By Joseph Santoliquito
Special to MaxPreps.com
The talent isn’t what it was last year, though the effort hasn’t changed. In fact, the effort may never change. The name in front of the jersey, after all, still says “Chester.”
But these young Clippers took a nice step toward maturity in beating perennial Philadelphia Catholic League power Roman Catholic, 61-47, in the nightcap of a doubleheader of the PrimeTime Shootout, Friday night at Villanova University.
It has to be noted that the version of Roman that faced Chester, the defending PIAA Class AAAA state champions, came with Villanova-bound star guard Maalik Wayns watching from the bench in street clothes, expected to undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee on Monday and hoping to return a month from now.
The Cahillites are a drastically different team without their leader, but it should not diminish what Chester did.
The Shootout featured four teams, Chester, Roman Catholic, Neumann-Goretti and Penn Wood that have a good chance to go deep into the PIAA state playoffs.
WHAT IT MEANS
Chester’s victory means it goes to 17-3, and the Clippers seem to be getting better and better. At any one time, Chester had freshman Kareem Robinson, sophomore Maurice Nelson (Jameer Nelson’s younger brother) and junior Laquan Robinson out on the court with Temple-bound Rahlir Jefferson, selected MVP of the game for Chester.
Jefferson finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds.
“I think we’re each learning what our roles are, and we know where each other is on the court,” said Jefferson, who was playing as his future coach, Temple’s Fran Dunphy, watched from the stands. “We’re really starting to come together.”
Chester is getting stronger, especially the backcourt play of Nelson and Laquan Robinson. Combined, they forced Roman into making 12 turnovers, and created a big lead by the middle of the third quarter.
For Roman, it meant a drop to 13-6 overall and a team looking to redefine itself, without Wayns.
Junior guard Rakeem Brookins stepped up and scored a team-high 22 points. But Brookins is going to need help.
“Our guys are going to have to learn from this, if Maalik isn’t going to be around,” Roman coach Chris McNeesby said. “Brookins did play well, and I saw some resilience tonight. But we also started two freshmen and we had two sophomores out on the court. It’s like we’re restarting the season. We have a challenge ahead of us to get better.”
Neumann-Goretti 71, Penn Wood 62
Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale was happy the month of January finally ended. The Saints completed a wild first month of 2009 with 15 games in 29 days, the culmination coming in a 71-62 victory over state contender Penn Wood Friday night, in the first game.
It was a nice indicator where both Neumann-Goretti, a serious threat to win the PIAA Class AAA state championship, and Penn Wood, major players in the PIAA Class AAAA state title picture.
WHAT IT MEANS
For Neumann-Goretti, it means they move to 16-2 and the Saints finally get a much needed rest. It also means when Saints’ star guard Tony Chennault is struggling, his teammates can step in and make up for it.
The Wake Forest-bound Chennault was selected MVP for his team with a team-high 14 points. But he started to wilt at the end, as did the Saints, watching a 58-38 lead get whittled down to 66-60 with less than a minute to play.
“I think we learned we can play through anything,” Chennault said. “I was a little tired there, and everyone stepped up.”
Most impressive was sophomore guard Lamin Fulton, who buried a few threes, and played exceptional defense against Penn Wood’s quicksilver guard Tyree Johnson.
“I knew we were resilient, but we got a little complacent and were a little fatigued, and we could have been a little crisper in the end,” Arrigale said.
Now it’s time to heal up and get ready for the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs.
“We were playing so much, we never got a chance to practice,” Fulton said. “We may have practiced two or three times the whole month. But I think we learned after this game we have to be more focused mentally.”
Penn Wood dropped to 17-3 and the Patriots may not experience another week like the past seven days, when they beat defending state champion Chester on Tuesday, went into double-overtime to beat a tough Glen Mills team, before coming out flat against Neumann-Goretti.
The Pats led once, 4-1, against Neumann-Goretti, before a mad scramble at the end made what appeared to be a blowout into a competitive game.
Whether the Pats had no legs left after a rough week is anyone’s guess.
“We just didn’t have the energy we normally do, except for maybe the last five minutes,” said Penn Wood’s Duane Johnson, the Pats’ MVP who finished with a game-high 25 points. “We need to start off with a little more fire than we do. We just didn’t have that will to play with the energy and intensity we usually like. If we’re going to go far in the states, we’re going to have to play with intensity from start to finish, not just in spurts, which is what we did tonight.”
Joseph Santoliquito covers high sports for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a frequent contributor to MaxPreps.com.