WYNDMOOR >> Devon Prep junior Calvin Smith was unconscious from three-point range Monday night. He scored a game-high 24 points on eight-three pointers against La Salle.
With the Tide trailing by one and 24.3 seconds remaining, Smith inbounded the ball from under the offensive basket. He passed to Zane Conlin and Devon Prep relayed the ball all the way around the three-point line before Smith got it back in the corner. Smith drew the attention of two defenders and fed Reece Craft inside. Craft converted the go-ahead layup with 18 seconds remaining.
Devon Prep forced back-to-back turnovers on La Salle’s next two possessions and picked up a 74-70 Philadelphia Catholic League win at La Salle College High School.
“Every game is a dogfight,” Smith said of the PCL. “Anyone can beat anyone at any time. Starting off we lost to Roman last week and it was a dogfight. We’re just going into the weekend looking to go 3-1.”
Smith hit his final three of the game with 3:45 remaining. After La Salle took its first lead of the second half, 64-63, Smith’s triple put the Tide back in front, 66-64.
“I felt good, yeah,” he said of his shooting performance. “My teammates were finding me well. It was just the flow of our offense. Nothing was forced, just a good game overall.
“(Shooting) is my strength. I like to build off of it. When people start to fly by I can drive. It’s definitely my strong suit.”
After Conlon split a pair of free throws to give Devon Prep (5-5, 1-1 PCL) a three-point lead, La Salle’s Nick Parisi tied the game with a three-pointer. Craft put the Tide up two and Grayson McKeogh responded with a three to give La Salle a 70-69 lead.
Devon Prep’s game-winning possession started with 1:12 left on the clock. Conlon grabbed an offensive rebound with 25 seconds left to set up Smith’s inbound pass and assist to Craft.
“I just saw the big man come up and I knew… they were going to try to get the ball out of my hands because I was shooting well,” Smith said. “Reece was open. Luckily another dude didn’t come for help.”
“Obviously we had to take away his shot,” La Salle coach Ryan Ansel said. “I’d have to see it back on film, but we probably could have done a better job of rotating. We tried to take away the go-ahead basket from three.”
Devon Prep was trying out a new defense with Craft defending the opposing point guard. The Tide forced 17 turnovers in the game, including two on La Salle’s final two possessions with a chance to tie.
“We picked (the new defense) up pretty fast,” Smith said. “We made a couple mistakes, but overall we did a good job. Reece played great defense on the guard, Shane (Doyle) played great defense on the guard. Everyone just played team defense.”
La Salle (5-7, 0-3 PCL) trailed by nine, 57-48, at the start of the fourth quarter and remained down nine, 59-50, after a couple possessions. Then Parisi took over. The junior hit back-to-back threes, assisted a McKeogh layup and hit another three during an 11-2 run to tie the game at 61 with five minutes to play. Parisi scored 14 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter.
“(Parisi’s) teammates get him the ball, give him space and let him operate,” Ansel said. “I think they work hard to give him opportunities. He had open shots and sometimes it’s off hard cuts, hard screens. He was big. It would have been easy for him to take himself out of the game because he had to sit on the bench because of his foul trouble, but I thought he stayed locked in mentally and came in and contributed.”
Hayes Altomare, Parisi and McKeogh each hit clutch three-pointers in the final 4:05 to either tie the game or give La Salle a lead.
“Our defensive energy and then pushing,” Ansel credited for erasing the nine-point deficit, “just working to get good shots. When Nick has a hot hand that’s always helpful, too, but it starts with stops. You can’t come back if the other team scores. I think getting some turnovers there was big for us.”
Craft and Conlon joined Smith in double figures for Devon Prep, pouring in 17 points apiece. Conlon added 12 rebounds, five on the offensive end.
Altomare and McKeogh chipped in 11 points apiece for La Salle and Luke Hudock had 10. Liam Hawley finished with seven points and 11 assists.
Devon Prep 74, La Salle 70
Devon Prep 20 18 19 17 – 74
La Salle 21 14 13 22 – 70
DP: Mason Thear 1 1 2-2 7, Calvin Smith 0 8 0-0 24, Shane Doyle 2 1 2-2 9, ReeceCraft 7 0 3-4 17, Zane Conlon 5 1 2-4 17, Cooper Fairlamb 0 0 0-0 0, Ben Costello 0 0 0-0 0, Mike Pergolis 0 0 0-0 0. Total 16 11 9-12 74.
LS: Liam Hawley 2 1 0-0 7, Nick Parisi 4 5 0-0 23, Joe Shields 1 1 0-0 5, Will Baer 1 0 1-2 3, Hayes Altomare 1 3 0-0 11, Luke Hudock 2 2 0-0 10, Grayson McKeough 4 1 0-0 11, Prestin Washington 0 0 0-0 0, Joey O’Brien 0 0 0-0 0. Total 15 13 1-2 70.
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