Archbishop Carroll wins with House money at buzzer against La Salle

RADNOR >> The clock dipped under 10 seconds and Luke House made his move.

In a timeout just before would prove to be the game-clinching play, the Archbishop Carroll coaching staff told House the ball was going to him and it was his shot to take. The Patriots have leaned on their senior co-captain all year for everything and they weren’t about to take the moment away from him.

House worked into the lane, pivoted at the foul line and shot the ball with a hand in his face and two seconds left on the clock.

The ball struck the back of the iron, bounced straight into the air, kissed the front of the rim and dropped through at the horn. By then, House was sprinting into a horde of Carroll student, his shot the winner in a 57-55 PCL classic that handed La Salle its first setback of the season.

“Our guards took care of the ball, I got with about 15 seconds to go, broke the five-count and went iso,” House said. “I got a good look and a good bounce on the shot.”

There’s no such thing as an off night in the Catholic League and Carroll, which needed a signature win in the league, wasn’t about to let the first place Explorers just cruise to their looming Friday night showdown with Roman Catholic. La Salle (17-1, 10-1 PCL) wasn’t at its best, missing some otherwise easy layups and making some sloppy turnovers while in front, but it still held a seven-point edge going into the final quarter.

At that point, things got really interesting.

Carroll (10-8, 6-4 PCL) got an unlikely spark at the start of the frame from junior reserve guard Amiri Stewart. Stewart had a rough first half and first-year Patriots coach Francis Bowe Jr saw the guard go into the locker room with his head down.

“As a staff, and I have to give a lot of credit to the guys on this too, they said ‘keep your head up, we are going to need you,’” Bowe said. “He had a couple turnovers, a couple missed shots he usually makes and you could tell he was down. They said ‘we can not have you down,’ and I’m proud of him responding.”

House, who tied for Carroll’s high in scoring with 14 points, found Stewart for three to open the frame. Just 30 seconds later, Stewart swished another triple, cutting the lead to 46-43 and igniting a spark of belief in the Carroll players and crowd.

The 6-foot-2 guard capped a personal eight-point run with two free throws to cut the lead to 48-45 with 6:09 to play. Stewart’s impact wasn’t lost on his teammates.

“Those were two huge shots by him,” House said. “We have all the confidence in him. He drilled two big shots and everybody else was feeding off the energy.”

Defensively, Carroll threw everything but the locker room sink at La Salle, switching from zone to man to a different zone to a press on seemingly every different possession. Bowe deflected the credit for that onto his players for keeping some modicum of cohesion during the stretch.

“It was organized chaos,” Bowe said. “You only really get 30 to 45 seconds in a timeout, you can say things and throw concepts at them but instinctively, they made plays. They made me look good and it wasn’t my coaching, they just relied on their instincts.”

It certainly worked, as the Explorers committed several key turnovers at crucial junctures in the final eight minutes.

“We might have responded to certain things but when we had leads, I felt we made bad decisions and poor turnovers and that’s really why they won the game,” La Salle coach Mike McKee said. “They capitalized on our mistakes. If we don’t fix that, then that’s going to happen and if we fix that, we can eliminate that from happening.”

Ny’Mire Little gave Carroll its first lead since 7-6 in the first quarter on a driving bucket with 3:14 left to go. La Salle got an immediate answer when Allen Powell hit a trey with 2:47 left, staking the Explorers to a 52-50 lead.

After getting a stop, the Explorers tried to expand on their lead. Konrad Kiszka dribbled through a double-team and found an open Jake Timby for a 3-pointer as McKee grabbed the arm of the official next to him prior to the shot. With the ball still in the air, the official rang up McKee for a technical foul as the ball went in with 1:56 left, negating the basket and sending House to the line.

“I probably said too much,” McKee said. “I felt (Carroll’s) hands were on us and (the officials) weren’t giving us the proper respect in that regard. I let him know that and he didn’t like that, so it’s my fault and no one did that but me.”

Reached later Monday evening, McKee said in that moment, he was only trying to demonstrate to the official the type of contact he felt wasn’t being called as fouls.

“I felt their hands were on us for long periods of time and say you’re me and the game’s going that way, it was a reaction that maybe wasn’t the best one,” McKee said. “It’s what I decided to do based on how the game was going. Do I regret it? Yeah.

“I didn’t help our team .”

McKee again just credited Carroll for beating La Salle and acknowledged the result for making contact with an official is a technical foul.

“It was a good call then,” McKee said.

House, who scored the last seven points for Carroll, hit both shots at the line to tie it. The senior wing then gave his team the lead on driving score, drawing a foul and hitting the freebie for a 55-52 advantage with 1:25 on the clock.

La Salle answered back when senior Konrad Kiszka, who led all scorers with 18 points, got fouled on a drive, made the basket and the following free throw to knot the score back up with 1:05 left.

“You have to give them credit for changing their defenses, they were active in the passing lanes, so our spacing wasn’t the best and we missed some open shots,” McKee said. “They actually did a better job converging into the paint in the second half and they had a lot more energy in the second half than they did in the first half.”

Both teams have another big game coming up this week. Carroll visits Archbishop Wood on Friday night while La Salle hosts Roman Catholic with first place in the PCL at stake.

“It’s huge, they were No. 1 in the Catholic League so we knew we had to come in here and take care of business,” House said. “The shot, it felt good. Then it hit the rim and I got a little nervous, but it went in.”

ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 12 11 14 20 – 57
LA SALLE 12 17 15 11 – 55
Archbishop Carroll: Luke House 4 5-5 14, Kiyl Mack 1 0-0 2, Ny’Mire Little 5 3-4 14, Tairi Ketner 4 2-4 10, Anquan Hill 3 1-2 8, Amiri Stewart 2 2-2 8. Totals: 19 13-17 57.
La Salle: Konrad Kiszka 6 6-6 18, Allen Powell 4 1-2 12, Titus Beard 4 2-3 11, Jake Timby 2 0-0 5, Zach Crisler 3 1-2 7, Khalil Diarrah 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 10-13 55.
3-pointers: AC – Stewart 2, House, Little, Hill; L – Powell 3, Beard, Timby.