DEC. 31
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 49, Gratz 48
  Bill Ellerbee left Philadelphia University's gym feeling kinda happy and kinda sad. Only natural. This game featured a coaching duel between two of the great ex-coach's former players at then-powerful Gratz. PC's coach is Lynard Stewart, our City Player of the Year in 1994. Gratz' boss is Andre Griffin, a starter for the Bulldogs' title teams in '90 and '91. 'Nard was able to one-up 'Dre thanks to a 7-0 run over the final 52.7 seconds. The rush began with a great three-point play by sr. CG Sean O'Brien (Colgate). As O'Brien finished a three-quarter-court drive off a steal, he coyly maneuvered his body just enough to draw slight contact while canning the layup. He then nailed the free throw to draw PC within 48-45. Next came a steal and two free throws by jr. G Julian Johnson. O'Brien then notched another theft and sr. PG Demetrius "Meech" Isaac went to the line for a double-bonus, but -- ouch -- missed both attempts. At the other end, jr. PF-C Lamar Moore -- ouch -- did likewise for Gratz with the rebound going to O'Brien. Next, jr. G-F Pat McCain tried a short shot near the left block but Moore was there to swat the ball out of bounds at :11. Issac then was fouled on an off-balance flip to the right side of the lane and strolled to the line for two shots at 6.9. Hmmm. Not easy, right? He'd just missed two. Very easy, as things turned out. Putting the disappointment far behind, Isaac hit both attempts. Then, Moore was unable to connect on a straight-on jumper from a shade beyond the arc. The Quakers were able to win despite shooting 5-for-22 from the floor in the second half and 1-for-9 in the fourth quarter. In the first half, PC thrived in transition and notched many field goals on open jumpers/barely-challenged layups. The Bulldogs did not return to the floor until after the buzzer had sounded, so here's guessing Griffin read them the riot act about the defensive lapses. Man-to-man was then played with gusto and though Gratz trailed at halftime by 29-17, a 38-36 lead was earned shortly before the end of the third quarter as sr. PG Malik Tyndale (his brother, Mark, starred at Gratz/Temple and is now playing overseas) hit two free throws. That session ended as Isaac hit a scoop shot that featured all kinds of English. O'Brien contributed 15 points (two treys), eight rebounds and three steals. Isaac had 10 points and four assists. With sr. PF-C Anthony Campanile unavailable, sr. PF-C Micah Holloway, a bulky lefty, saw increased playing time and made some nice contributions (six boards, three assists). Soph C Sean Foley, after playing in the JV game, added four rebounds in limited action. Jr. G-F Tahir Wharton led Gratz with 18 points; his two treys early in the third quarter fueled the comeback. Beefy sr. PF Quasim White, who goes just 5-10, had 11 points. The rebound leaders were Moore (10; also three blocks) and jr. F Joseph Burnett (seven) and Moore's total could have been much higher if not for foul trouble. Tyndale added four assists to eight points and he, too, had to miss time because of personals. One of Gratz' guard subs was jr. PG Chris Howser-Dinkins, who's listed at 5-foot but might even be a shade shorter. In the 1990-91 season, Audenried had a soph backup point guard named Jamal "Slick" Collier and his dimensions were 4-9 1/2, 76 pounds. I wrote a story about him for the DN, then Sports Illustrated gave him some attention. This game was played at Philly U. because PC's gym floor is being refurbished. Philly U. will be the site of Saturday's annual Inter-Ac tripleheader. 2013 PC grad Mike McGlinchey, now playing football at Notre Dame, came to watch because McCain is one of his numerous cousins. (As is Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan.) Ellerbee was Gratz' coach for 20 seasons through 2001-02. He won 450 of 550 games -- not bad, eh? -- and some former players turned out today to watch this game. The most prominent was ex-76er player/assistant coach Aaron McKie. Andre Griffin's cousin, Corey Griffin, is a Gratz assistant. Also assisting Andre is Roland Wharton, who has been with the school a long time and served as head coach in '09. Among the other ex-Bulldogs in the house: Levan Alston (his son, Levan "Shawn", now stars for Haverford School), Michael Blunt, Eric Lackey and Shelly Henderson. Say what? A girl played for those Gratz powerhouses? Nope, but Shelly was as important as any of the players or coaches. She was the program's academic adviser and concentrated mostly on helping the players earn qualifying SAT scores. Major props for all the extra help you gave those kids, Shelly!

DEC. 31
TEDBITS
  Our Guys didn't dominate, but they did rack up a .559 winning percentage in out-of-the-area tournaments/showcase events during December. Here's a breakdown (Cath/Int/Pub A) . . .

DEC. 30
HERMITS ALUMNI CHRISTMAS CLASSIC
(Showcase Event at St. Augustine Prep in Richland, N.J.)
O'Hara 57, Holy Cross (Delran, N.J.) 45
  Nice job, Lions! You played hard and together and captured this one without even having to face late-game drama. By the midway point of the second quarter, O'Hara had more than doubled the score on the Lancers and was able to keep 'em at arm's length the rest of the way. Who would have thought? HC has a couple somewhat strong/quick inside guys and there's not a hint of beef on any of O'Hara's players, but the Lions stood their ground and then some. Tonight's top Lion was Mark Plousis, a 6-5 sr. F. Though his 13 points were appreciated, his best contributions were 12 rebounds and five blocks. Only one of his rejections was a pow!/take-that job. The rest were flicks and tips that he was able to manage because of good timing and instincts. Shootingwise, he went 3-for-6 and 7-for-8. Helping Plousis were jr. F Tip Swartz and sr. sub F Carl Pola. Early, the effective guards were sr. WG Dashawn "Day-Day" Darden, the football QB, and frosh PG Kairi Jones. They scored 11 of their combined 12 points in the 19-13 first quarter and several times enjoyed good moments of interaction. The most productive guard then became the sixth man, soph WG Andrew Louden, whose father and brother (Mike and Mike again; just last year) starred for the Lions. Andrew "Drewained" one trey apiece in the first three quarters and added five points in the fourth to finish with 14. He also notched six rebounds and dealt two assists. The other starter was sr. WG Bob White while sr. Gs Nick Steller and Sekou Donzo helped off the bench. Catholic League play will almost certainly being great challenges, but this was a enjoyable year-ender. O'Hara is now coached by another guy who starred there, Steve Cloran (formerly the boss at Haverford School). He was energized and positive and got good results from his mix-and-match combos. With 5 1/2 minutes remaining, Louden posted a layup on a backdoor pass from Jones to hand the Lions a 14-point lead, at 49-35. Ballgame, as things turned out . . . One of Cloran's assistants is Matt Hartman, who previously was the head coach at Mariana Bracetti Charter, of the Pub. Bracetti has just moved into North Catholic's old building and Matt said the gym's one-of-a-kind stands have been removed because of safety concerns. Also, North/Bracetti is footsteps from where a gigantic water main recently broke. Wonder if the school will be able to open again after the holiday break? Among the witnesses was the great Norm Eavenson, a nationally known talent scout for Bob Gibbons All Star Sports. He came all the way down from West Chester. Norm has seen 70 games already this season. Phew!! The game after this one matched Roman against Holy Spirit of nearby Absecon, N.J. I took first-half pics and the Cahillites went into the break somewhat on their heels, having been outscored by 13-4 in the second quarter. They wound up winning by one, 58-57. I'm sure The Puckster will call me four-five times in the morning to break down the details (smile).

