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BOYS’ BASKETBALL: The Semifinal Stage is Set as Archbishop Wood, Roman Catholic, Neumann-Goretti & Archbishop Ryan Prepare to Grace the Palestra Hardwood

By Rich Flanagan Photos: Kathy Leister, Patty Morgan & Geanine Jamison, 02/18/20, 12:00PM EST

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By: Rich Flanagan

Photos/Videos: Rich Flanagan, Kathy Leister, Patty Morgan & Geanine Jamison 

PHILADELPHIA – To no one’s surprise, every head coach in this year’s Philadelphia Catholic League semifinal matchups have been to the Palestra before.  They’ve had their fair share of success in the league and getting to the final four is no easy feat.  First, getting to the arena on the University of Pennsylvania campus on S 33rd Street requires a brutal grind through the regular season coupled with a quarterfinal victory.  For perspective, only one of the four league quarterfinal matchups was decided by double digits, so no easy feat may be putting it lightly.

The atmosphere and emotion are an additional factor that each team has to account for.  Archbishop Wood head coach John Mosco had plenty of experience with the Cathedral of College Basketball from his time as an assistant at Neumann-Goretti under Carl Arrigale prior to making his first trip at the helm back in 2017.  Behind Philadelphia Catholic League MVP Collin Gillespie (Villanova), the Vikings upended Arrigale and the Saints to claim the program’s first league crown.

Mosco’s group that season did not lose sight of the goal at hand but he understands the ambience of that famed arena can get caught up in a player’s mind before the game even begins.

“I just try to talk to them about what I think is going to prepare them for the Palestra,” Mosco said. “We’re going to miss shots. The building takes you in.  You’re looking around and the next thing you know the game is on.  The lights are bright and they can eat up some kids. Shoot with confidence and if you’re open, you have to shoot.”

Mosco has as confident a group entering the semifinal matchup against two-time defending champion Roman Catholic.  Similar to the 2017 season, his group is led by the league MVP in Rahsool Diggins (20.2 points per game), a First Team All-Catholic selection in Jaylen Stinson (14.9 ppg), and two Second Team All-Catholic picks in Marcus Randolph (14.5) and Daeshon Shepherd (13.3).  Along with athletic forward Muneer Newton, it will be this corps first trip to the Palestra.

The Vikings staved off one of their toughest tests of the season by outlasting Archbishop Carroll in overtime in the quarterfinals, 72-68.  Diggins posted 25 points while Stinson had 13 and Newton and Shepherd added 12 apiece.

It’s a deep and talented starting five but the Vikings have gone as Diggins has dictated this season.  Mosco believes that’s a testament to what he has done in learning the position from past Archbishop Wood greats.

No. 1 Wood vs. No. 8 Archbishop Carroll Highlights by Kathy Leister:

“I’ve seen Rahsool grow into a leader,” Mosco said. “Collin had Tommy (Funk) help him grow when he was a junior. There wasn’t a lot of pressure on Collin at that time but his senior year I saw him really explode in his leadership ability, wanting to win and sacrificing some of his shots.  I see Rahsool doing that by not always wanting to get numbers, but trying to keep everybody involved but then in the fourth quarter getting his.”

While the Cahillites are the two-time defending champ, losing Seth Lundy (Penn State), Hakim Hart (Maryland) and Louie Wild was going to affect the program greatly and make things extremely difficult to potentially repeat.  Matt Griffin, who has led Roman Catholic to the semifinals in four consecutive seasons at the helm, knew that but also realized he had both a key piece still on the roster from when he took over the program and two of the most talented sophomores in the area.

Lynn Greer III will be playing at the Palestra for the fourth straight season.  The senior point guard made the game-winning assist to Hart to clinch the Philadelphia Catholic League crown two years ago and was a focal member of the starting rotation last season.  He’s avg. 12.4 ppg in his career the Palestra and his only scoreless performance there came as a freshman against the Saints, led by Quade Green and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree.  

The First Team All-Catholic is joined by fellow first team selections in sophomores Justice Williams and Jalen Duren.  Williams is avg. 22.6 ppg over his last nine games, which included a career-high 32 in a double-overtime loss to the Vikings on Jan. 19. Duren (17.4 ppg), the 6-10 phenom, had his most dominant performance of the year with 34 points, 21 rebounds and five blocks in that loss to Archbishop Wood.

The Cahillites and the Vikings are meeting in the postseason for the first time since the 2015 quarterfinals when Funk and Tony Carr went toe to toe.  

Griffin and Greer have grown together and playing at the Palestra has certainly helped with that as they’ve celebrated some of their greatest highs of their basketball careers on that fabled floor.

Griffin is looking forward to what his young but talented players in Williams and Duren will provide in year two having asserted themselves as clutch players.

No. 5 Roman vs. No. 4 Bonner-Prendergast PCL quarterfinal highlights including Jalen Duren's buzzer-beater - by Rich Flanagan


Roman Catholic sophomore Jalen Duren finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds, two blocks and the game-winning basket - PSD Photo by Mike Nance

“Justice is a guy that three times a week he’s at our gym at 6:30 in the morning getting shots up,” Griffin said. “Jalen stays after practice every single day to get up extra shots. People think these guys are so talented but they put in so much work.  They play all over the country and it’s this process of constantly getting better.  Without Seth, Hakim and Louie, it’s an opportunity for players, who may not have played a lot, to flourish.”

