POTTSTOWN – The book said that Archbishop Carroll was in danger of getting caught looking ahead Friday night. Instead, coach Francis Bowe made a disorganized team focus its eyes backward at halftime.
The team that Carroll might play next in the PIAA Class 4A tournament, Neumann-Goretti, had beaten the team it was playing Friday at Pottstown, Carver Engineering and Sciences, in the District 12 final, and handily. So the fact that Carver was within two of Carroll at half was cause for some concern in the Patriots’ locker room.
“He just mentioned Neumann to us,” point guard Darrell Davis said. “He said Neumann beat them by 40, and they’re looking like they’re a better team than us. We took that to heart.”
They took it to the scoreboard, too, scoring 21 of the first 23 points of the second half to roar into a second state semifinal in three years with a 60-42 decision. The reward is a date Monday with either Scranton Prep or the Saints, to whom Carroll dropped a heartbreaking 89-83 game in the PCL playoffs.
Carroll came into Friday gunning for another shot at Neumann-Goretti, but that wouldn’t happen if it didn’t take care of business first. And Carver (21-7) was not going to be the scenery for someone else’s happy ending. It forced 23 turnovers, made Carroll uncomfortable in the first half and went into the break trailing just 22-20.
Carroll also had to contend wit its own complacency, having beaten Carver 61-27 on Dec. 11.
“We’ve been lackadaisical all week,” Davis said. “When we heard we were playing them, we looked at it like, we beat them by 40. … They came out ready to play and they punched us in our mouth. We just had to fight back.”
But Carroll rectified that out of the break with a 21-2 spurt to make it 43-22. Luca Foster and Munir Greig hit 3-pointers on the same possession around a Davis offensive rebound of a missed and-1 to start it. Greig hit a triple with 4:00 left to trigger the first timeout from Carver. That didn’t work, and a Nasir Rawls blowby with 1:53 left sealed the run.
Greig was vital early and often. He was 3-for-5 from deep, forcing Carver out of its 2-3 zone. Carroll finished 9-for-18 from 3-point land. Forcing jumpers is a tactic plenty of teams have used against the Patriots this year, after last year’s 3-point dependent group moved on.
“When he hit the shots, and it gets him going, it gets the team energized,” Davis said of Greig, his fellow freshman. “It’s a great vibe, great feeling, us playing together and sticking together through all the bad moments.”
Greig scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Davis had 18 points, including 3-for-6 from beyond, and nine rebounds. Foster nearly posted a double-double of eight points and 10 boards.
Ian Williams didn’t take a shot in the first half but still finished with eight points, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals.
“Ian is an amazing leader,” Davis said. “He’s one of the best leaders I’ve played with. He points me in all the right directions for the year. He likes to get everyone involved. If I mess up, he’ll tell me I’m good but he’ll tell me the better option I could’ve done on that play.”
In all it was a 45-21 edge on the boards for the Patriots.
Fareed Brown kept Carver close in the first half, with nine points. The Engineers had seven players score in the opening 16 minutes.
But they had no answer once Carroll opened the floodgates, long before Brown fouled out with 4:45 to play and Carver down 19. Sahin Rodriguez had seven points and a team-high four steals. No one else had more than four points for the Public League representative.
It gives Carroll another shot, possibly, at Neumann-Goretti. Even if it doesn’t come to pass, it points to a turning point for this group that has helped get it to a fourth state semifinal in program history.
“That pain when we lost, that really held us back,” Davis said. “Everybody’s head was down. Coach Bowe is the reason why we got back up and got back in the gym. Other than that, we were done. We were drained.”
