• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Familiar Rallying Cry: Dougherty Wins, but Only After McDevitt Surges Back

Posted on: Monday, 9 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Ted Silary, Philadelphia Daily News

Jan. 9--Is there some way Catholic League basketball brass could institute a rule change?

Keep playing the first 16 minutes as quarters, but play the final 16 as a half? That way, there'd be no third quarter and Cardinal Dougherty High would perhaps rank among the very best teams in the country.

"This happens practically every game," Roberto Townsend said. "We play a great first half and think we have it won. Then we come out for the third quarter and fall apart. We keep making turnovers. Keep taking bad shots. Stop listening to our coach...

"They played very hard. I give them respect. They should have won. They deserved it."

"They" is Bishop McDevitt. And it was Townsend's "fault" the Lancers could not quite pull off what would have been a stirring, amazing, remember-forever Catholic North victory.

Dougherty led at halftime by 17 points, at 38-21. McDevitt stormed back and owned a seven-point advantage, at 49-42, just 11 minutes and 40 seconds later. But with 4 seconds left, Townsend nailed a left-wing jumper - bang! - from just inside the arc to provide a 54-53 edge and a late free throw made the final 55-53.

The aftermath? The visiting Cardinals headed down a hallway to a classroom and coach Mark Heimerdinger kept the door closed for 15 minutes.

Looking drained and disheartened, he said upon emerging, "That's every game. We keep looking for consistency. We're not close to finding it."

Added Townsend, who collected eight rebounds and shot 9-for-11 for 18 points (yet went 0-for-5 at the line): "That felt like a loss. It did."

With 15.2 seconds left, Vinny Simpson inbounded under Dougherty's basket. Before Simpson was handed the ball by the referee, Townsend was standing right in front. While trying to seal off his defender, he kept making quite-stern faces, as in the ball needs to go to me.

Simpson instead had to throw out front to guard Bryant "B.J." Lennon and Townsend looped to the wing.

"B.J. began to penetrate and I didn't know if he was going to give me the ball. Had to call his name about five times," Townsend said, laughing. "I was thinking, 'If this ball does get to me, I gotta make it.'

"I was feeling hot. I had the utmost confidence when I let it go. It was, 'Yeah, this is lookin' nice.' Really, I thought it was a three. The refs said no, but that was OK. Still got us the win."

After a few more developments.

Tom Maha, the football quarterback, inbounded by throwing a three-quarter-court pass. Bill Murphy (18 points, seven boards) could not quite make the catch and tumbled over the left sideline.

Simpson (13 points) hit the second of two foul shots at :01 and Maha again loaded up. Once more he found a target three-fourths of the way upcourt on the left. Tom Clarke (11 rebounds) made a clean catch, but his rushed, push-it-up-there trey was way long.

For Dougherty, Kahlil Mumford posted eight points, seven assists and four steals, Tim Gates claimed nine boards and Christian Smith scored eight points. McDevitt's other helpers were Mike Swoyer (13 points) and Toure Wright (eight boards).

Townsend, who has become quite the effective sixth man, said he kept thinking during the 24-point swing, "Oh, my God, this is not happening again." But it was, and the sights weren't pretty.

Bad shots. Unforced errors. Shaky interior defense.

"We keep trying to do things we think will work, instead of the things coach tells us, which have proven to work," he said. "We go off on different pages. Not the same page."

And this nonfiction book is no bestseller.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Philadelphia Daily News

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Unknown:TWN,

Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

More News in this Category