DEC. 30
TEDBITS
  Have you noticed how well many Catholic League teams have been performing against their non-league opponents? Here we are, almost through December, and SIX teams are perfect (two) or really darn close (four with one loss). During the website era, the best performance occurred in the 2008-09 season when four teams lost no more than one game. A qualifier: because of PIAA rules, those teams were limited to six non-league games (and one played just five). This year the limit is 22 total games (prior to playoffs), so the non-league limit is nine. By the way, non-league dominance does not guarantee a waltz through CL  play, especially for lower-enrollment schools. The list below does not include games in the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament in Frostburg, Md. One or two (sometimes three) CL teams played in that tourney, always held after the CL playoffs, through 2008.

DEC. 28
HERMITS ALUMNI CHRISTMAS CLASSIC
(Showcase Event at St. Augustine Prep in Richland, N.J.)
St. Joseph (Hammonton, N.J.) 61, Judge 57
  Because of what happened at the very beginning, Judge jr. PG Will Brazukas is now feelin' much taller than his listed height of 5-10. Why? Because he won the opening tap! The second opening tap, actually. The first one produced a held ball between Bruzakas and the Wildcats' Charlie Riccardi, who goes 6-1. The refs ordered those two guys into the circle at 7:57, Bruzakas soared and . . . the Crusaders wound up with the ball! At least for the moment, as 6-7 jr. C Aaron Curry fights his way through back miseries, coach Sean Tait's rotation features nothing but guards, more guards and jr. SF Pat Mulville, who'd be a wing guard most everywhere else. The group includes a decent mixture of passers and shooters, but today at least, major problems were experienced on drives. The 'Saders often got to good spots, but flat-out could not finish. As a La Salle player, sitting behind me in the stands, put it, "They cannot make a layup, yo." Such wisdom (smile). Judge also had trouble defending the perimeter. SJ drained 11 treys (in 21 attempts) and the aforementioned Riccardi, a lefty, led the way by sniping 6-for-10. Judge, by contrast, went 5-for-15 on treys, and that was especially frustrating because sr. WG Jon O'Connor (officially Jonmichael, but he prefers not to use that handle; ditto for Jonmike) and soph WG Justin Fleming (his brother, Eric, starred for Ryan in 2011) combined to hit three in the first quarter. To some extent, this was almost like an inter-squad game. The Wildcats pretty much mirrored Judge with numerous guards and small forwards. In the third quarter, Judge built a 38-34 lead but then surrendered 12 of the next 16 points. With 3:06 left in the fourth, frosh G Marc Rodriguez hit two free throws to create a 50-50 tie. It was during that stoppage that Tait informed a ref that blood was visible on Riccardi's shorts. SJ had to burn a timeout. Then, Riccardi and a teammate went running across the court and into the locker room, so they could exchange shorts. The Wildcats reeled off the next eight points to claim the W. Though only O'Connor (17) scored in double figures for Judge, four other guys went sniffing. Soph WG Jamir Coleman (listed at 6-5, interesting possibilities) scored nine points, Brazukas (five assists) and Rodriguez halved 16 and Fleming had seven. O'Connor led in rebounds with five. Especially early, the Crusaders did a nice job of looking across the floor and making accurate passes for open looks. Now dressing varsity for Judge is frosh G Mike Power. His dad, also named Mike, was a first team All-Catholic guard for North Catholic in '85. He finished his career with 1,064 points. In all, I saw two games today -- second half of Bonner-Prendie's (for pics), all of Judge's (for pics/this), first half of La Salle's (pics again). Top 5 notables in attendance (alphabetical order): Joe Cassidy, Bernie Fitzgerald, Chip Greenberg, R.C. Kehoe, Pat McLoone. "Cass" and R.C. are the head coaches at Rowan and Holy Family, respectively. Bernie and Pat were starting teammates for La Salle in '77 (among other accomplishments -- smile) and Chip was the Daily News City Player of the Year in '82. His son, Sean, is currently an Explorer.

