La Salle fights back from 14 down, maintains control in PCL

Posted 1/28/19

La Salle's Allen Powell drives against B-P defenders Thursday. Powell, the team's leading scorer, is still looking for a Division-I offer. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt) by Jonathan Vander Lugt …

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La Salle fights back from 14 down, maintains control in PCL

Posted

La Salle's Allen Powell drives against B-P defenders Thursday. Powell, the team's leading scorer, is still looking for a Division-I offer. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

Philadelphia basketball fans are going to be hard-pressed to find a better matchup than the one between Bonner-Prendergast and La Salle College High School last Thursday.

The Explorers are a powerhouse this year, featuring four seniors in the starting lineup. Two of them are already committed to Division-1 programs – Konrad Kiszka (Princeton) and Zach Chrisler (Rice) – and it wouldn’t be a shock to see guard Allen Powell garner an offer by the season’s end.

The Friars, with top-100 recruit Isaiah Wong in tow, posed the greatest threat to date for the Explorers. In any other year, Bonner-Prendie might be the presumptive favorite to win the Philadelphia Catholic League.

It shouldn’t have been a shock that B-P gave La Salle a run for its money in the Explorers’ 64-59 win.

What was a surprise, however, was that La Salle found itself down 14 heading into the second half even with Wong on the bench for a quarter and change.

“Our communication on defense was poor,” La Salle coach Mike McKee said. “We were off-balance – we weren’t doing anything good in the second quarter.”

“We got a little rattled because they were shooting so well,” he went on.

Wong racked up two quick fouls in the first, leading to his time on the bench. Without their star, the Friars were forced to spread the ball around and find an open shot.

It worked – B-P knocked in seven triples in the first half – and La Salle’s disorientation on both ends led to a big deficit heading into the third.

“When you’re down 14, it’s going to be a possession-by-possession grind,” McKee said. “We just got good team stops and made good shots. It wasn’t really one big play.”

Powell, La Salle’s leading scorer, wasn’t exactly bottled up in the first half (eight points), but it felt frustrating for the shifty guard nonetheless. He didn’t score until about halfway into the first quarter, and had most of his designed plays broken up.

“They were denying me the ball in the first half,” Powell said. “Coach told me to stay calm though.”

“In the second half, we started running plays for me and my shot was falling,” Powell went on. “Once I caught fire, I just kept shooting.”

The wiry guard lit up the gym for 10 in the third to help cut the deficit to just three heading into the final frame. By then, the Explorer comeback felt almost inevitable.

“We ran off some screens, created some movement and that created some space for him,” McKee said. “He capitalized on that and did a really great job.”

“He’s faster than you think,” McKee went on. “When he wants to get open, he’s very elusive and his first step is really dynamite.”

Lanky Explorer Konrad Kiszka works up the court Thursday. Kiszka's length and all-around athleticism parlayed into 14 points agains the Friars. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

Two minutes in, Powell caught a dish on the fast break from Kiszka and let it fly from deep. He drilled it – his third trey of the half – and put La Salle up 47-45. From there, the Explorers didn’t look back. Powell later knocked in a couple of clutch free throws to help seal the win.

“That was exciting,” Powell said, of his go-ahead shot. “We had to fight back from a big deficit.”

Powell led everyone with 23 points, while Kiszka also reached double figures with 14. Wong led B-P with 13, his third-lowest output of the season.

“We showed some character and really dug in,” McKee said. “We stopped them and took good shots in the second half to get back in it – that’s who we are.”

La Salle (17-0, 10-0) has four games left in conference play: at Archbishop Carroll, home against Roman Catholic, home against Archbishop Wood and at St. Joe’s Prep.

The game against Roman figures to be the biggest remaining hurdle, but Carroll and Wood aren’t slouches and games against archrival St. Joe’s Prep are always tight.

“It’s not over yet,” Powell said. We’ve just got to keep playing the same way – not forcing stuff, not getting a big head.”

“We better be ready to play” McKee said. “If we’re not, we’re going to get punched right in the face like we did today. Hopefully we learn from that and move forward.”

La Salle 64, Bonner-Prendergast 59

LS: 19 5 18 22: 64

BP: 24 14 7 14: 59

La Salle:

Allen Powell 8 2-2 23; Konrad Kiszka 4 6-8 14; Zach Crisler 4 0-0 8; Kahlil Diarrah 3 1-2 8; Titus Beard 1 3-4 6; Jake Timby 2 0-0 5.

Bonner-Prendergast:

Isaiah Wong 5 1-1 13; Chris Haynes 4 0-0 11; Mike Perretta 3 2-2 11; Tariq Ingraham 4 1-2 9; Tyrese Watson 3 2-2 8; Donovan Rodriguez 1 2-2 4; Malik Edwards 1 0-0 2; James Welde 0 2-2 2.

Around the Area:

It was a tough week for teams other than La Salle. Germantown Academy lost both league games, Penn Charter dropped both league games and Springside Chestnut Hill split the week. In its Friends League slate, Germantown Friends lost both league games as well.

It was a particularly tough week for the Pats. News came out, via an Inquirer article, that long-time coach Jim Fenerty was forced to retire – essentially on the spot – in early January. On the night he announced his intention to retire after the season’s end, he suffered a mild heart attack and while in the hospital learned that he also had pneumonia. Fenerty is OK, and while it wouldn’t be a shock to see him around the gym as the season wanes, his coaching career has – in a way entirely unbefitting to a Philadelphia coaching legend – ended. Meanwhile, the Patriots (10-10, 1-6) suffered a pair of double digit losses to Malvern Prep (84-67) and the Haverford School (74-56). Sophomore Jordan Longino continues to impress, scoring 57 points across the two matches and is just 93 points away from reaching 1,000 in his short career. He has six games (not including post-season play) and what seems to be a pretty good shot at the milestone. This week, GA will duel SCH at home Tuesday before heading to Penn Charter Friday.

Penn Charter continued to struggle as coach John Owens rebuilds the program. The Quakers lost Tuesday to the Haverford School (67-45) and Friday night to the Episcopal Academy (59-52). No Quaker even reached double digits against the Fords, while Ryan Holmes led with 23 in the loss to the Churchmen. Penn Charter heads to Malvern Prep Tuesday before hosting GA Friday.

The Blue Devils got a bit of revenge from an early-season loss, in the form of a 65-44 blowout win over the Episcopal Academy Tuesday. There, Ke’Shawn Williams led with 21, while David Robinson chipped in with 12. Friday, SCH was handled by Malvern Prep 85-64. There, Zyon Grant led with 15. The Blue Devils (11-11, 3-4) will travel to Germantown Academy Tuesday before hosting the Haverford School Friday.

GFS (9-13, 1-6) was shut out – the Tigs lost 57-43 to the George School, 55-46 to Shipley and 64-49 to Cristo Rey over the week. They’ll look to rebound next week against the Academy of the New Church.

Information from TedSilary.com was used in this article.

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