Pottstown gets revenge win on Pope John Paul II
POTTSTOWN >> Pottstown’s hopes of earning a spot in last year’s PAC Final Four ended at the hands of Pope John Paul II on the final night of the regular season.
The Trojans watched as the Golden Panthers roared back from a 10-point deficit during the second half and eventually denied Pottstown its first PAC postseason berth since the 2010 season.
No hard feelings, right?
“Man, we really wanted to get back at them,” said junior forward Larry Wingo. “I don’t think anybody’s forgot about it.”
The Trojans got their long-desired revenge Friday night, opening their run in the Pioneer Athletic Conference with a 68-59 win over Pope John Paul II inside Strom Gynasium.
“We talked about this game a lot,” said Wingo, who finished with 22 points — scoring 14 in the second half. “We came out and we did what we had to do.”
PHOTO GALLERY: POPE JOHN PAUL II AT POTTSTOWN
Sophomore guard Floyd Dashiell paced the Trojans with a game-high 23 points, knocking down six 3-pointers on the night.
With the win, Pottstown improves to 1-0 in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division and 3-1 overall while Pope John Paul II drops to 0-1 in the PAC (0-4 overall).
Not to be forgotten, Friday’s PAC win also served as the first for acting head coach Kenny Ivory — filling in for Cal Benfield, who’s been on a leave of absence while dealing with family matters.
“I’ll take 1-0 in the league to start it out,” said Ivory with a laugh. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way, with everything Coach Cal is going through, but we’re doing our best to get this team where it needs to be this early in the season.”
The Trojans controlled the transition throughout with Wingo crashing the boards for nine rebounds including a pair of put-back layups. Aaron Diamond added a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.
“Sometimes it can be hard to get these guys to harness their motors,” said Ivory. “We’ve got a lot of speed, but we’ve got to learn when and how to slow things down.
“We want to try and play fast, but not in a hurry. That’s one thing we’ll continue to work on. Controlling the tempo and playing stall-ball.”
Pope John Paul II is still seeking its first win for coach Mike Rafferty, who made the transition from assistant to head coach following Jack Flanagan’s departure for Pottsgrove.
Aiden McCarthy was dialed in from deep, hitting a team-high three 3-pointers for 16 points, while Dan Cirino and Rickey Bearden each followed with 10 points apiece.
The Golden Panthers, though, never once led and never quite found their rhythm offensively.
“We dug ourselves an early hole that we just couldn’t get out of,” said Rafferty, referencing PJP’s 20-9 deficit midway through the first quarter. “We knew Pottstown would be trying to play up-tempo, so we wanted to force them to shoot. He (Dashiell) made us pay early on.”
Four games into the season, Rafferty says the transition period is over. It’s time for PJP to strike the win column.
“There can’t be any more of a transition period,” he said. “We’ve got to go play basketball and win some games. We have great kids, we just haven’t put a full 32 minutes together. We’ll keep working everyday in practice until we do put a full 32 minutes together.”
Still Present
Even with Benfield away from the program for an extended amount of time, Ivory says he the two have kept in constant contact during the early portion of the season.
“I’m just trying to fill in the void for him,” said Ivory. “We’ve been talking a lot, bouncing ideas off one another. We’ve been in contact with him the whole time.”
Final Score
A moment of silence was held before the game in honor of Ben Eckroth, a longtime teacher at Pottstown who passed away earlier this month. Eckroth served as the head time-keeper for Trojan football and basketball games over the years.