DEC. 27
LOWER MORELAND HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT
Conwell-Egan 64, Northeast 43
  Eight-and-Oh, With Many Miles to Go
  OK, so that's not the best battle cry ever created, but I'm going to hold off on getting it copyrighted, so if coach Frank Sciolla wants to use it . . . permission is granted! (smile). Yes, the Eagles have claimed wins in their first eight games -- gotta be a school record, right? -- and Sciolla, the first-year coach and a former star at St. Joseph's Prep, kidded beforehand that his squad would be playing for a Public League division title today, seeing as how this would be its fifth game against a Pub member. The Eagles previously bested Tacony Charter (needs an asterisk; this new school is tackling varsity opponents in non-league games but is playing JV foes in the Pub), Bartram, Mastbaum and Gratz. This win wound up being seized in somewhat easy fashion. The Eagles reeled off 16 consecutive points spanning the first-second quarters and cruised into intermission with a 33-17 edge. These guys are still very young. The only senior, sub Ibrahim Kamara, was away on a trip to Africa. The starting lineup features three sophs -- G-F LaPri McCray-Pace, PG Stevie Jordan and PF-C Vinny Dalessandro -- and two juniors, G-Fs Chase Kumor and Jordan Burney. Aaron "Ace" Carter was in attendance and his DN ink will go to McCray-Pace, whose father, Leonhard "P.J." McCray, starred at quarterback/d-back for Mastbaum in the 1995 season. McCray-Pace, a shade chubby last season, has done a nice job of making his body more solid (he has also overcome a shoulder injury that caused him to miss the football season) while also becoming more of a factor on defense. He and Burney took turns playing the top spot in zones. Both were active and their dedication went a long way toward causing Northeast's shooting miseries. Late in the first quarter, Burney made a steal and drove downcourt for a layup. He posted another theft shortly thereafter, though the end result was a missed trey by McCray-Pace. I also liked the sacrifices made by Dalessandro (eight rebounds). Three times, he attempted to take charges against aggressive, quick-moving Vikings. He succeeded just once, but all three calls could have easily gone in his favor. Kumor, a transfer from Penn Charter, was steadily effective, both with little things and occasional big things, on the near wing and baseline. Jordan now appears to be brimming with confidence. When he wasn't hitting his own shots (two treys, 15 points), he was making the ball talk and assuring that no one would make selfish, ill-advised decisions. The coolest moment for the subs was enjoyed by frosh F Keanan Baines. He entered the game 1:41 before halftime and scored immediately . . . by canning a follow off a teammate's missed free throw. Northeast's chances were hindered by the two early fouls incurred by sr. F-C Will Smart, a football star. He picked up both while trying to set screens way up top, roughly 25 feet from the basket. Despite the foul woes, he was able to claim 10 rebounds while adding six points. Jr. WG Elmange Watson (11 points) has the warrior look, but he missed all seven of his three-point attempts after draining his first. Sr. SF Dalvin Johnson roared down the lane for an early throw-down. There was just a slight hint of late-game drama when Northeast crawled back within 56-41 with 2:47 remaining. Very slight, actually. C-E stood its ground to finish strong. The Bristol-Girard College girls game, which unfolded before this one, was reffed by Pub legend "Jack Kapp" and Tara Townsend, whose dad, Brian, was a first team All-Catholic forward for Egan four decades ago. Jack, who just turned 60, is quite the masters-level sprinter. Nationally famous, even. Former Dougherty wing sniper John Przybylinski ('86) was one of the refs for C-E/NE. As mentioned in a Tedbit Dec. 24, Egan/C-E enjoyed winning records just four times in its first 50 Catholic League seasons. Will No. 51 bring No. 5? . . . Eight-and-Oh, With Many Miles to Go.

DEC. 26
WISSAHICKON HOLIDAY CLASSIC
Wissahickon 66, Lansdale Catholic 46
  Let's assume the Crusaders wolfed down gigantic Christmas dinners and stayed up very late. That would be a reasonable explanation. Games played the day after Christmas are often unsightly and LC pretty much struggled throughout. The 'Saders did not post a field goal until 2:46 remained in the first quarter and up until then they were 1-for-5 from the floor and 1-for-4 at the line. Admittedly, some of the misses were in-and-outs, but the game already had "that look" and not much would change. Somehow, LC finished the first half with NO steals and managed just four in all. The first 16 minutes ended 28-23 and could have been much worse. Thankfully, sr. WG Andrew Riviello, a veteran sniper who's bound for Hobart, nailed a late trey and quickly thereafter hustled for a three-point play off an end-to-end burst. Alas, Wissahickon opened the second half with 13-5 dominance and any hope of seeing some drama was dashed. Sr. WG Kyle Pavlik incurred two early fouls and had to sit down. Coach Ed Enoch, former star at Penn Charter/Penn, waved him back onto the court with a shade more than 3 minutes before halftime and, tweet, Pavlik picked up his third personal when he bumped into a much smaller player who'd just grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw. Yup, it was just one of THOSE days (the game started at roughly 4:45; Souderton topped Truman in the opener). Also, sr. PG Brian Rafferty fouled out 15 seconds into the fourth quarter. Riviello hit two treys en route to 11 points. Rafferty added 10 points in part because he moved inside after intermission since Wissahickon, like LC, was lacking a close-in force. Rafferty also collected six rebounds and two assists. Jr. G Jake Saba expended all kinds of energy trying to stick Wissy's top player, sr. WG Chase Wilson (20 points). Wilson padded his numbers with eight free throws in the fourth quarter. Like the Trojans' other high scorers, srs. Chris Vila and Chris Carradorini (16 apiece), he was still on the floor in the waning moments. Feel free to scratch your head. In the late going, LC's top player was the 11th man, sr. PF-C AJ Ottomano. He bagged six points and three rebounds. LC will meet Truman in Friday's third-place game. Almost by default, things will have to go better. Meanwhile, please don't misunderstand the inner workings of this report. The 'Saders were trying. The effort was just not reaping dividends. Thank goodness only one day follows Christmas (smile).

DEC. 26
TEDBITS
  The school record for points at Neumann-Goretti (and its forerunners) belongs to Steve Benton, who rang up 1,808 in a career that ended in 1985 and then played at Boston College. Will Benton's mark survive an attack by Ja'Quan Newton? Could be dicey. N-G has played seven games so far this season and Newton, who will play his college ball at Miami, owns 135 points. His season average is 19.3 and his career total has scrambled upward from 1,302 to 1,437. If his average holds, he'll own 1,727 points at the end of the 22-game regular season. Could make the playoffs very interesting, right? Here are the city leagues' Top 20 Career Scorers:

DEC. 24
TEDBITS
  Have you noticed? If so, are you at least somewhat amazed? Under first-year coach Frank Sciolla, a former star at St. Joseph's Prep (first team All-Catholic in 1989) and previously the boss at Pennsbury and Bristol, Conwell-Egan has rolled to a 7-0 record in non-league games. Can't be positive, but I'm guessing a 7-0 start is a school record. This is season No. 51 for Egan/C-E as a Catholic League member (the name change took place for the 1993-94 school year) and just FOUR TIMES have the Eagles posted a winning record in league play. The first time (9-3) was in that initial season, when the Eagles captured a semifinal over Neumann and lost in the championship game to now-closed Dougherty. Winning league marks were also posted in '86 (8-7), '94 (8-6) and '10 (10-6 in Blue for lower-enrollment schools). A second playoff triumph has not yet been experienced. There were regular setbacks in '94, '10, '12 and '13 and a preplayoff loss in '11. During the website era, beginning with the 1999-2000 season, the Eagles' best overall records have been 15-10 in '06 and 14-9 in '10. In case you're wondering, Egan/C-E's all-time record in Catholic League regular season play is 183-563 for a winning percentage of .245. The Eagles have gone winless seven times and have notched just one win six times. In '91, they went 0-15 in a nine-team Northern Division. Hmmm. Why, maybe you're wondering, didn't they play 16 games? The game against now-closed North Catholic was canceled due to a measles outbreak. The Eagles' game with Dougherty was also not played for that same reason, but Dougherty was awarded a forfeit win. For the fourth season, the CL does not feature divisions. All 14 schools are lumped together. We'll see if the Eagles can slap together a winning record and even break that 50-year drought for a playoff win. If they do, give the kids off for one whole week! (smile)
  Thus far, C-E is showing balanced scoring at the top -- 78 points for LaPri McCray-Pace, 70 for Stevie Jordan, 63 for Chase Kumor -- and balance among the second-tier guys as well -- 41 for Jordan Burney, 39 for Vinny Dalessandro, 38 for Sean Kelly. LaPri's dad, Leonhard "P.J." McCray, played quarterback at Mastbaum.

