Bethea brilliant as Archbishop Wood tops St. Joseph’s Prep in PCL quarters to earn trip to Palestra
WARMINSTER >> A sea of arms, each holding three fingers aloft, rose in perfect unison as Jalil Bethea caught the ball and rose up for a shot.
The Archbishop Wood junior’s high-arching jumper, fired off mere inches in front of Wood’s student section, cascaded through the net as Bethea hop-stepped to his left and carried on back up the floor. Behind him, the chorus of “M-V-P” cheers followed in his wake as it had much of the night, a crescendo that swelled each time the ball left his hand and bottomed out the net as it ripped through.
The Philadelphia Catholic League’s MVP played like it, Bethea scoring 14 of his 30 points in the final quarter as the No. 4 Vikings downed No. 5 St. Joe’s Prep 84-73 in the league quarterfinals Friday night, securing a spot at the historic Palestra next week.
“It was actually overwhelming,” Bethea said. “When I first heard it, I was actually surprised. At the start of the season, that was my goal but I wasn’t going toward the MVP, I was just playing and it shows hard work pays off.”
Playing in front of his home crowd for the first time since he was announced as Wood’s third player and fourth overall MVP since 2017-18 – joining Collin Gillespie and two-time selection Rahsool Diggins – Bethea was followed by MVP chants from his fans and studious defense from his opponents. A few weeks back, Bethea had burned the Prep for a career-high 40 points in a crucial overtime win, so one of the main things Vikings coach John Mosco told the standout junior was to expect a lot of attention.
Bethea did open the game with a twisting layup off the opening tip but he did indeed have extra eyes on him, the Hawks very determined to keep the ball out of his hands. Mosco noted the Vikings have an exceptional record when Bethea has at least five assists, provided to him by master PCL statistician Ed “Huck” Palmer and the junior was happy to give up the ball all game.
“I thought the beginning of the game, he was shooting too quick but he settled down and played off those other guys,” Mosco said. “With (Milan Dean) and Josh (Reed) scoring like that, you have to pick your poison. Then, we had the floor spread and they’re getting down the lane, Carson (Howard) is just steady and Gus (Salem) had his best performance of the year.”
Bethea had eight points at halftime, boosted by a pair of three-point shots in the second quarter, but he wasn’t Wood’s top scorer at the break. That distinction when to Dean, who had one of the loudest moments of the night when he slammed down a lob pass from Bethea for a 10-5 first quarter lead, with 10 points.
Mike Green came off the bench to hit two shots from behind the arc and Salem had a three in the first half but it took a late basket from Dean to just salvage a 33-33 deadlock at half. The Prep, which was battling not only to make the semifinals but extend its season and needing to beat Wood to leapfrog in the PCL’s 6A table for the state playoffs, stayed step for step for three quarters.
Jordan Ellerbee was electric off the Hawks’ bench, scoring a team high 20 points, but it seemed like aside from that brief spell in the waning moments of the second quarter, the Prep couldn’t get in front. Even when they closed within 47-46 on Jaron McKie’s three with 2:33 left in the third, the Hawks could only watch as Bethea scored on an end-to-end layup and Howard followed with a putback and-one on the next possession.
“They were just worried about me most of the time and trying to deny me, so I used my big man as a target, setting screens off the ball,” Bethea said. “That’s how I got open most of the time.
“It’s the chemistry me and Carson have.”
Howard had a massive impact on the game that extended well beyond his six points and 11 rebounds. His screens – one of them cleared the way for that in-unison raising of the threes – were instrumental in finally getting Bethea loose in the fourth quarter and he held his ground defending Prep’s rapidly improving big man, Tristen Guillouette.
Dean finished with 13, ceding his role as scorer in the second half to Josh Reed while focusing his efforts on the defensive end. St. Joe’s Prep, loaded with underclassmen talents who figure to be a problem for the PCL in the next two years, can fill it up with anybody so the Vikings knew the game would hinge on their ability to get some stops.
