Archbishop Wood’s offense goes silent in final minutes against Roman Catholic in PCL semifinals
PHILADELPHIA >> Archbishop Wood’s offense had three stretches where it went too quiet for too long in its Philadelphia Catholic League semifinal against Roman Catholic Wednesday evening.
The fourth-seeded Vikings were able to overcome the first two droughts and tie the game with just over four minutes remaining, but the final scoreless streak allowed the second-seeded Cahillites to punch their ticket to the league championship game.
Wood went 0-for-3 from the field and 0-for-3 from the free-throw line while committing two turnovers during a 3:52 stretch late in the fourth quarter. Roman scored eight straight points to pull away to a 66-59 win at the Palestra.
“It was just miscommunication and we kept turning the ball over,” Wood junior and PCL MVP Jalil Bethea said. “The turnovers turned into them having fast-break scores and the lead just kept building up after that.”
Bethea hit three free throws and Josh Reed completed a three-point play to overcome a six-point deficit and tie the game at 54 with 4:19 left in the fourth. Roman answered immediately with a Shareef Jackson layup for a 56-54 lead.
The PCL rivals traded five scoreless possessions – a Wood turnover and two empty trips and two Roman turnovers – before Xzayvier Brown extended Roman’s advantage to four, 58-54.
After Wood missed two shots on its next possession, Roman’s Jermai Stewart-Herring hit a pair of free throws. Wood turned the ball over on the ensuing possession and Stewart-Herring’s breakaway dunk put an exclamation point on the 8-0 run and had the Cahillites ahead, 62-54, in the final minute.
“Down the stretch we missed a lot of tough shots,” Wood coach John Mosco said. “We didn’t play together as a team. Everybody tried to do it on their own. We didn’t make the extra passes, we missed a few bunnies. It just wasn’t our night tonight offensively, especially that third quarter.”
The Vikings (15-8) offense also went silent to close out the first half and open the second. They let an 11-point lead late in the second quarter get trimmed to four at halftime and then Roman opened the third quarter with nine straight points. Roman’s 16-0 run turned a 36-25 Wood lead into a 41-36 Wood deficit.
“They just went on a run,” Bethea, who led Wood with 22 points, said. “We played great defense, but they got to their spots.”
Gus Salem ended the run with a three-pointer and Wood got within one, 47-46, going into the fourth quarter.
Wood builts its second-quarter lead with a 19-4 burst. Trailing 21-17, Reed got things started with a three-point play. Milan Dean scored 11 points in the second quarter, Bethea had seven and Mike Green hit a three to help build the 36-25 advantage.
“We were just hitting open shots and playing together,” Bethea said of the first half.
Brown made a couple baskets for Roman to close out the second quarter and carried that momentum into the second half. He scored 16 of his team-high 22 points after the Cahillites fell behind by 11 late in the first half.
“X, he plays at his own pace,” Bethea said. “He’s like the old head of the league. He’s a real good player. I just knew that’s the person we had to stop and he just went off.”
“They’ve got a great player in X,” Mosco added. “He stepped up and started playing well. He got going and some of their subs hit shots.”
Stewart-Herring and Bob Cottrell joined Brown in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Reed and Dean joined Bethea in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Roman will face No. 1 Neumann-Goretti in the PCL championship game Monday night at the Palestra.
Wood will try to earn District 12’s third spot in the PIAA-6A state playoffs, needing to beat the Philadelphia Public League’s second-place Class-6A finisher to get into the tournament. The Vikings lost to Roman in last year’s Class-6A state final.
“In life you have to learn from your mistakes,” Mosco said. “Like Jalen Hurts said – learn by losing. I think we were a few minutes here or there away. (Roman is) a senior-oriented team, they’ve got a lot of seniors there. We’ve got two seniors that have never been to the Palestra. They have a lot more experience, but we’ll fight, we’ll re-group in a couple days and figure out about the states.”
“Going into states we’re just looking to win,” Bethea said, “to win it all.”
Roman Catholic 66, Archbishop Wood 59
Archbishop Wood 12 24 10 13 – 59
Roman Catholic 15 17 15 19 – 66
Archbishop Wood: Jalil Bethea 5 9-9 22, Milan Dean 3 3-5 11, Josh Reed 4 3-4 12, Carson Howard 3 0-2 6, Gus Salem 1 0-1 3, Mike Green 1 0-1 3, Deuce Maxey 0 0-0 0, Markus Dixon 1 0-0 2. Total 18 15-21 59.
Roman Catholic: Xzayvier Brown 9 2-3 22, Jermai Stewart-Herring 5 3-5 13, Anthony Finkley 1 3-3 5, Shareef Jackson 4 0-0 8, Erik Oliver-Bush 2 2-2 6, William Felder 1 0-0 2, Bob Cottrell 3 3-4 10. Total 25 13-17 66.
3-point goals: AW: Jalil Bethea 3, Milan Dean 2, Mike Green, Josh Reed, Gus Salem. RC: Bob Cottrell, Xzayvier Brown 2.