Like the Vikings, the Cahillites escaped as Duren had not one but two opportunities to seal the game in the closing seconds and converted the second attempt to stun Bonner-Prendergast in the quarterfinals, 61-59.

Mosco’s mentor, Arrigale will be leading his Neumann-Goretti squad in the second semifinal against Archbishop Ryan.  The Saints have reached the Philadelphia Catholic League semifinals for the second straight season and 10th in the last 11.  Still, it’s been three years since they made the title game and this group has a lot to prove, unlike like past Saints’ teams.

First Team All-Catholic point forward and St. Joe’s commit Jordan Hall is avg. 11.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and nine assists over the last two games, both wins over Cardinal O’Hara including a 71-46 triumph at home in the quarterfinals. Hall, along with fellow First Team All-Catholic Hakim Byrd (14.9 ppg) and Bowling Green commit Cameron Young (12.7), were starters on last year’s team that not only lost in the semifinals but fell in the state quarterfinals to Bishop McDevitt.

With it being the first time that his Neumann-Goretti program had not hoisted a championship trophy, league or state, since 2013, there is an eagerness in Arrigale’s team heading into its matchup with the Raiders on Wednesday night.

The longtime head coach, who is currently tied with former Roman Catholic head coach Dennis Seddon (10) for the most league titles all-time, believes this senior-laden team was taught a number of lessons from last seasons’ failures.

“Hopefully, they learned from those experiences,” Arrigale said. “They’re definitely a part of it. It benefits them for their next trip down there. I was really proud of them and how they handled themselves last year. It was the first time for a lot of those guys and hopefully they’ll be more relaxed. We got off to a poor start last year and that had a lot to do with nerves and being down there for the first time. They’ll be more equipped mentally.”

The Saints are much deeper than a year ago with Hysier Miller (13.7 ppg), a Martin Luther King transfer, and 6-5 versatile junior forward Blaise Vespe, who had 12 points including three triples in the quarterfinal victory against the Lions.  Depth is absolutely a strength of Neumann-Goretti this season.

No. 3 Neumann-Goretti vs. No. 6 Cardinal O'Hara highlights by Patty Morgan:

Joe Zeglinski has led Archbishop Ryan to its third Philadelphia Catholic League semifinal appearance in the last five seasons and this run may be more impressive than his previous two when he had Izaiah Brockington (Penn State) and Matiss Kulackovskis (Bowling Green) leading the way.  With six games left in the regular season, league-leading scorer Aaron Lemon-Warren (24.4 ppg) broke his right foot in practice and while the Raiders were 6-2 in league play to that point, losing its top scorer put preseason aspirations in doubt.

Zeglinski’s team went 2-4 in their final six games, with three of those losses coming against the other semifinalists. While things looked bleak, the Raiders kept with their goal of getting back to the Palestra and won their two posteason games by a total of four points including a 58-56 win over No. 2 seed Bishop McDevitt.

Without Lemon-Warren, several players have stepped into expanded roles and raised their game to another level. Zeglinski has been pleased with his team’s response and feels they’re playing relaxed and with confidence.

“That’s the goal every year is to get to the Palestra and try to make a run at a championship,” Zeglinski said. “When Aaron went down, we had to decide if we were going to make that an excuse or not.  We all decided there were no excuses.  That was our goal and I’m proud of guys for stepping up.  Everyone raised their game and got us to where we’re at.”

Second Team All-Catholic Gediminas Mokseckas (18.7 ppg) is the player the Raiders looked to.  He had 29 points in a crucial win over Archbishop Carroll toward the end of the regular season and has avg. 17.5 ppg in two playoff games. Zeglinski noted that “over the last two weeks, he’s had to put a little more on his shoulders.  He had to start attacking from the beginning of games.  I kept preaching to him, ‘Keep attacking.’  He just wears teams down because he doesn’t stop and when the fourth quarter comes he makes bigtime plays for us down the stretch.”

Junior point guard Dominic Vazquez played JV last season but was inserted into the starting lineup from day one this year.  He has avg. 9.1 ppg since Lemon-Warren went down, which has included four games in double figures. With the Lancers leading by nine points in the quarterfinals, he drilled a huge stepback three-pointer to keep the Raiders within striking distance.  Sophomore forward Luke Boyd began the season as shooter off of the bench but has been moved to the starting lineup following Lemon-Warren’s injury.  The 6-foot combo is 10.6 ppg in his last eight games and posted an 18-point, 10-rebound line against Bishop McDevitt in the quarterfinals.

No. 2 McDevitt vs. No. 7 Archbishop Ryan quarterfinal highlights by Geanine Jamison:

Add in the improved play of 6-6 senior big man Christian Isopi (6.6 ppg) and sophomore guard Jalen Snead, who had 16 points versus the Friars on Jan. 31, and Archbishop Ryan is riding a lot of momentum as it heads to the Palestra.  The Raiders have not advanced to the title game since 2008 when Northern Division MVP Andrew Rogers was running the point.  This team is playing with so much belief that it may not need a player who was on pace to potentially win MVP to get to the final.

There’s a wealth of experience from each head coach in the semifinals and that should make for a lot of intrigue in both contests.  The pageantry that is the Palestra should only add to the two marquee games of the season to this point.

2020 PCL SEMIFINAL SCHEDULE, WEDNESDAY FEB. 19:

(All Games Played at the Palestra):

No. 1 Archbishop Wood vs. No. 5 Roman Catholic - 6:30 p.m.
No. 3 Neumann-Goretti vs. No. 7 Archbishop Ryan - 8:15 p.m.