Bethea’s 18-point fourth quarter propels Archbishop Wood to PIAA semifinals in 67-61 win over Spring-Ford

NORRISTOWN — Armed with a four-point lead, less than three minutes stood between the Spring-Ford and the state semifinals.

Unfortunately for the Rams, that was more than enough time for Archbishop Wood senior Jalil Bethea to finish his masterpiece.

University of Miami-bound Bethea scored 18 of his game-high 31 points during an electric fourth quarter, putting the Vikings on his back and catapulting them to the PIAA semis in a gritty, hard-fought 67-61 comeback win over Spring-Ford on Saturday afternoon at Norristown High School. District 12’s third seed scored the final 10 points of the game and advanced to play District 11 champion Parkland on Tuesday with a berth in the Class 6A state championship game on the line. Spring-Ford, the ninth seed from District 1, fought valiantly but couldn’t quite hold on when they needed to most in a classic back-and-forth slugfest.

“The fourth quarter is the last quarter, so I feel like that’s when I’ve got to play my hardest,” Bethea said. “It was a slow first half for me, so at halftime I just thought to myself, ‘You got this.’ Just pumping my own head up, and everything came to me.”

Bethea had just six points at halftime, with the Rams holding a 29-28 advantage. Wood’s other Division-I recruit, the Drexel-bound Josh Reed, had the hot hand early with 10 first half points.

Then, with the game and season on the line, Bethea woke up in a big way. The Rams rode the hot shooting touches of senior E.J. Campbell (13 points, 5-for-9 shooting) and juniors Jacob Nguyen (team-high 22 points, 5-for-7 from deep) and Matt Zollers (13 points, 5-for-11 shooting) for the first three quarters, and Nguyen’s fifth triple of the game gave Spring-Ford a 40-36 late in the third.

When Campbell scored to push the lead to six, Bethea quickly answered and brought it back down to four. And when Zollers gave the Rams their largest lead of the game at 45-38, Bethea ended the quarter with a critical and-1 to make the score 45-41 heading into the fourth.

He was just getting started.

With Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga watching from the stands, Bethea opened the period with a 3, then hit two more triples later on, with the last one tying the score at 54 with 4:15 to play. His dunk on the next possession tied it at 56 with 3:28 left, but an Oben Mokonchu and-1 conversion and a Nguyen layup off a full court inbounds pass from Zollers — Spring-Ford’s starting quarterback — gave the Rams a 61-57 advantage with 2:55 to play.

Wood senior Tahir Howell scored a bucket to pull the Vikings within two, and a costly Rams turnover allowed Bethea to convert a driving layup with 1:53 to play to tie the score at 61.

“He’s so athletic that you can’t even get a handle on him,” Spring-Ford head coach Joe Dempsey said of Bethea. “I have really good athletes, but he’s another notch above. He creates space for himself and is a really fantastic player. He’s projected to be an NBA player already, so you’re not going to stop him. You can only hope to slow him down and we lost him and gave him a couple easy ones.”

With 1:17 on the clock, the Rams tried to play keep away for the final look, but Wood’s swarming halfcourt pressure yielded a steal from Howell, who made two go-ahead free throws with 39.4 seconds left. Nguyen had a decent look on a baseline jumper that rimmed out, and Bethea converted four more free throws to put the game on ice. He outscored Spring-Ford 18-16 by himself in the final period.

“I’m always going to have that confidence in myself,” Bethea said. “I’m going to keep shooting the ball until it eventually goes in, and that’s what I did. I just stayed calm and let my game do the talking.”

Bethea shot 9-for-17 from the field, 4-for-10 from downtown and 9-for-13 from the foul line. In three state wins, he’s averaging 13 points in the fourth quarter alone, and although Wood (19-8) missed 10 free throws, the final six points of the game all came from the stripe.

“We started making foul shots when it mattered,” Wood head coach John Mosco said. “We got punched in the face and we had to respond or we were going home.”

It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for the Rams (23-8), who played good enough to win and got three steadfast performances from Nguyen, Campbell and Zollers. Nguyen in particular was fantastic in coming off an 0-for-7 shooting night in Spring-Ford’s second round win. But the Rams locked him down when they needed to, holding him to just two fourth-quarter points and coaxing a critical miss on his final baseline attempt. Zollers added five rebounds and three assists to his 13 points, while Campbell mixed in five assists.

“Milan Dean guarded Nguyen great in the second half, and our defense picked up,” Mosco said.

Dean (11 points) and Reed (14 points, five rebounds) joined Bethea in double figures for the Vikings.

“We had a couple of critical turnovers, and had one of our best players with the ball on the baseline and we missed a shot,” Dempsey said. “We almost had the rebound, and it was a coin flip at the end. I’m so proud of my guys. We played tough, but Bethea was able to hit a couple of critical shots. Only one team is going to win the state tournament, and if the ball bounced a little differently it could have been a different story.”

Campbell’s excellent high school career came to a close, and Spring-Ford will now have to say goodbye to he and senior reserve Jake Dellangelo. The Rams will return a plethora of talent in 2024-25, but replacing Campbell will be a tall order.

“E.J. has been a tremendous leader who has grown so much as a young man,” Dempsey said. “Someone is going to get a great college player and a terrific, terrific kid. To get this far with only two seniors, I’m just really proud of all of them.”

Bethea had a long talk with Larrañaga after the game. After making it to the Final Four in 2023, the Hurricanes had a down year and missed the dance this season. With Bethea’s forthcoming arrival, it would hardly be a surprise to see Miami back in next year’s NCAA Tournament.

“Seeing Coach come to the game means a lot,” Bethea said. “Me having an overall good game in front of him shows him that he has something coming next year.”

Archbishop Wood 67, Spring-Ford 61

Spring-Ford 17 12 16 16 – 61

Wood 20 8 13 26 – 67

Spring-Ford: Kelly 3 0 0-0 6, Nguyen 2 5 3-4 22, Zollers 3 2 1-4 13, Campbell 3 2 1-1 13, Mokonchu 2 0 1-1 5, Marsilio 1 0 0-0 2, Dellangelo 0 0 0-0 0, Turner 0 0 0-0 0, Pufko 0 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 9 6-10 61

Archbishop Wood: Maxey 2 0 0-0 4, Bethea 5 4 9-13 31, Dean 4 0 3-6 11, Reed 7 0 0-2 14, Howell 1 0 3-4 5, Green 1 0 0-0 2, McAdams 0 0 0-0 0, Beyah 0 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 4 15-25 67