The Hawks had four players reach double figures, but with one doing most of his damage before halftime and another getting a bulk of his points after Wood had opened up a lead, the hosts did the job.
“That was one of the best things our guys did,” Mosco said. “They paid attention to the scouting report and individually took away a lot of stuff. We ran a lot at McKie to try and make it a hard night for him, he was always shooting with a hand in his face. (Matt Gorman) got open for a few, so we adjusted the pick-and-roll and they didn’t get him a lot of shots after that.”
Josh Reed picked up where Dean had left off, the junior guard going hard to the rim again and again, taking advantage of space opened up by Bethea’s gravity. Reed powered in 14 of his 16 after halftime, the last four coming on a pair of thunderous slam dunks in front of the Wood student section, at that point already frothing over from Bethea’s earlier dazzling display.
Reed, a tough-as-nails defender in his own right, provided the cudgel to complement the scalpel that was Bethea’s second-half shooting in picking the Prep’s defense apart in a 31-23 fourth quarter.
“The couple times they cut it down, he got where he wanted to,” Mosco said. “He was in the lane, hitting jumpers, dunking the ball and played solid, great defense too. He was everywhere, he was like a senior tonight.”
The game was still very much in the balance with 6:10 left in the fourth, the Prep having just clipped the lead down to 56-54.
That’s when the MVP took over.
Bethea hit a three on three straight possessions, each one empowered by a defensive stand on the other end, the last coming with a wall of arms raised behind him to put Wood ahead 65-54. He’d add one more in the quarter, this from quite a few feet behind the line, with 3:46 left to give the Vikings a 70-58 lead and the capper on an outstanding night that featured a 6-of-8 effort from long range.
“I was just locked in from the jump, I didn’t care about being the MVP, all I care about is cutting the nets down at the Palestra,” Bethea said. “This game, it’s over with, we still have two more games to get where we really want to be.”
Jaron McKie’s dad Aaron knows ball – as a longtime NBA player including a run with the Sixers and the current Temple head coach, he’s certainly got the credentials – so it meant something when Aaron McKie stopped Bethea to congratulate the Wood guard on his performance after the game.
The junior guard, who has grown immensely as a leader this season, brought his guys together at halfcourt with about 30 seconds left just to make sure they got to the finish with the same effort that had carried them to that point. Mosco used the phrase “sky’s the limit” to describe Bethea, fitting as those words are part of the tattoo the guard has on his left arm and that sentiment seemed especially true in that split-second his shooting arm was raised in sync with everyone standing behind him.
“The sky’s the limit, you never know,” Bethea said. “You never know where you can go in life, so you just keep going and find your success.”
Wood returns to the Palestra for the first time since the 2019-20 season, so it’s going to be a new experience for pretty much everyone aside from the coaching staff. Bethea was there that night, watching as the Vikings fell to Roman Catholic and fittingly enough, that’s who he’ll be leading his team into the historic venue to face.
“The atmosphere, everybody from each school and everybody from the city coming out to watch, that’s what I remember most,” Bethea said. “I know I’ll enjoy that, playing there.”
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 13 20 20 31 – 84
ST JOSEPH’S PREP 12 21 17 23 – 73
AW: Jalil Bethea 10 4-4 30, Milan Dean 4 5-8 13, Josh Reed 8 0-0 16, Carson Howard 3 0-1 6, Gus Salem 2 2-2 8, Deuce Maxey 1 3-4 5, Mike Green 2 0-0 6. Totals: 30 14-19 84
SJP: Olin Chamberlain 5 0-1 12, Jaron McKie 5 0-1 12, Jalen Harper 2 5-6 9, Matt Gorman 5 0-0 12, Tristen Guillouette 4 0-0 8, Jordan Ellerbee 6 7-8 20. Totals: 27 12-16 73
3-pointers: AW – Bethea 6, Salem 2, Green 2; SJP – Chamberlain 2, McKie 2, Gorman 2, Ellerbee
