Funk leads Archbishop Wood past Father Judge in PCL 1st round

PHILADELPHIA >> Disarray, flat, selfish.

Those are just a few of the words used by the Archbishop Wood players and coaches recounting their Jan. 13 performance against Father Judge, where they fell 80-71.

Wednesday night, in a rematch between the two teams, none of those words came to mind when describing their effort as they cruised to a 64-42 victory over the Crusaders in the first round of the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs.

“We didn’t play well here the first time we played them,” Wood head coach John Mosco said. “We were in a little disarray, we were going through that five game losing streak, and I just told them you don’t get too many times where you get a second chance. We took advantage of it, we played hard, and we played as close to 32 minutes as we’ve played all year.”

The most staggering difference between the two games was Wood’s defensive performance.

In the first matchup, the Vikings (14-9) allowed the Crusaders (13-10) to drop 80 points on them as Judge’s second team All-PCL selection Marc Rodriguez was able to score early and often.

This time, Wood held them to 35 percent shooting from the field, and while Rodriguez got a respectable 14 points, he had to earn everything and looked frustrated by Wood’s defensive effort.

“He killed us in the beginning of the game last time we faced them,” said Wood’s Tyree Pickron of Rodriguez. “He hit some shots that really got him hot so we knew that we had to stop him from coming out hot or he’d be hard to stop.”

This time, it was Wood that came out hot, as it shot out to a 16-2 lead in the first six minutes of the game and looked like a completely different team than the one that came to play almost a month ago.

After trailing 20-8 at the end of the first quarter, Judge played much better in the second, especially on the defensive end, but Wood was just too tough.

From the opening tip the Vikings were the more active, more physical and more efficient team as they never trailed and proved that that they’ll be a tough test for whoever they play going forward.

Leading the way for Wood was its own second-team All-PCL player, Tommy Funk, and he did just about everything for them.

Funk finished with a game-high 21 points and added seven rebounds and five assists to go along with his spectacular scoring night, playing almost every second of the game with his team’s season on the line.

“This is my third year, he’s been here three years with me through thick and thin,” said Mosco of Funk “And I was going down with the ship with him. I took him out once in the first quarter for 20 seconds and that’s the only rest he got. I wanted the ball in his hands at the end and throughout the game and he was really focused and able to get to the rim when he wanted to.  He made some good passes, made some bad passes, but none of them put their heads down they just kept playing so we stuck together.”

Funk, headed to Army to play basketball next year, used his impressive quickness to get to the hoop almost every possession and either kick it out to his shooters or finish at the rim.

“I think a key for us is that we’re able to knock down shots when we get that penetration and the kick,” Funk said. “We get so many open shots when we are able to get penetration in the lane and Tyree (Pickron), Collin (Gillespie), Matt (Cerruti), all of them are going to hit shots when they’re open and they did that tonight.”

Funk was quick to point out that this was a true team win, even though he lit up the stat sheet. Pickron finished with 14 points and eight rebounds of his own and team co-captain Collin Gillespie also reached double digits, scoring 10.

However, there was a certain individual aspect to the matchup between Funk and Rodriguez that may have added some fuel to the fire.

“I know Marc, I’ve played with him before and I know he’s a great player, he killed us last time.” Said Funk. “He was also ahead of me in the All-Catholic League voting so it made me want to come out here and prove a little bit of a point.”

If Funk continues to play this well, and the team around him executes at a high level, this Archbishop Wood team is one that can give anyone a run for their money. Including  Thursday’s quarterfinal opponent, second-seeded Archbishop Carroll.

It will be a tall task for the Vikings, but they played them close in their last matchup and seem to be coming together as a team at the right time.

“We’re ready (for Carroll),” Pickron said. “They beat us at the buzzer last time so we’re going to come into that game hard just like we came into this one.”