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BOYS’ BASKETBALL: Archbishop Wood Uses Big Fourth Quarter To Beat Bonner-Prendergast And Advance To The PCL Semis

By Jacob Guzdek , 02/18/17, 10:30AM EST

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BENSALEM, PA – The number eight seeded Bonner-Prendergast Friars did all they could to keep the game close in the first three quarters against the top seeded Archbishop Wood Vikings. 

Then the fourth quarter rolled around and the Vikings showed why they are the number one seed.

After a slow paced first three quarters, the Vikings offense exploded in the fourth quarter behind senior point guard Collin Gillespie and junior forward Seth Pinkney, on their way to a 65-43 win over the Friars.

“We were able to get the floor spread in the fourth quarter and Collin was able to beat his guy and get his own buckets while also getting the rest of the team involved,” Vikings head coach John Mosco said.

Pinkney electrified the crowd and the Wood bench as he opened up the fourth quarter with three straight dunks, all of them assisted by Gillespie. Pinkney scored eight of his ten points in the fourth quarter and Gillespie scored eleven of his game high 21 points in the fourth. He also dished out six assists in the game to go along with those 21 points.

“I saw all my teammates around me just working hard all game so it pushed me to come out there in the fourth and work just as hard,” Pinkney said “And the dunks just help everybody get excited.”

One of Pinkney's 3 Dunks

The Friars knew their best chance to pull off an upset was to run a slow-paced half-court offense and keep the high flying Vikings offense from getting out in transition and getting easy buckets. And through three quarters they were able to do that, as they held the Vikings to just 38 points in those first three quarters. 

The problem was that the Friars themselves didn’t have much offense either, and went into the fourth quarter down 38-28. Down double digits, they were unable to keep running their methodical half-court offense, and as a result they just couldn’t keep up and run with the Vikings. 

At the 5:30 mark of the fourth quarter down 46-32, the Friars comeback chances took its last blow as junior forward Ajiri Johnson fouled out. Johnson was just about all the Friars had going on offense as he finished with 16 points and six rebounds.

While the Vikings have been led by Gillespie all season, they have the confidence to go to nine deep in their rotation and that was a big reason why they finished the regular season with a 19-3 record. And everybody in that rotation made an impact in Friday night’s game.

In addition to Gillespie and Pinkney, the Vikings also got eight points and six rebounds from Ty Pickron and four points, seven rebounds, and four assists from Matt Cerruti.

“We play unselfish basketball and we have a lot of guys that can score the ball,” Gillespie said. “If someone is struggling, other guys are going to step up and score the ball and bring energy to the floor.”

The Vikings next stop is a semi-final matchup on Wednesday at the Palestra against fourth seeded Archbishop Ryan. In their one regular season matchup the Vikings beat the Raiders by a score of 63-34.

“We played well at their place earlier this year, but we know they are going to come out fired up to try to knock us off,” Mosco said.

“If you watched us tonight and all season, you know were going to go out there every night and show people why we are the number one seed in the league,” Pinkney added.