Archbishop Wood commits to defense, rolls over New Oxford in PIAA 5A 1st round
PHILADELPHIA >> For as good as Archbishop Wood looked on the offensive end of the floor, the defensive end wasn’t quite the same.
The ball was moving, shots were dropping, guys were getting any look they wanted and New Oxford seemingly had no way to stop the Vikings. Yet, with about five minutes left in the second quarter, there was the underdog out of District 3, down just six.
It was the only sign Wood needed.
The Vikings put down the clamps on defense to back up a scorching offensive effort as they raced past New Oxford 92-62 in the first round of the PIAA boys 5A playoffs Friday night at Philadelphia University. Collin Gillespie scored 31 points for Wood, Matt Cerruti scored his 1,000th point and Wood didn’t miss a beat after firming up on defense.
“It feels alright, I just wanted to win, that’s all I really care about,” Cerruti said of his milestone after the game. “As long as we win, I don’t care (what I score). We just have to keep winning.”
BOYS BASKETBALL: @WoodBoysBball @matt_cerruti with the redirect to @Colling1021 for three Q3 against New Oxford pic.twitter.com/7flec3uSaJ
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 11, 2017
Vikings coach John Mosco was a little concerned that New Oxford may have come out and played slowdown, holding the ball, working clock and trying to keep the game at a snail’s pace. The film and background he had on the Colonials didn’t suggest that, but it’s always hard to tell what a team in that spot will do.
Then the ball went up and New Oxford was running up and down the floor with Wood and bombing away from 3-point territory. Ox coach Sean Bair said that’s his team’s style and his players didn’t want to deviate away from it in what was likely their last game.
That suited Wood just fine and the Vikings raced out to a 28-18 lead after the first quarter.
“We knew they could shoot, we had some film on them, we knew they liked to get up and down and ran sets to get their guys shots and they did a good job of that,” Gillespie said. “We didn’t really lock in on the defensive end in the first half and they got a lot of open shots but in the second half, to start the quarter, we got stops, we got good shots and we built a lead.”
Gillespie had nine in the first frame while Cerruti had eight, scoring his 1,000th on his second 3-pointer of the frame. Meanwhile, New Oxford’s style presented some challenges for Wood. All five Colonials on the floor at a given time were capable of knocking down 3s, so it was a challenge for Wood’s big men to guard them.
“It was something new, we don’t usually guard, I guess I can say guards, their big men had good footwork,” Wood center Seth Pinkney said. “It’s something I have to work on this summer so I’ll be ready to play a team like this.”
To Pinkney’s credit, and reserve bigs Karrington Wallace and Julius Phillips, they toughed up on defense in the second half, attacked the glass and started thwarting New Oxford players driving to the lane after they had been chased off the arc. Gillespie said that was the biggest problem in the first half, the Vikings would get a shooter off the line but then not slide over in help defense and in turn, give up an easy look at the rim.
New Oxford knew it was outgunned and Bair said there likely would have needed to be “hundreds” of breaks for it just to be close, but when John Wessel canned a trey with 4:54 left in the second, Wood’s lead was just 36-30. Wood had a response ready.
The Vikings scored the next 12, and 16 of the final 19 points in the quarter to restore balance with Gillespie setting Andrew Funk right before the horn for a 52-33 lead.
“We love playing up-tempo because we have a lot of shooters and guys who can get up and down in transition and make plays,” Gillespie said. “Whenever we see that, we usually stick with our game plan.”
Gillespie still managed eight assists, but the Villanova-bound senior was certainly looking for his shot with regularity on Friday. It seemed to work out as he buried six 3-pointers without forcing too much.
“I just wanted to get my shot more consistent,” Gillespie said. “I haven’t been shooting well in practice so I just wanted to come out, and when I was open, I was going to shoot it or make the right play for my teammates. I think I did an alright job, I may have taken some bad shots throughout the course of the game.”
New Oxford started the second half with a 5-4 edge, but Wood came back with another run, this a 10-0 spurt punctuated by a Ty Pickron steal and slam. Pickron, who had 14, had one more dunk in him, a one-handed flush after a Pinkney block sprung him for a runout.
Friday’s game got Wood back to a sense of normalcy after some down time between PCLs and the District 12 final. The Vikings have tried things, like scrimmaging Plymouth Whitemarsh, but the emotion of winning two titles, plus being in their fifth month of the season naturally led to some friction.
Now that they’re back on the championship hunt though, it’s back to business.
“It’s been a long run, it’s everybody on our staff and especially our players’ first time through the gauntlet,” Mosco said. “We were focused against King but then practice hasn’t been good. You had those warm days, you’re tire, it’s a grind, we have about 60 practices in so far.
“Now, we’re in more of a flow.”
Archbishop Wood 92, New Oxford 62
Archbishop Wood 28 24 16 14 – 92
New Oxford 18 15 18 11 – 62
Archbishop Wood (92): Collin Gillespie 10 5-6 31, Ty Pickron 6 0-0 14, Seth Pinkney 3 0-1 6, Matt Cerruti 7 0-0 18, Andrew Funk 3 0-0 6, Karrington Wallace 4 0-0 8, Julius Phillips 3 0-1 6, Zahree Harrison 1 0-0 3. Nonscoring: Keith Otto, Shawn Thompson. Totals: 37 5-8 92.
New Oxford (62): Trevor Floyd 4 0-0 12, Jordin Brown7 0-0 20, Ben Lehman 2 4-4 8, John Wessel3 3-4 18, Abdul Jenneh 2 0-1 4. Nonscoring: Deriq Brown, Jaren Rex, Zach Rudisill, Israel Cullazo, Brandon Pritchard, Cam Krebs, Tanner Myers, Chase Nell. Totals: 21 7-9 62.
3-pointers: AW-Gillespie 6, Cerruti 4, Pickron 2, Harrison; NO – J Brown 6, Floyd 4, Wessel 3.
Top Photo: Archbishop Wood’s Collin Gillespie uses a pick by Seth Pinkney to lay up a shot past New Oxford’s Ben Lehman during their PIAA Class 5A first round game on Friday, March 10, 2017. (Bob Raines/Digital First Media)