DEC. 23
NON-LEAGUE
Germantown Academy 59, Del-Val Charter 50
  Aaron "Ace" Carter covered yesterday's game between Haverford School and visiting Bishop McDevitt, was unable to see HS sr. swingman Eric Anderson because of a rule that prohibits PIAA members from facing fifth-year seniors. No sweat. Ace saw Eric tonight, basically. GA jr. SF Sam Lindgren resembles Anderson to a large degree and, like Eric, a Yale commit, Sam could find himself headed to an Ivy League school down the road. It didn't take long for me to write down a positive note about Lindgren. Shortly into the game, he turned an inside spin move into an easy bucket. Very soon thereafter, he got the ball on the left wing and tried about a 17-foot jumper. Though the shot did not connect, the message was effectively sent to the defense: I'm not one-dimensional and you'll need to worry about me in assorted locales. Lindgren finished with 16 points and eight were posted in the third quarter as the Patriots used a 20-10 advantage to leave behind a rather uneventful first half (22-22 tie). No doubt figuring that an up-tempo pace would work to his team's advantage, D-V coach Jason Harrison began applying pressure after halftime. Even though soph PG Devon Goodman remains unavailable due to a broken thumb, GA handled the situation with something approaching ease as few mistakes were made in the backcourt and lots of crisp passes occurred near the hoop. One interesting element: helping to break the press, often, was frosh F Evan-Eric Longino. Longino is built like a shot-putter (and shoots free throws like one, too -- smile; but dang if the ball didn't almost always go in -- 8-for-9), but he made good decisions while standing his ground against various pests. Also faring well in that session for GA was frosh WG Kyle McCloskey, who will have all kinds of fun over these next few years as a hoopster as well as the quarterback (his dad, Mike, starred at TE at Judge and Penn State and played in the NFL). Like Longino, McCloskey is a lefty and he turned some quick bursts/finishes into six of his 11 points. Lindgren's pullup jumper on the right wing -- loved that old-school decision, too -- staked GA to a 34-27 lead. GA maintained control the rest of the way, though D-V did battle back within five a time or three. Only four Patriots scored -- Longino (18), Lindgren (16), jr. WG Tim Guers (14) and McCloskey (11). Two guys made great defensive plays, however. Late in the third quarter, sr. PF-C Sean Weiss was quickly waved onto the floor and wound up taking a full-sacrifice charge. Then, in the stretch run of the fourth, soph PG Bailey Whitman was blanketing a Warrior when -- holy Christmas! -- he launched himself into a floorward dive to register a steal. Outstaaaanding. At the ensuing stoppage, he received multiple congrats from teammates. D-V showed discipline and patience out of its offensive sets in the first half, and was able to notch some back-door buckets. GA made the necessary adjustments, however, and except for threes, the Warriors took few unchallenged shots over the final 16 minutes. If nothing else, there was balance. Sr. Gs Clayton "CJ" Wolfe and Shahid Adams halved 24 points, sr. SF Darius Wallace managed eight, and seven apiece were scored by jr. WG DaShon Giddings and jr. PG Dwine Walls. Adams nailed three treys. A few shots were forced, but mostly the Warriors worked well together. That approach should serve them well going forward. D-V assistant Max Holiday is the brother of two guys, Troy and Justin, who were prominent athletes at GA. Their dad, Ernest Holiday, runs D-V. Troy, who watched this one, recently became the JV hoops coach at Southern. Cool! GA coach Jim Fenerty had a classic line. Though I was sitting across the way, I'm pretty sure he yelled out this comment after a GA kid was called for a block on a play in the lane that looked like a charge -- "He was in there so long, he could vote in that district!!" Ha, ha. Well, that'll do it for hoops until later this week. Merry Christmas!!!

DEC. 21
TEDBITS
  The circumstances surrounding last night's La Salle-Frankford game indeed were vintage, but here's, perhaps (don't forget, there are many candidates -- smile) the "Only in the Pub" all-timer . . . One big difference: The game was baseball. But it did feature forgetfulness and uniform oddities.

In 1985, we decided to cover a baseball game between two of the league's serious have-nots, Franklin Learning Center and William Penn.

It was played on an unlined field in Fairmount Park and the grass and weeds on the infield were 6 to 8 inches high.

Here's some of what happened:

As a reporter approached the field, an FLC player said, "Uh, oh. A newspaperman's here." To which another chimed in, "Must be an obituary writer."

When Penn arrived, it did so without bats. Someone left them on the team bus, which departed after dropping off the players.

Shortly before game time, Penn had only eight players available. Coach Paul Sherman was prepared to throw Shelly Poole, the team's female scorekeeper, into action, but FLC coach John Makara said the Lions could use FLC substitute Andy Schwartz without having to forfeit.

When Schwartz, leading off the game, missed a pitch about 6 inches over his head en route to striking out, Poole shrieked, "I see why you sent him over here."

For Penn, catcher-rightfielder Darryl Holmes played in shorts and first baseman Johnny Cortez wore a striped sport shirt. Deland Bryant, FLC's starting leftfielder, played in sweat pants, then left after two innings because he was due for work at Sears in Upper Darby. Also, Penn's Darin Toliver arrived in time to replace Schwartz for the bottom of the first.

On a grounder to Penn second baseman Mike Edwards, Cortez caught the ball, stood next to the base and applied a tag in matador fashion as Scott Martelack ran past. "Just step on the bag!" everyone bellowed.

Schwartz, a lefthanded second baseman, re-entered the game, this time for FLC, in the fourth. He walked in the fifth, fanned in the seventh, then noted, "I struck out for both teams. Think that's ever happened before?"

