Carroll didn’t lose it, Neumann-Goretti won it

HERSHEY — Paul Romanczuk didn’t even need to let the full question unwind Friday night, because he knew the answer to the hypothetical.

If before the PIAA Class AAA title game, the Archbishop Carroll coach was told that his team would limit Neumann-Goretti’s Lamarr Kimble to 3-for-15 shooting … that Quade Green would have a quiet 14 points … that Derrick Jones would force both of Neumann’s big men to foul out on the way to 30 points and 18 rebounds, would he think he’d have a gold medal around his neck?

“Yes,’ was Romanczuk’s unequivocal answer.

Then the necessary follow-up is how, despite all those undeniable and hard-earned positives, did the Patriots end up on the wrong side of a 69-67 decision at Hershey’s Giant Center?

The answer is both the cause and the effect: Because the five-time state champion Neumann-Goretti is, well, the five-time state champ.

The more nuts-and-bolts answer is also simplistic: When the chips were down and the preferred avenues to points were blocked, Neumann-Goretti had secondary and tertiary options step up. Carroll did not, and try as he might, even a player of Derrick Jones’ caliber was never going to beat a team with the one-to-five talent of the Saints, a team that has lifted five state titles in six seasons.

Defensively, Carroll’s game plan was executed as it had hoped. The Patriots’ resident defensive maven, Samir Taylor, shadowed Green up and down the court, face-guarding him and denying him touches in dangerous areas.

The result was a 4-for-9 shooting night for Green, who only bolstered his stat line with six fourth-quarter free throws to take it to 14. Kimble, meanwhile, was an unsightly 3-for-15 from the field, including just 1-for-7 from 3-point range.

Where Neumann flourished and Carroll floundered was in the secondary production. Zane Martin was a demon in the lane, tallying 26 points while the attentions of Carroll’s three best defenders were directed elsewhere. His scoring included a contribution to Neumann’s 6-0 run that answered Carroll tying the game at 48-all with 4:10 to play.

“We thought we were going to be able to get Quade in the flow like usual, but I saw that they were face-guarding him, so I knew I had to step up,’ Martin said. “I made my shots to lift my team. … I just come out with the same mindset, just playing hard. I start out playing hard, and my shots will come.’

Vaughn Covington ended up with 17 points, but as Romanczuk pointed out, he had a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter that accounted for six of Neumann’s nine points and carried an otherwise listless attack through the frame. He also had two points and an assist on the momentum-shifting 6-0 spurt.

“It’s really tough, especially because we shut down their two best players,’ Taylor said. “And credit to their other players because they stepped up and helped them win the game.’

“We limited two of their big guns, but that’s just what a great team does,’ Romanczuk said. “They don’t just have two great players. They have a third and a fourth option. They spread you out. They’ve got four guys that can shoot the basketball.’

By that rubric, Romanczuk’s team didn’t do enough to elevate itself into the echelon of “great.’ Entering the fourth quarter, both David Beatty and Ryan Daly were in search of their first field goals. Despite awakening in the fourth quarter to finally help Jones shoulder the offensive load and make the game interesting, half of Carroll’s contingent of four double-figures scorers finished a combined 6-for-24 from the field.

Too often, possessions devolved into either Jones or Josh Sharkey going it alone, and Sharkey admitted to settling for too many jump shots on one of the most imbalanced offensive nights Carroll has suffered through all season.

It wasn’t all down to Carroll’s inability to hit shots, though. Neumann made a concerted effort not to help off drivers in the lane, meaning that the dribble-penetration of Sharkey and Beatty that often leads to open kick-outs to the perimeter or dump-offs in the lane weren’t there. Much like their multitude of scorers, that tactic is a benefit of the defensive depth the Saints possess.

“It’s tough because they switch everything,’ Sharkey said. “It’s tough getting in the lane like we usually do, and we didn’t adjust tonight like we usually do. We ended up settling for jump shots, and I take the blame for that. I settled a lot tonight, and it was just a tough game.’

That reality was why there was no anger in Romanczuk’s talk to his players Friday night. There was sadness that a plan had been executed well, but not quite well enough. Accompanying that was the realization that they had been beaten, that Neumann-Goretti had won far more than Carroll had lost, no matter how open the door to that elusive second victory in the last 32 installments of the city rivalry was.

“I think we could’ve had them,’ Daly said. “We held Green in check. We held Kimble in check. Zane Martin hit some big shots that put the dagger in us.’

“They’re champions,’ Romanczuk said. “That’s the reason that they’re champions. They’re more than just a one- or two-man show.’