Bishop Shanahan puts down Pope John Paul II 62-44 to reach District 1-4A final

UPPER PROVIDENCE >> Bishop Shanahan wasted little time proving that its 7-15 record coming into Tuesday night’s District 1-4A boys basketball semifinal at Pope John Paul II was deceptive.

The Eagles came out playing physical defense and dominating the backboards and led by 14 points after a quarter. The Golden Panthers battled back to within four points midway through the third quarter and trailed by only six early in the fourth, but Shanahan pulled away again for a 62-44 win.

Ben Rodner-Tims and Charley Federico each scored 20 for the No. 3 seed Eagles, who will play for the 4A title and a spot in the PIAA Tournament on Saturday at a time and place to be determined against top seed Collegium Charter, an 83-61 winner over Springfield Township. Trey Rogers scored 12 and Chase Mondillo 11 for No. 2 seed Pope John Paul II (10-11).

“If you look at our league schedule, our league schedule was tough enough,” said Eagle coach John Dougherty. “If you look at our non-league schedule, we have a very competitive non-league schedule. I did it to prepare us for the playoffs. We played a lot of really good teams.”

“We lost a lot of close games all year,” said Federico. “This is the only game we had a height advantage all year. We wanted to be aggressive. We came out with a lot of energy.”

Shanahan scored the first six points of the game as PJP missed its first seven shots. The Golden Panthers got on the board with 3:45 left in the quarter on a basket off an offensive rebound by Bradey Bass. But that was the only rebound of the entire quarter by PJP while Shanahan pulled in 14 and led 18-4 at the end of the period.

“We knew coming in they were the taller team and a physical team,” said Panther coach Brendan Stanton. “We tried to match their physicality in practice, but it took a little while to adjust.”

“We knew we were a little bigger than they were,” said Rodner-Tims. “We tried to get out early.”

The Eagles still led by 14 late in the half until a short jumper by Mondillo made it 27-15 at the break. Then Mondillo scored on a drive to start the third quarter and Dom DeMito hit a free throw and a one-hander in the lane. A basket off an offensive board and a 3-pointer from the right wing by Caleb Zavertnik pulled the Panthers to within 29-25.

“We struggled for a little while,” said Federico. “Sometimes it’s hard to play with a lead.”

“We were careless with the ball,” said Rodner-Tims. “But we cleaned it up right away.”

The Eagles led by just 39-33 a minute into the fourth quarter, but Roman Alexander (11 points) scored twice in a row for the Eagles on drives to the baskets. Then Alexander knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 52-41 with 3:45 to go and that basket began a game-clinching 11-point run.

“We had a moment of losing our composure a little bit,” said Dougherty. “Credit to PJP. They did a great job of speeding us up. We knew they weren’t going to go away.”

Shanahan had been off for two weeks following the regular season and put that time to good use.

“We had a really good two weeks of practice,” said Dougherty. “I’m so proud of our guys. They all knew what they needed to do. They bought into it.”

“Obviously, tonight we started slow,” said Stanton. “But we put ourselves into position. I was proud of the way we battled back in the second half.”

The PJP coach was also proud of the way his team hung in after a rough stretch in January.

“We lost six of eight games,” he said. We could have packed it in. We have a young group. We have four seniors (Rogers, James Latrechiano, Luke DiBricida, Billy Fitzgerald). All of our seniors provided a lot of positive energy. They were big brothers to our guys. Most of the season was positive with the relationships built along the way.”

Bishop Shanahan 62, Pope John Paul II 44

Bishop Shanahan: Rodner-Tims 5 10-16 20, Federico 7 6-8 20, Kapczynski 0 4-4 4, Snyder 0 0-0 0, Alexander 4 2-2 11, Seifried 0 0-0 0, Griffin 0 0-0 0, Ambrose 0 0-0 0, Boyle 0 1-2 1, Scaggs 3 0-3 6, Totals 19 23-35 62
Pope John Paul II: DeMito 1 3-4 5, Rogers 3 4-6 12, Fitzgerald 0 0-0 0, Zavertnik 3 0-0 7, Reed 2 0-0 5, Owens 1 0-1 2, Bass 1 0-0 2, Mondillo 4 2-4 11, Totals 15 9-15 44
3-point goals: Alexander, Rogers 2, Zavertnik, Reed, Mondillo