DEC. 20
NON-LEAGUE
Completely La Salle 71, Partially La Salle 67
  It never ends, folks. And we're eternally grateful. The Pub never ceases to provide wacky moments you'll remember forever and tonight offered a prime example. Before the varsity scenario is addressed, let's briefly talk JV. In that game, La Salle was supposed to host Phila. Electrical & Technology Charter. But about midway through the school day, the Explorers were informed that PET would have to cancel. Ugh. Then, the 7 o'clock varsity game drew closer and closer and there was no sign of the Pioneers. So, what happened when they did arrive? Not much. They just sat around in the locker room, staring at the walls and each other while trying to remain calm. Someone neglected to make sure the uniforms also made the ride on the team bus from Frankford to La Salle. Coach Dave Huzzard, who drove separately, hightailed it back to Frankford and did get the uniforms, but you can imagine what the traffic was like on the Friday night before Christmas. Meanwhile, the La Salle folks were going to ask the Pioneers to play in yellow pinnies. Eventually, though, La Salle's old away jerseys were fetched and distributed to the Pioneers. The guys wore assorted shorts. When Frankford was warming up, a La Salle student yelled, "Hey, you got two No. 11s!! Can't do that!!" As became clear moments later, there also two No. 22s. Two kids pulled a quick change and we were ready to go at 7:31. With La Salle up, 4-2, and with 7:37 left in the first quarter, Huzzard came quick-striding into the gym carrying a large gym bag with you know what inside. Everyone wondered: Will the refs hold up the game and have the Pioneers change right now? Nope. At 5:40, Huzzard called time -- assistant Howard Griffith had been running the squad to start -- and made another brisk walk, this time out into the main hallway. Hmm. Was nature calling? (smile) Anyway, the first half ended with La Salle on top, 38-30, and when the Pioneers strolled back into the gym to prepare for the final 16 minutes, they were wearing THEIR uniforms. Most of the players were wearing different numbers and, by all rights, numerous techs could have been called. Ref Pat Shanahan got together with Huzzard and Joe Dempsey, La Salle's coach, and a decision was reached to hit the Pioneers with what's called an "administrative tech." Sr. F Jalen Herdsman went to the line and hit the first of two free throws and . . . lo and behold, everything was normal from there on out! . . . Almost. With 5:20 left in the third quarter, sr. WG Aaron McFarlan hit a right-wing trey to rally Frankford into a 41-41 tie. On the Pioneers' next possession, he tried to connect from almost the same spot and . . .thwap! The ball stopped dead -- as in got stuck -- in that small space between the side of the rim and backboard. Incredible. McFarlan, meanwhile, is the son of Lonnie McFarlan, a first-magnitude star at Roman Catholic and our Daily News City Player of the Year in 1980 (along with Overbrook's Tony Costner). They both went on to play at St. Joseph's. In a nice coincidence, one of La Salle's subs tonight was sr. WG Sean Greenberg. His dad, Chip, was our DN City Player of the Year (for La Salle) in 1982. He played his college ball at La Salle. For the briefest of moments in the second half, Sean was covering Aaron. But I missed the photo op. Damn! This game was competitive and entertaining. Both coaches used lots of players and stay-in-attack-mode was pretty much the non-stop theme. La Salle's jr. guards, PG Najee Walls and WG Shawn Witherspoon, were especially aggressive and mostly played with a Pub mentality, driving hard again and again. When I notice that a player is lefthanded, I always make a note in the scorebook. Guess what? Walls does his shooting righthanded, but does much of his dribbling and passing lefthanded. Legendary! Walls and Witherspoon scored eight and 11 points, respectively, while Walls added five rebounds/two blocks. Herdsman had 17 points -- interesting that a forward was chose to shoot the techs -- along with six blocks and he worked well with the other inside guy, 6-7 jr. F-C David Krmpotich (13 points, three assists, two steals). Both have decent feet and wingspans. Jr. WG Dan Corr hit a pair of treys. McFarlan is much different from his dad. Lonnie was semi-beefy and not the quickest guy ever, though he obviously knew his way around the court and was a warrior through and through. Aaron is springy -- gets great lift on his jumper -- and can dart from spot to spot. The other wing is jr. Ladji Fofana, one of four foreigners who popped up this school year. He plays a lot like McFarlan, and scored 17 points. The starting PG is jr. Quadire Truesdale, and he shot 7-for-13 en route to 14 points. Due to outrageous foul trouble -- he hardly played at ALL -- 6-7 jr. F Bamba Jaye was limited to three points. Football player Rob Simmons, a 6-6 sr. F-C, had a wicked dunk. Odanis Betances shows promise. He's a 6-6 jr. and, due to his body, the La Salle students were comparing him with Charles Barkley. He showed a nice shooting touch and otherwise soft hands. He, too, heard numerous whistles, however. Truesdale's up-and-under layup drew Frankford within 66-64 at 1:17. La Salle held and Frankford opted to play D until Walls was fouled at 26.5. His free throws made it 68-64, then Herdsman got a piece of Truesdale's flip shot. Krmpotich hit both halves of a double bonus at 15.6, Fofana drained a left-wing trey at 8.3, then Herdsman sealed the deal by hitting the second of two free throws at 7.2. Congrats to La Salle's Penn-bound scorekeeper (and veteran website writer), Dan Spinelli, and his Frankford counterpart, Dasia Fisher, for their handling of a difficult situation (with the early curveballs and mid-game number changes). The La Salle kids kept asking for Michael "Mickey" Barrett, a sr. G. He's also bound for Penn and is the cousin of 2013 Wood grad Fran Walsh, a GREAT kid who's now playing his football at Villanova. Fran's mom, Colleen, was also on hand, along with other family members. Figuring I'd take some JV pics, I arrived at La Salle just before 5:30. So, the wait for action took two hours. Luckily, Joe Parisi, the AD and baseball coach, was not too busy, so we were able to pass the time with discussions about assorted topics. The Puckster was on hand to film for Roman, and he needed a ride back to the Far Northeast. Wish granted. Though I made him sit in the back seat (ha ha).

