By Peter DiGiovanni
pdgiovanni07@gmail.com
@PeteDLNontwitter
SPRINGFIELD >> The West Chester Henderson boys basketball team knew they had a tail task ahead of them heading into Wednesday’s PIAA 6A second round game against Roman Catholic at Cardinal O’Hara High School.
The Warriors played the Philadelphia Catholic league champs almost dead even, and if not for a bad stretch in the second period, might have pulled off the upset. But, in the end, The Cahillites prevailed, 47-40, ending the Warriors storybook season.
The Warriors (25-6) held a 14-11 lead after Connor Fleet drained a jump shot. But Roman (27-2) ended the second period on a 9-0 run to take a 20-14 halftime lead and the Cahillites never trailed after that. Roman outscored the Warriors 12-4 in the second period.
“I’ll take that on me,” Henderson coach Jason Ritter said. “I did not do a good enough job preparing our guys for the type of trapping pressure they saw. We tried to simulate their pressure in practice but it is not the same thing. I should have had the guys in better position.”
The Warriors turned the ball over on three straight possessions at the end of the second period. Roman turned those three turnovers into six points. Robert Cottrell drained a 3-pointer for Roman in the 9-0 run to end the half. The Warriors shot just 9-for-30 from the field in the first half and finished the game shooting 13-for-39 from the field.
“I really don’t think it was their pressure,” Fleet said. “I think it was just making mistakes. We sped ourselves up a little at the end of the half and we just made some dumb plays.”
The two teams played evenly in the second half but the Warriors could never get back to even with the Cahillites. Roman center Shareff Jackson led the Cahillites with a game-high 13 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Fleet scored 13 points for the Warriors while Nyle Ralph-Beyer added 11 points.
Roman outscored the Warriors 14-12 in the third period to take a 34-26 lead after three periods, then Semaj Robinson opened the fourth period by hitting a long 3-pointer to give Roman a 37-26 advantage.
But the Warriors never quit. When Ralph-Beyer hit a jumper with 3:13 left in the fourth period, the Warriors cut the lead to 43-36. Roman then turned the ball over and Ralph-Beyer got fouled. He hit both free throws and suddenly it was a 43-38 game.
“We played really tough against a real good team,” Ritter said. “We were down three of our top seven guys and other guys came in and played above what we expected during our run in districts. Tonight, unfortunately it was not enough.”
The two teams traded misses and Roman rebounded a Fleet miss with 1:12 left in the fourth period. Cottrell got fouled with 38 seconds to go. He hit both free throws to give Roman a 45-38 lead.
The Warriors dream of upsetting Roman ended when they turned the ball over with 26 seconds left, and their successful season came to a halt.
“We have known each other since elementary school,” Fleet said. “And we have playing together since middle school. I think that is why we had so much success. We had a real connection with each other and we took that to the court.”
Roman Catholic 47, WC Henderson 40
ROMAN CATHOLIC (47) Robinson 1 0-0 3, Cottrell 4 2-2 11, Johnson 2 2-4 8, Hughes 0 1-2 1, Sam Jackson 3 5-8 11, Sharef Jackson 6 1-3 13. Totals 16 11-19 47.
WC HENDERSON (40) Ralph-Beyer 3 4-6 11, Delucia 2 0-0 6, Fleet 5 3-3 13, Smith 2 0-0 6, Kearney 0 0-0 0, Nelson 0 2-2 2, Ranalli 1 0-0 2, Dickerson 0 0-0 0, McFadden 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 9-11 40.
Roman Catholic 8 12 14 13-47
WC Henderson 10 4 12 14-40
3-point goals: Ralph-Beyer, Delucia 2, Smith 2, Robinson, Cottrell, Johnson 2.
