Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
PHILADELPHIA - Since Joe Zeglinski took over at Archbishop Ryan in 2015, the non-league schedule has been designed to test his team from the get-go and mentally and physically prepare them for the Philadelphia Catholic League slate.
His first season featured seniors Austin Slawter, Freddie Killian and Austin Chabot (Delaware Valley), who took the Raiders to the PCL semifinals for the first time since 2007-08. They battled non-league foes in Constitution (lost in PIAA Class A semifinals), Episcopal Academy (fell one short of the Inter-Ac title), and Penn Charter.
In his second season, behind the leadership of Izaiah Brockington (Penn State) and Matiss Kulackovskis (Bowling Green), matchups with Constitution, which reached the PIAA Class 2A title game that year, Girard College, which advanced to the Class A title game, and contests with Inter-Ac foes in Penn Charter, Episcopal and Germantown Academy, were good, early contests. The difficult portion of the non-league schedule equated to a trip to the Palestra in the PCL semifinals and a memorable run to the PIAA 5A semifinals.
Last season, the Raiders took on Pennsbury and Cheltenham, two, tough Suburban One League opponents, Episcopal once again, Overbrook from the Philadelphia Public League and Academy of the New Church from the Friends School League. In its first year without Brockington and Kulackovskis, Archbishop Ryan still reached the PCL playoffs but fell in the opening round to Antwuan Butler (Austin Peay) and a tough Cardinal O’Hara squad.
Zeglinski wants his group to be challenged by the time the PCL playoff schedule begins because it makes for an easier transition into what they can expect from a league which sent seven teams to the state tournament in 2017. This year’s non-league slate included games against the Public League’s Simon Gratz and Sankofa Freedom, a team which has made the state playoffs in each of the last two seasons, Penn Charter, Pennsbury and an invitational in Maryland against quality opponents.
The fourth-year head coach and former three-time All-Catholic selection with the Raiders firmly believes the non-league portion of the schedule should be constructed to test his players and prepare them for what the PCL slate brings on.
“I like to get early tests in non-league,” Zeglinski said. “Now, we’re in a little down stretch so we have to bounce back on Sunday. We’re going to be in the playoffs and we’ll be ready for that. That non-league experience showed up throughout the season.”
While the Raiders are headed to the league playoffs for the fourth straight season under Zeglinski, it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. They began PCL play with double-digit losses to St. Joe’s Prep and La Salle before reeling off seven wins in a row which included a two-point triumph over second-place Bishop McDevitt. Archbishop Ryan has been stumbling of late and it hit its most daunting hurdle yet on Friday night against defending PCL champion, Roman Catholic.
Despite 26 points and seven rebounds from Colin Reed and 21 points from Ja’Quill Stone, Archbishop Ryan trailed by double digits for more than three quarters and struggled defensively as the Cahillites rolled to an 87-66 victory. Reed and Stone scored all nine of the Raiders points in the opening quarter. Reed, a 6-foot-4 sharpshooter who was named Third Team All-Catholic last season, drilled a three-pointer and a pair of free throws while Stone converted a pull-up jumper and a layup for Archbishop Ryan.
Ryan senior Ja'Quill Stone scored 21 points in game vs. Roman Catholic - PSD Photo by Mike Gray
Eight of senior Colin Reed's 26 points vs. Roman - Video by Rich Flanagan
Even with the strong start, they couldn’t withstand the offensive onslaught the Cahillites threw at them. Roman Catholic shot 60 percent from the floor and nailed seven three-pointers without starting point guard and First Team All-Catholic Lynn Greer III, who was out with an ankle injury he suffered against La Salle last week. St. Joe’s commit Hakim Hart finished with a double-double with 29 points and 10 rebounds to go along with two assists and two steals. His first basket was a triple from the top of the key off of a feed from Seth Lundy (Penn State), who finished with 22 points and eight boards.
The Cahillites were also aided by the strong inside play from 6-9 forward Jalen Duren, who had six of his 13 points in the first quarter. He cleaned up a Lundy miss and threw down a vicious one-handed slam to give Roman Catholic a 17-9 advantage heading into the second. A 9-0 run to begin the second pushed the lead to 24-9, which ended with another strong jam by Duren, who also grabbed seven rebounds and recorded seven blocks. The freshman has scored in double figures in the last six games.
Hart and Lundy began to take over from there. Hart scored seven of Roman’s final nine points in that quarter including a one-handed tip-in, which pushed the lead to 36-16 with 2:35 left till halftime.
Hart, who had his second straight double-double following a 33-point, 11-rebound outing against Cardinal O’Hara on Sunday, has taken major strides to become a better rebounder after being seen primarily as a scorer a year ago.
“It comes from my coaches,” Hart said. “They push me every day. When I came in, I wasn’t a very good rebounder but they taught me where to get into position to get rebounds all over the floor.”
After being down by 24 points at the break, the Raiders come out with a spark and began to cut into the deficit in the third. Reed stroked stepback triples on back-to-back possessions. Two possessions later, Stone turned the corner and finished at the rim then Reed hit his third trey of the quarter to make it 46-31 but that’s as close as Archbishop Ryan (12-8, 7-6 Philadelphia Catholic League) would get.
Reed felt his team was going to have to try and match shots with Roman Catholic ((17-4, 12-1) but the Cahillites offense was in too great of a rhythm to slow down.
“We knew they were all going to get dunks and make shots,” Reed said. “We just had to play hard. Unfortunately, in the first half, we didn’t make any shots. That really put us in a hole. If we had started over from the second half, we may have come out of there with a win.”
Roman Catholic freshman Jalen Duren with the put-back slam:
Hakim Hart with another slam for Roman:
Seth Lundy for three:
Stone scored 17 points in the second half and Reed poured in 12 in the final quarter. While Stone and Reed were having success at one end, Hart and Lundy continued theirs at the other. Hart erupted for 13 in the third with his and-one to close out the quarter giving the Cahillites a 68-44 lead. Lundy added nine in that quarter. It was the first time each player had scored 20 or more points in the same game since the PIAA 6A title game victory over Abraham Lincoln last March.
With this loss, the Raiders have dropped their last four PCL games. In that span, they’ve played Neumann-Goretti, Archbishop Carroll and Bonner-Prendergast, who they lost to by three points in overtime. Roman presented a number of matchup problems and made Zeglinski’s team pay early and often, despite the absence of Greer.
“We found out Greer wasn’t playing today so we tried to come out in a backdoor 2-3 look but the way they shot the ball, they shot us out of that pretty early on,” Zeglinski said. “We went man and tried to keep Duren away from layups and dunks. Once we started missing shots, we didn’t handle that well and it affected our defense.”
Archbishop Ryan closed out the regular season today at home against Archbishop Wood. The Vikings came away with a 63-61 victory.