DEC. 19
NON-LEAGUE
McDevitt 62, Pope John Paul II 60
  ***UPDATE: James Bleming's dad, Jim, was a football star at George Washington ('79, played in City All-Star Game) and West Chester (four-year starter at defensive end) and roomed with baseball star Ken Geiser (also GW '79), who is now the Pub football chairman. Thanks to Ken for the heads-up . . . James is headed for Lehigh to play baseball (shortstop, or maybe second base).**
  For reasons that will be explained at the end of this report, I VERY much needed this game to be respectable. It was that, thank goodness, and even much more. Have you ever seen anyone bury 19 treys in a high school game? Well, with 5:12 left in the second quarter, PJP sr. WG James Bleming, who can't stand taller than 5-8/5-9 (except when he's behind the arc and the ball's in his hand; then he stands VERY tall), already owned SEVEN three-pointers. Yes, SEVEN. He nailed his first two attempts, missed his next two, then drained one, two, three, four, five more in a row. And there were no lucky bounces after clangs off the rim. Every bucket was a perfect swish, or close to it, and, man, was it fun to watch this kid keep sniping. Alas, Bleming finished with "just" nine treys and the credit, or blame, depending upon your viewpoint, goes to McDevitt jr. G Jayson Clark, who stalked Bleming in a man-to-man defense the rest of the way -- well, except for the very last play -- and made sure his point total would "only" be 33. I started to write down specifics on Bleming's treys after he finished the first quarter with four. Here we go: No. 5, top of the key, left side, 7:25 left in the second quarter; No. 6, pretty much the same spot, 6:04; No. 7, right corner off an inbound play, 5:12; No. 8, straight away, 1:26 left in the third; No. 9, left wing, 0:26 left in the third. He attempted no more threeballs, but did score four points in the fourth quarter on two free throws (only attempts of game) and an opportunity layup with 8.3 seconds remaining. That play began with an inbound near the scorers' table at 11.8. The ball popped free along the right baseline and wound up under the basket, at which point Bleming gained possession and posted an uncontested layup. At 7.0, McDevitt sr. G James Bogans hit the first of two free throws. When the second shot was missed, the ball squirted over toward the right corner and star sr. SF Tyrell Long was unable to execute the save while sprawling over the sideline. On PJP's final play, Bleming was covered by Bogans. On the left wing, not too far away from Bleming/Bogans, sr. WG Rosario Peloro wound up with the ball and tried a pretty-much-open, left-wing trey (defender Amin Taylor, a sr. WG, was a good 6-7 feet away as his feet were at the side of the lane). The shot was long and Clark grabbed the rebound in the right corner as the buzzer sounded. Whew! Sr. G Tim Tadros (two) had been the only other PJP player to make a three-pointer. Before we get into talk about McDevitt, major props to Bleming for his vintage exhibition. The acknowledged state record for treys is 13 (ex-Edison star George Baker is one of the baker's dozen guys; pretty cool, right?) and it certainly looked as if we might see that mark tied or even smashed tonight. Bleming was the only PJPer with more than six points. McDevitt, meanwhile, placed four guys in double figures. The lengthy Long, who's receiving solid D-II interest, managed 17 points, Clark was right behind with 16 and Taylor/Bogans checked in with 10 apiece. McDevitt kept no stats for rebounds/assists/steals, etc. Though Long was limited to four field goals (two follows, two foul line jumpers), he did go 9-for-11 at the line. PJP, which is coached by the ol' Kennedy-Kenrick's final boss, Jack Flanagan, did a good job of getting hands in Tyrell's face and presenting assorted challenges. It was nice to see him hit those two step-away jumpers because he'll need that skill for college ball. Know what was extra strange about this one? In a recent game vs. Chichester, McDevitt's Taylor bombed away for eight treys. How many did he have tonight? Zilch. He went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, causing McDevitt trainer Holly "Hollywood" Woodman to quip, "He's way off. He looks like he lost his contacts." Ha, ha. One of the JV refs was Marc Cobia, Carroll's starting point guard in the 1988-89 season. He was the hero in a pre-playoff victory over St. Joe's Prep and even wound up with the DN ink. He was asking about my two long-time sidekicks, Tom "Hockey Puck" McKenna and Keith Hines, who are now assistants at Roman and Frankford, respectively. I liked that Marc stayed around to watch the varsity game to, hopefully, gain some knowledge that will help him move up to varsity ball. Don't forget, two refs do JV games while three work the varsity contests, so the dynamics are different. Best of luck, Marc . . . OK, now for Frustration Time. En route to McDevitt, I tried to take a sunset picture but came to the realization that no memory card was in the camera. Ugh! I hit a CVS on Roosevelt Blvd and shelled out $14.99, plus tax, for the lowest-capacity card, 2MB. They come encased in wickedly tight packages and, out in the car, I was twisting/turning the darn thing like crazy trying to free the card. Finally, ah, there we go. One BIG problem. The card popped into the area between the seat and console and I could NOT find the darn thing. Instead of heading right back into that store (that would have been the height of embarrassment), I drove a shade more toward McDevitt and stopped at another CVS near Cottman and Rising Sun. Shelled out another $14.99, plus tax, for yet another 2MB memory card. I'm not as dumb as I look. (Or was earlier.) This time, I asked the cashier to remove the card from the package since I was going to have to use it right away. He walked maybe 10 feet away, picked up some scissors, snipped, snipped and snipped some more and skillfully removed the card. Thanks, friend. So, with almost $33 invested because I'd been dumb enough to leave the house with no memory card in the camera, and then had been even dumber to not ask the first cashier to remove the memory card, I VERY much needed this game to be respectable. James Bleming, you ARE the man (smile).

