NORRISTOWN — Nine times in the last two decades, Neumann-Goretti’s boys basketball powerhouse has been crowned champion of Pennsylvania. A fair few of the wins on the way to those titles were sealed before a bus ever arrived at a gym, the Saints’ mystique beating teams before they tipped off.
To beat Neumann-Goretti, to pull what is no matter the seeds an upset, a team first has to believe it can – not in the rah-rah, let’s-give-it-a-go, huddle-breaking way. Really, truly believe.
The believing – more than the missed free throws or squandered lead – made it difficult Friday night when all was done for Penncrest. First, though, it had made life hard on Neumann-Goretti, for 31½ minutes. And then, in the locker room at Norristown High, that weight came down on the Lions.
“From the start of the week, we knew we could win,” center Mikey Mita said after a 76-69 overtime loss to the Saints in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals. “We knew we should have won. And we knew from the whole week since Tuesday night, after we beat Holy Ghost Prep, the mentality was, ‘We’re going to win and we’re playing next Friday.’”
That belief backstopped the Lions (23-4), in the PIAA quarterfinals for the first time since 1969, to an eight-point lead late in the fourth quarter. It powered a 63-58 advantage after Sean Benson made one of two free throws with 31.5 seconds remaining.
But the Saints (21-8) rallied, with a 3-pointer from EJ Stanton with 19.2 seconds left and, after Alassan N’Diaye tied up Will Stanton with 9.4 seconds left to turn the Lions over, DeShawn Yates curled to the glass to lay-in and tie the game at 65 with 4.1 seconds left.
Yates took control in overtime with nine points, on 9-for-10 from the line, on the way to a game-high 35. It books for Neumann-Goretti a fourth straight matchup against District 1 opposition, having ended the seasons of sixth-seeded Marple Newtown, No. 3 Pottsgrove and No. 5 Penncrest, with District 1’s fourth-place team Upper Moreland next. The Golden Bears edged Bonner & Prendergast, 46-45, in a similarly engrossing doubleheader opener.
Penncrest gave Neumann-Goretti all it could handle. No passage was more symbolic than the transition between the third and fourth quarters. A Benson and-1 with 2.5 seconds left in the third got Penncrest even at 39, but Yates answered by banking a 3-pointer home from a stride inside halfcourt to make it 42-39.
No matter, since Theo Gladue found Benson for a corner triple on the first possession of the fourth. Right back at you, 42-all, not that Penncrest needed any convincing that it was in the game.
“He’s a big-time shot-maker,” Penncrest guard Connor Cahill said of Benson. “He’s great. He showed up in every big game we’ve needed him.”
Penncrest, with a long 1-3-1 zone, made Neumann-Goretti uncomfortable in the halfcourt. It forced the Saints into 20 3-point attempts, eight made, including a 4-for-7 from EJ Stanton. The zone didn’t create turnovers – Neumann-Goretti coughed it up just three times – but forced low-percentage looks for a team lethal at the rim.
“I think we forced them to take uncomfortable shots,” Mita said. “I think forcing them into uncomfortable shots and having them rather than getting to the rim, settling for those deep 2s and those deep 3s, that’s the biggest part of the zone.”
Penncrest got an early boost from Connor Cahill, who hit a pair of first-half 3-pointers and had 10 points in the opening half. Mita, limited to eight points, grabbed 19 rebounds to fuel a 35-26 edge on the boards.
It set up a pulsating fourth quarter. Neumann-Goretti went up 46-42, but Penncrest was quickly back even. A Gladue bucket with 6:11 left put them up 48-46, part of an 11-0 run. To Penncrest’s credit, they didn’t slow the game or try to milk clock. A reverse lay-in by Cahill made it 55-47, though triples by Yates and EJ Stanton book-ended a drive by Benson.
“We believe in each other every day,” Cahill said. “As a group, we’re so close. This is what we talk about. Our goal going into the season was to win a state championship. We didn’t do it. We came close. But through everything, staying together, having each other’s backs, that’s what got us so far.”
The lead sat at 63-58 before Neumann scored the final five points of regulation to force bonus basketball.
The teams started the extra session with missed free throws. Keon Long-Mtume’s drive to the basket was the Saints’ only make of the extra session, and it offset him going 1-for-4 from the line, as did Benson finding the same fate in the first two minutes. From there, Yates took control, missing just once.
“We gave it away in the fourth quarter, and it affected us a little bit, including myself,” Mita said. “I thought we had the game, and then overtime, they came out early, and that was that. But they came out early when we had to throw the first punch in overtime.”
The Lions never got closer than three in OT, and never with the ball in their hands. Benson had a pair of drives to the bucket, but it wasn’t enough. He finished with 24 points and four assists. Cahill had 19 points, and Gladue scored 10 points before fouling out.
Behind Yates, EJ Stanton and N’Diaye scored 13 points each, N’Diaye adding six rebounds. Long-Mtume paired nine points with nine boards, and Stephon Ashley had six points and six steals, part of 13 Penncrest turnovers, before fouling out.
There were no moral victories to be found in a teary Penncrest locker room. But out of the ashes was a starting point for next season. Gladue and bench contributor Viktor Ford are their lone seniors, with five of the six Lions who scored Friday juniors. They’ll let Friday’s ending fuel them through a long summer.
“It starts now,” Mita said. “The offseason is now, and getting to work starts tomorrow. There’s no days off, and we expect to be back here, and we expect to go farther than this. That’s the expectation that we’re going to set and that we’re going to hit and that we’re going to work for.”
“It burns,” Cahill said. “Back in the locker room, saying goodbye to the seniors, it hurts. We want to remember this, take it with us next year and win it for them. We’re coming for it all next year. We know how it feels to lose. We don’t want to feel it again.”
