some shots, and played together. It was a great win against a great team.”

From there, it was all GA. Goodman and Longino went right to work in the third, and by the frame’s end, the Pats had turned a two-point deficit into a 10-point lead. GA pushed that margin to 17 early in the fourth, and just needed to tread water to lock down the win. The closest the Rams got in the rest of the game was 11.

“We knew we had to come out hard in the third quarter,” Goodman said. “We knew that they were a good team, and that they’d stick with us.”

“Our main goal was to get defensive stops and push it,” he went on. “We’re undersized, so we tried to just be scrappy and compete.”

“Our defense in the third and fourth quarters tonight was excellent,” Fenerty said. “We took their big guys right out of the game.”

The kids he’s referring to are the seven-foot Californian Solomon Ruddell and the 6-foot-8 Jonas Stakliunas, a native of Lithuania. Despite being not less four inches taller than anyone GA had on the floor, the pair combined for just 17, four of which were scored by the time the game’s outcome was decided.

Scoring-wise, in the fateful third, Goodman netted 11 of his 22, and Longino knocked down 12 of his game-leading 28. Bailey Whitman helped out with 11.

“The more you watch Evan,” Fenerty said, “the more you realize how difficult of a matchup he is.”

He’s quick enough to run around bigger players, but bigger than all of the fast players he ends up against.
In all, a pretty good place to be.

“He’s just a winner,” Fenerty said. “And Devon—he’s been my point guard for three years. He just understands the game. We’re on the same page.”

Bryce Allen wound up leading the Rams with 18, and Chase Audidge and Ruddell finished with 11 and 10, respectively.

“We just had some turnovers and they converted everything,” said Hill coah Seth Eilbert. “Any time we turned the ball over, or had a long rebound, they converted on the other end.”

“Our transition defense failed us,” he said. “When we couldn’t get stops, they’d score, set up their defense, and it was a lot harder for us.”

Up next for the Pats is the looming monster that is Westtown. Featuring perhaps the most talented player on the Philadelphia prep circuit, 6-foot-10 monster Mohamed Bamba, the Friends Schools League champs will present GA with a tall order—pun intended—to accomplish.

Unfortunately for the Pats, their tallest player, Joe Stinson (who’s about 6-foot-8), is out for the rest of the tournament with a chest virus. The next tallest kid, Kyle McCloskey, is around 6-foot-5 on a good day.

“We’ll just have Devon cover (Bamba),” Fenerty said.

He was joking—Goodman’s about 6-foot and 160 pounds soaking wet. Without a good matchup, they’ll have to rely, like they did Friday and have all season, on running Westtown down.

“It’s one thing when they’re big,” Fenerty said. “It’s a whole other when they’re big, and fast, and strong.”