DEC. 17
NON-LEAGUE
Ryan 50, Penn Charter 48
  The Quakers got Ryaned. That should really be a word in the dictionary. If you've followed Ryan during the ever-intriguing Bernie Rogers era, you know exactly what that means. The guy's the master of winning games, in part, because the opposition gets bored and/or frustrated chasing people around all night and leaves just enough openings for three-pointers that often get knocked down. There are other factors involved for teams that get Ryaned, but that's almost always the prime one. The Raiders captured the trey contest, 8-3, and soph WG Austin Chabot hit the biggest. With 8 seconds left, he stepped back slightly in the left corner (near Ryan's bench) and drained a threeball/moonball to make it 50-48. PC did not get time until 4.7 and the last play led to a leap-back, right-corner trey attempt by sr. G Sean O'Brien, a Colgate signee. The direction was perfect, but the ball banged against the far side of the rim and there was no chance for a follow. The Raiders had to feel pretty darn good about this win because they didn't score during the first 3:09 and trailed, 19-5, shortly into the second quarter. Turnovers were a problem and PC sr. G Demetrius "Meech" Isaac was doing a great job at being a pest. He was seemingly in every guy's hair, but along the way he kept picking up no-bang-for-the-buck personal fouls and his periods of spectating were a big-time factor. He incurred his fourth foul, for instance, for pushing a Ryan player while trying to rebound a teammate's missed free throw. Scheeeeez. Even with so many frustrating moments, he finished with 17 points and six steals, and was mostly a blur down the stretch. Ryan's leaders were Chabot (17 points, four treys) and sr. WG Brendan Horan (19, two). Chabot gives off a very unassuming aura, but also appears to have the necessary confidence. His release is semi-slow, but he keeps the ball high and that helps him get his shots off in time. There's much to love about Horan -- active, springy, brassy, etc. He has a good off (left) hand, can maneuver his way around/through people and rises up for treys with smoothness. He's getting some early D-III looks and hits me as the kind of kid who's already good and still has untapped potential. He bears watching, no doubt. Chabot is one of three soph starters. The others are PG Austin Slawter and F-C Fred Killian. The sixth man was jr. G Kevin Nichols and he nailed a big trey (Horan then did likewise) as Ryan claimed a 31-27 lead late in the third quarter. Moments earlier, PC soph PF-C Sean "Bumper II" Foley, a sub, had used a nice, down-low sealoff to deposit a lefthanded layup. With 1:43 left in the game, Horan's two free throws staked Ryan to a 46-41 lead. Soon, at 0:50, Isaac was draining a left-wing trey to draw the Quakers within 47-46. Ryan then turned it over at 42.5. Isaac and sr. PF-C Anthony Campanile missed shots, but Isaac scrambled for the second offensive rebound and hit two free throws at 18.9, staking PC to a 48-47 advantage. The yes-for-Chabot, no-for-O'Brien, beyond-the-arc sequence followed and that was that, folks. O'Brien (seven) and Campanile (six) led PC in rebounds. There was a cool moment to end the first quarter. As sr. WG Alex Schwarz accepted a pass in the left corner, a few guys on PC's bench stood up in anticipation of a trey. They got it. Bang! Had a nice chat with Frank "Five" McArdle, Ryan's football coach. His squad beat TWO state champs (AAA Wood and AAAA St. Joseph's Prep), as well as the Pub's AAAA runnerup, Washington. The ever-nutty Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna was filming the game for Roman. He lives near Ryan and I offered to drive him home. We're going down Academy Road, and I'm ready to make the left on Morrell, when he says, "Yo, take me to dinuh. I hungwee." I say, "What? Now you tell me? What diner?" He responds, "Da one neah Cottman and Bullvahd." So, at about 9 o'clock, I dropped him off at the gas station on the west side. As he was getting out of the car, he blurted out, "I hungwee. Nevah had wunch." It never ends with the Puckster. And we're all eternally grateful. Smile.

DEC. 9
NON-LEAGUE
Roman 90, Sankofa 57
  Have you ever seen a team score 288 points? Didn't think so. After the first minute, thanks to a 9-1 lead, Roman was on a pace to score that many! Surprisingly, the Cahillites could not maintain that pace (smile). Roman has lots of size (and some girth) and Sankofa, at least for the moment, has almost none, so a wide victory margin was not a gigantic surprise. Until things became a shade disjointed in the second half, mostly because nuuuuuumerous fouls were called, Roman was very impressive on offense. The ball zipped from player to player, smart decisions were always made and no one came close to being selfish. Jr. insiders TreVaughn Wilkerson and Manny Taylor had no trouble sealing off their defenders and accepting pinpoint entry passes. At the other end, the Cahillites played motivated defense and forced Sankofa into lots of errors. With an assistant coach from his future squad (Brian Daly, Penn State) among the witnesses, sr. CG Shep Garner totaled 16 points and three assists. Taylor and jr. WG Gemil Holbrook, a sub, halved 30 points while sr. CG Rashann London (Drexel) added 12 points and sr. F Carnell McGirt, the sixth man, came up with 10. The springy McGirt, who's one of those ambidextrous dudes (he shoots free throws lefthanded, but uses his right hand on layups/flip shots), claimed nine rebounds to edge out Wilkerson (seven). G Tony Carr, a soph, dealt eight assists, mostly on entry passes. Holbrook bears watching. Though somehow he missed two free throws, he showed excellent form/lift/touch on his jumpers and three of his five field goals were treys. He has that smooth look, which is often uncommon for someone who stands 6-4. Late in the third quarter, Garner and then London uncorked ankle-breakers to excite the student rooters. Not surprisingly, Sankofa's headliner was sr. WG-SF Anthony Wright-Downing, who is bound for D-II Holy Family. W-D and fluidity go waaaaay back and his ability to swivel and maintain control enables him to get to the hole against pretty much anybody. W-D finished with 25 points, despite having to miss a decent chunk of time due to foul trouble. He added five assists and three steals. Late in the game, W-D made his umpteenth drive and a spectator, seated nearby on the stage, yelled to the Roman guys, "He ain't gonna shoot a jumper!!" Next trip down: Sankofa scored on a 15-foot, left-baseline jumper. I don't even have to tell you which player hit it (smile). The Warriors' sixth man was soph PG Verland "VJ" Wayns. Hmmmm. Your instincts are correct. He IS related to former Roman all-timer Maalik Wayns. In fact, VJ is Maalik's brother. He had two interesting moments. First, he whipped a short pass toward W-D and, crack!, the ball appeared to hit the pinkie on Anthony's left hand. Everyone heard the noise and thought, "Oh, man. That digit might be broken, or at least dislocated." Luckily, it wasn't. Later, on a left-side drive, Wayns was challenged hard and, whoa, switched to his left hand in midair and bounced a successful layup off the glass. Very impressive! It was interesting to see the expressions of amazement on the faces of Sankofa's players as they walked into the gym and looked around. It's a one-of-a-kind place.

DEC. 7
TEDBITS
  Here's the updated list of city leagues coaches with 400 career wins. E&S' C.M. "Charlie" Brown signed up yesterday as the Engineers topped GAMP, 66-29. Two other 400ers -- Dobbins' Rich "Yank" Yankowitz and Franklin's Ken "Ham" Hamilton -- are part of Brown's staff and together the trio owns 1,342 wins. Three other guys are active as head coaches. St. Joseph's Prep's William "Speedy" Morris won his opener yesterday. Fels' Mark Heimerdinger lost his. Germantown Academy's Jim Fenerty is currently 0-2.

