Phil-Mont Christian clinches BAL Constitution with Griffin’s strong effort

SPRINGFIELD>> Before the season, every team sets goals. Whether it be to simply improve a certain aspect of its game, or to achieve a larger team goal such as a championship, all teams strive for something.
Friday night, Phil-Mont Christian Academy achieved one of its preseason goals, winning the BAL Constitution crown with a 47-36 victory over rival Jenkintown.
“It feels great,” Phil-Mont head coach Glenn Dolton said. “We’ve had this as a goal since the beginning of the year but we haven’t necessarily been focusing on it. We’ve just wanted to make sure that we’re really tuned in before the game and we were tonight.”
Perhaps the most tuned in out of all the Falcons players was senior forward Sean Griffin. The 6-8 Griffin was almost impossible to stop as he rose up above the much smaller Jenkintown players and played at the rim all night.
“Sean was big,” Dolton said. “We talked at half time about trying to get it inside to him and it paid off tonight because we were able to get a bunch of rebounds and Sean did a nice job finishing off some inbounds plays and stuff like that.”
For Jenkintown, this marks the fifth straight loss after starting the season 13-3.
The season has been plagued by injury for a couple of their starters and now that they’ve returned to the lineup its taken some time to get everyone back on the same page.
“We looked rusty,” Jenkintown head coach Wes Emme said. “We’ve been missing guys for about three weeks and this is their second game back together. They played the best team in the district going into the playoffs and they made a lot of great plays but they also made a lot of silly plays.”
Early on, the Falcons were struggling some on the offensive end against the Drakes’ defense. Griffin was getting good looks but he was not converting, as he went 2-for-7 from the floor for just five points as his team went into half down 14-13.
That all changed in the second half, as Griffin missed just one shot in the final two quarters to finish with a game-high 18 points.
It wasn’t just his offense that was dynamic. Griffin also played the top of the zone for the Falcons’ defense causing turnover after turnover from the Drakes.
“We try to create matchups,” Dolton said. “He’s very quick and it lets us keep guys in front of us.”
Griffin was not the only player on his team that had a big game either.
Noah Baldez, the Falcons’ point guard, netted 13 points of his own and was fantastic with the ball in his hands. He and Griffin were on the same page all night as he found him under the basket time and time again for easy looks.
That type of chemistry wasn’t developed over night either, its been evolving since they were both kids.
“I’ve known Noah all my life, first grade until now” Griffin said. “We play together in AAU too and that helps as well, our chemistry is great.”
Their chemistry is definitely great, as they find each other often for big plays. Going forward the Falcons will rely on it to hopefully make a run in the district and state playoffs.