By John Knebels • Posted February 8, 2013

The team feat of the year in boys Catholic League basketball goes to Archbishop Wood.

In a 65-53 win at Conwell-Egan on Jan. 28, Archbishop Wood did something that people are still talking about and probably will for quite some time.

The Vikings hit their first three-point shot of the game. Then their second. And third. And fourth. And fifth. And sixth. And seventh. And eighth.

All in the first quarter.

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The eight-for-eight marksmanship from three-point land was a Catholic League record that seems rather Joe DiMaggio-ish; like Joltin’ Joe’s 56-game hitting streak back in 1941, no team is going to touch this.

It easily eclipsed the five straight achieved on several different reported occasions, though what made this event truly historic was that they were the team’s first eight attempts.

(See related story: LaSalle ends 4 year-long undefeated streak of Neumann-Goretti, but Saints still team to beat)

Junior Pat Smith, the ninth-leading scorer in the CL, drained five of the threes. Chipping in with one each were sophomore Cody Fitzpatrick, junior Tom Rush and senior Shane Neher. Smith would finish the contest with seven threes and 30 points while the entire team nailed 11 of 21 tries.

As for Smith, burying long shots and scoring lots of points isn’t anything new. In a non-league tilt Dec. 29 versus South Jersey’s Sacred Heart High School, the 6-foot, 5-inch guard established a school record by scoring 42 points, with 24 of them coming via three-point heaves.

The performance toppled the previous school record of 41 points, set by Joe Getz on Jan. 9, 2011, against West Catholic. Getz also reached the 1,000-point plateau in the same game.