In Philadelphia Catholic League boys’ basketball, familiarity has been replaced with scoreboard watching.
For longtime PCL aficionados, most of the past four decades have lacked regular-season drama. No offense intended to the rest of the league, but since Roman Catholic – which owns a record 34 championships – and Neumann-Goretti – with a second-place 22 – have compositely seized 29 of the past 38 PCL crowns, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that one of those juggernauts will remain standing in the winner’s circle.
This season, however, nothing has seemed remotely certain since the PCL commenced on the first weekend of January.
With two games left before the postseason, a staggering 12 of the 14 squads still have a chance of making the 10-team playoff. Finishers seven-through-10 compete in a pre-playoff qualifier, with the two winners then joining the top six that had already clinched a quarterfinal berth.
And, although undefeated St. Joseph’s Prep (11-0), Roman Catholic (9-2), Devon Prep (9-2), and Father Judge (8-3) have established themselves as the proverbial teams to beat, it’s more than conceivable that competition from Bonner-Prendergast (7-4), West Catholic (6-5), Neumann-Goretti (5-6), Archbishop Wood (5-6), Archbishop Carroll (4-7), Archbishop Ryan (4-7), La Salle (4-7), and Cardinal O’Hara (4-7) could make PCL hoops must-see theater before ultimately ending with a PCL championship 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Palestra.
“I feel like, especially the year, it’s more of the final year for a lot of these teams that had a lot of freshmen and underclassmen years ago,” said Roman Catholic senior Shareef Jackson, who scored his 1,000th career point in a 71-57 win over visiting West Catholic Jan. 10, compiling 19 points and 17 rebounds.
“Teams like Devon, St. Joe’s, and Judge, who had a lot of their players as freshmen all in the same year, are now full of mainly seniors and such. It’s interesting to not only play against the same players and teams, but to also see those players grow each year until this one.”
Meanwhile, at St. Joseph’s Prep, an 11-0 start has Hawk fans thinking a 20-year championship drought might be over.
Smartly taking games one at a time, the Hawks aren’t buying the hyperbole.
“It’s just a great feeling to be off to a start like this,” said senior Jaron McKie. “It really motivates us to keep getting better every day because we are getting closer and closer to what our goal is, which is to win the PCL.
“It’s very important to stay focused. I feel like the last few years we got too ahead of ourselves, and that ended up costing us in the long run. It’s been important that us guys that have been through this already reiterate that to the younger guys who may not know what the PCL is like.”
Since join the PCL for the 2018-19 season, Devon Prep has yet to reach the quarterfinals. This year would be a major disappointment if the defending PIAA Class 3A state champion Tide failed to reach the Elite Eight.
“I think we’ve all had a lot of fun just playing together on the court,” said Devon Prep senior Zane Conlon. “We know these are some of the last moments with each other, so I think we’ve started to soak it in and enjoy it.”
In danger of finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2016 (6-7) and second time since 2009, Archbishop Wood continues to gain steam down the stretch.
After taking visiting St. Joseph’s Prep into overtime before dropping a 76-65 decision on Jan. 31, the Vikings bounced back with a huge victory over West Catholic three nights later.
“That Prep loss motivated us into the next game,” said Wood junior Brady MacAdams. “We knew we had to leave it all on the line in the next upcoming games. Stakes are very high right now. Every game in the PCL is a battle no matter their rank or seeding. We have to stay focused as a team and keep competing.”
Since starting with an uncharacteristic 0-3 start, senior teammate Mike Green has noticed the Vikings’ overall improvement during their that’s-more-like-it 5-3 response, this despite major graduation losses and a key injury to senior Milan Dean.
“We just knew we had to keep playing and we still had the right pieces to do some damage,” said Green. “Just all about staying together and buying in. All season, we have known what we are capable of, but it seems like we are starting to click more than we did earlier in the season. Just trying to play better game after game.”
Among the season’s biggest upsets, Archbishop Carroll remained alive after stunning host Father Judge, 83-79, on Feb. 3. That’s quite an accomplishment for a team comprised of all underclassmen.
“It was very important for us to get a signature win, especially when we are in the hunt for a playoff spot,” said Carroll junior Christian Matos. “It gives us a lot of confidence.
“Making the playoffs is the most important thing on our minds because it would showcase all the hard work we put in throughout the off season and prove wrong everyone who has doubts about us.”
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(Contact John Knebels at jknebels@gmail.com or on ‘X’ @johnknebels.)
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