DEC. 6
NON-LEAGUE
Malvern Prep 69, Bonner-Prendie 56
  I had the Friars with the spread, and against it. Also took the over AND the under. Know why? Friars is the nickname for each school. And by the time this one ended, the Malvern version was the one that had fried the nets. From afar. For a while, there was a natural progression for MP. One trey in the first quarter, two in the second, three in the third . . . But then, holy mad bombers, these Friars connected on SEVEN in the fourth to finish the game with 13. In case you're wondering, they only had 11 regular field goals. As the third quarter ended, jr. G Tom McLoone converted a one-and-one to nudge B-P into a 37-36 lead. But soon, MP was hitting three quick treys and I was scribbling on the notepad that the visiting Friars had scored 18 points in maybe four minutes (two apiece to start the third and fourth quarters) thanks exclusively to three-pointers. The marksmanship was only just beginning. Over those late eight minutes, MP roared to 33 points as jr. WG Jack Doherty (three), jr. WG Joey Fitzpatrick and soph CG Will Powers (two apiece) kept succeeding from damn near the parking lot. In the first half, MP went 3-for-15 on treys. Its accuracy was much improved (10-for-20) over the final 16 minutes, thanks mostly to the berserko, fourth-quarter sniping exhibibition (7-for-8). Let's hope the fact that MP began shooting so well after B-P's students finally stood and began to lend organized support was only a coincidence. Otherwise, the guys might be banned for the rest of the season (smile). Fitzpatrick (23), Powers (14) and Doherty (11) wound up scoring in double figures while jr. PG Chris Anderson added seven assists to nine markers. Fitzpatrick also contributed a gaudy 12 rebounds, plus three steals. Sr. WG-SF Andy Pancoast and Powers split eight rebounds. Pancoast, who's quite nimble, had some pretty important football moments as a wideout. He'll be more of a factor down the road and his one field goal tonight was a beaut -- a reverse layup off an alley oop. He also forced a much quicker player into a five-second call. For my money, Malvern's best trey was hit by soph WG Chance DiFebbo. Why? Because he kept the faith after missing. MP wound up getting the offensive rebound and the ball was whipped to DiFebbo in the left corner. Showing no hesitation, he loaded up (from the exact same spot) and . . . bang! The only B-P guy to reach double digits was jr. PG Danny Ings (22), who went 9-for-11 at the line. There appear to be no sure-fire frontcourters on this squad, so Ings has to look for his own points a shade more than a kid with his distributing skills would ordinarily have to. Dillon Haas, a 6-8 junior, showed some flashes, especially when it came to uncorking agile dropsteps. He bears watching. Tyler Higgins, a 6-4 jr. F, was a game-long worker bee, and sub sr. F Tim McCaffrey showed the same tendencies. Hanging out nearby in the far left corner (across from the B-P kids) was B-P baseball assistant John "Blade/Lefty" McCauley (his son, Matty "Cauls", is Huck's best buddy), former Comm Tech hoops coach Lou Biester and Tom Flaherty, who enjoyed major success a generation ago as the coach of the high school CYO team at Holy Cross, in Springfield (Delco). One of Tom's players, John Fox, who'd opted not to play for O'Hara, achieved major stardom at Millersville and was an NBA draftee in '87. Great to see you, guys!

DEC. 6
NON-LEAGUE
Engineering and Science 66, GAMP 29
  Never has a postponement been more appreciated! Predictions of dicey upstate weather forced the Wood-Berwick Class AAA football semifinal to be pushed back to tomorrow and that meant one thing . . . beeline to this one! First, thanks to Scott Pitzner, E&S' athletic director and Southern's former football coach, for sending an earlier email to remind me that coach C.M. "Charlie" Brown needed just one win to reach 400 for his 33-year career. Charlie is a true gem of a man and mentor and it meant so much to be able to see him achieve this milestone. Plus, the DN's Aaron "Ace" Carter was able to attend and his story in Saturday's Daily News will do Charlie major justice. Meanwhile, Charlie remains the third most productive member of E&S' staff (smile). His chief assistants are Rich "Yank" Yankowitz (Dobbins) and Ken "Ham" Hamilton (Franklin) and all they did during likewise lengthy careers (34 for seasons for Yank, 28 for Ham) was win 486 and 456 games, respectively. So, do you know of another high school staff that can boast of 1,342 varsity wins? Didn't think so. This is Brown's 33rd season and his record stands at 400-287. Also on the staff is Phil Brown (no relation), who had a terrific career at -- you got it -- Brown University. In terms of drama . . . There was none. GAMP's best player, sr. G Jeff Williford, is recovering from a foot injury, and, like almost always, the Pioneers are small. E&S stormed through a 21-2 first quarter and, truthfully, had Brown been so inclined, the Engineers could have frolicked their way to 100. That's never part of Charlie's act, plus he has major respect for Art Kratchman, another long-time Pub coach. E&S' leader was jr. F-C Johnathan Hall, who appeared to be about 6-6 (the roster didn't list heights or classes; that didn't register until just now; sorry; luckily I can reference last year's roster and add one year for those who were listed on that one). Hall had little trouble totaling 19 points and 13 rebounds on pure size alone, but he was also pretty nimble. On one occasion, he turned a steal into a layup off a three-quarter-court drive, even pulling off a dipsy-doodle move down the stretch. He also uncorked another smooth attack from the foul line. The best assist went to G Devon Owens, who was stationed on the left wing and whipped a thread-the-needle pass through heavy traffic to the right block for a layup by F Haneef Abdul-Ahad. Niiiiiiice! Sr. PG Eric Lewis (15 points) also had some impressive moments, especially while going with his left hand on multiple drives. Lewis and jr. WG Shaquan Frazier halved eight steals. Sub F Anthony Heard claimed five rebounds. F Mohamad Shnawer drew late raves from the spectators when he turned two dump-in passes into layups and notched a rejection at the other end. GAMP's only remotely reliable scorer was sr. SF Dante Sanguiliano (more of a WG, really). He drained four treys en route to 17 points and was almost certainly too unselfish because the ball often wound up going the other way when it left his hands. Soph G Matt Ventus did have three assists while Sanguiliano (seven) and 6-5 frosh C William Whiteley (six) were the Pioneers' top rebounders. Whiteley is thin and raw, but that's why hard work was invented, right? Congrats again to coach Brown. Very happy for him!