Archbishop Wood routs Archbishop Ryan, advances to PCL final

WARMINSTER >> While the Archbishop Wood boys basketball team has amassed an abundance of personal accolades, senior Jaylen Stinson knows only the titles that have so far eluded the Vikings will satisfy them.

Wood earned a step closer to attaining one Saturday night, securing a spot in the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game by rolling past Archbishop Ryan 77-47 in their semifinal contest.

“We all got individual accomplishments – a 1,000 points, All-Catholic, All-State – but that don’t mean nothing when we’re not winning,” Stinson said. “I mean we won but we’re not winning, you know what I mean. We need a championship, we need multiple championships.

“We had a city championship but we don’t count that, like we don’t count that as anything. We want the PCL, we want the state. We want to be considered the best and that’s what we’re going for right now.”

Stinson scored a team-high 20 points, the James Madison commit knocking down a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the top-seeded Vikings (15-0) shake off a bit of a slow start to reach the PCL final for the first time since 2017 when Wood won its only Catholic League title.

“Once he hit it, we’re like ‘Oh yeah he on now – he on,” said Muneer Newton of Stinson. “Ain’t no turning back when he hit that first shot we knew that’s not going to be the last shot for sure, he going to keep making them.”

Newton collected eight of his 16 points in the second quarter as the Vikings built a 35-20 halftime lead over the No. 4 Raiders (8-5) then pushed its advantage to as large as 25 in the third. Archbishop Ryan cut the margin down to 17 entering the fourth but Wood held the visitors to just four points over the final eight minutes.

The Vikings advance to face No. 2 Roman Catholic – a 38-36 winner over No. 3 Devon Prep in the other semi – for the Catholic League crown 7 p.m. Monday at Cardinal O’Hara. Wood fell to Roman in last year’s PCL semifinal but beat the Cahillites in their previous matchup this season 79-69 Feb. 17.

“Our motto from the get-go was to get to the Palestra which we always want to be. But with no Palestra, get to the final game,” Vikings coach John Mosco said. “No matter what happened, whatever playoff scenario they have or don’t have, all we could do was take care of what’s in front of us each game. And that’s how we prepared, one game at a time.”

Marcus Randolph finished with 14 points for Wood while Rahsool Diggins scored the first 10 of his 13 points in the third. Daeshon Shepherd added 12 points.

“We want it, that’s all it is – we want it,” Stinson said. “We want what we were supposed to have last year. We were supposed to be in that championship last year. We were supposed to be in the state finals last year. So this year, we just coming for everything that we deserve.”

Archbishop Ryan’s Aaron Lemon-Warren had 13 of his game-best 23 points in the third as the Raiders lost in the league semis for the second straight season. Christian Tomasco chipped in 10 top Ryan, which was looking to make its first PCL final since 2008.

Wednesday, the Catholic League changed its playoff format from the top two teams qualifying for the final to a four-team tournament. So three days after beating Ryan 71-66, Wood was again facing the Raiders but this time with championship dreams on the line.

Ryan went out to an early 9-4 lead after a Tomasco reverse layup before back-to-back threes from Stinson and Randolph put Wood up 10-9. A basket from Lemon-Warren made it 11-10 Raiders but that was their last lead of the night.

Randolph tied the game hitting the first of two free throws at 1:27 – he missed the second but Wood corralling the rebound leading to a Stinson triple. Stinson’s third three of the quarter put the Vikings up 17-11.

“It’s just the team finding me,” said Stinson, who scored his 1,000^th career point in Wednesday’s win over Ryan. “It’s just I was open so why not hit the open shots. It was just whoever was open, take the shot, just get the best shot we can at the time.”

Shephard was fouled shooting a three with 0.2 seconds left in and made the first two at the line for an eight-point Wood edge at the end of the opening quarter.

Shepherd’s dunk gave the Vikings their first double-digit lead at 21-11. A Tomasco slam and a Dominic Vazquez jumper had Ryan down six but consecutive baskets from Newton had Wood back ahead 10 at 25-15.

Another four straight points from Newton put the Vikings up 33-19 after the senior’s two free throws at 1:26.

“If I got it, I got to take it,” Newton said. “That’s what they looking for me to do now.”

A Vazquez foul shot made it 33-20 but Stinson’s fast-break layup had the home side leading by 15 at the break.

Wood began the third with six straight points, as a pair of Stinson baskets sandwiching a Shepherd dunk made it 41-20.

After back-to-back Ryan buckets, Diggins – who Mosco said hurt his ankle at practice Friday – got going after a scoreless first half, the UConn commit tallying all 10 points in a 10-2 run that increased the Vikings’ lead to 51-26.

”We kept playing offense,” Mosco said. “The game before we kept going one-on-one. But they’re a good team, so we did what we were supposed to do.”

Lemon-Warren hit three 3-pointers and registered 11 points as Ryan outscored Wood 17-9 the rest of the third to trail 60-43.

A Lemon-Warren basket in the fourth had the Raiders again down 17 at 62-45 but a Randolph three-point play at 4:58 started of 9-0 Wood run that made it 71-45 after two Diggins free throws  with 2:40 remaining.

Archbishop Wood 77, Archbishop Ryan 47
Archbishop Ryan 11 9 23 4 – 47
Archbishop Wood 19 16 25 17 – 77
Archbishop Ryan: Aaron Lemon-Warren 9 1-4 22; Christian Tomasco 5 0-0 10; Dominic Vazquez 3 2-4 9; Luke Boyd 2 0-0 4; Jalen Snead 0 2-2 2; Totals 19 5-10 47.
Archbishop Wood: Jaylen Stinson 8 0-0 20; Muneer Newton 7 2-4 16; Marcus Randolph 5 2-3 14; Rahsool Diggins 4 3-4 13; Daeshon Shepherd 5 2-2 12; Tyson Allen 1 0-0 2; Totals 30 9-13 77.
3-pointers: AR-Lemon-Warren 3, Vazquez; AW-Stinson 4, Diggins 2, Randolph 2.