Hoggard, Carroll earn Final Four bid
RADNOR » For a player like AJ Hoggard, the balance between taking over a game and starting to do too much is often razor-thin.
The Archbishop Carroll sophomore has been working all season to hone that instinct and use his wealth of skills to best help the Patriots when they need it. Friday night in the second half, Hoggard toed the line perfectly, seizing the moment in the fourth quarter to rally his team past Archbishop Wood.
Hoggard scored 23 points as Carroll topped Wood for the second time this week, claiming a 69-62 win in their Catholic League quarterfinal playoff game.
“I felt like the second half had to be mine,” Hoggard said. “I had to get my team over the hump. I wasn’t going out again like we did last year, especially on our home court. I was going to do what I had to do for us to win.”
The winningest senior class in Wood history needed to get one more win to keep its season alive, but couldn’t quite muster enough big shots down the stretch to do so. Wood shook off a slow start and battled back to take a lead into the half, with Julius Phillips and Andrew Funk carrying the load on offense.
On Monday, Carroll topped the Vikings 67-57 to secure the No. 4 seed and hand Wood the No. 5 spot, ensuring the defending PCL and 5A state champions had to make the trip back to Radnor Friday. Even though they won, the Patriots watched film during the week and saw some things they needed to clean up.
“You think because they’re a team that relies so much on (Tyree) Pickron and Funk, maybe you put in some triangle-and-two. You start second-guessing yourself,” Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said. “We ended up practicing it and go with it late in the game and I think that helped change the game a little bit.”
Wood got its first taste of playing at the Palestra last season but Carroll saw its eight-year run of trips to the famed arena snapped in a quarterfinal loss. That setback fueled the Patriots.
Still, Wood wasn’t going down without a fight and Funk led a charge out of the halftime break. The senior guard hit back-to-back 3-pointers, then assisted a Seth Pinkney dunk for a 39-32 lead with 4:49 to go in the third.
Wood led 44-38 with 1:44 left in the third before Carroll started chipping away. Hoggard was relentless all second half and his free throws with 5.3 left in the third cut the lead to 46-44 going into the final stanza.
The Vikings hurt themselves at the foul line, missing nine straight free throws spanning the second to fourth quarters. A threepoint play by Keyon Butler cut the Wood lead to 5047 in the fourth and after a pair of missed Vikings foul shots, Hoggard buried a long 3-pointer to knot the game at 50-50 with 6:26 to play.
“I knew we were going to win after I hit that shot,” said Hoggard, who netted 18 of his 23 in the second half. “It was going uphill, everybody was giving contributions and we got help from everybody. It wasn’t just me.”
As a good way to back up Hoggard’s statement, Devon Ferraro connected on two crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The forward, who spent most of the game saddled with foul trouble, managed two blocks in the first half and his treys gave Carroll leads of 54-50 and 61-53.
“The game had Wood written all over it the way they were playing but I’m proud of how together we stayed and how resilient we’ve been all season,” Romanczuk said. “We showed that tonight.”
It was a tough ending for Wood coach John Mosco, who had lost his wife Diane to cancer and his players were a constant source of support.
“Everybody is gunning for you, it was a different perspective for them where you’re everybody’s Super Bowl,” Mosco said. “With all the adversity I went through with my wife, all those kids were there for me from Day One, helping me through it. My son was a freshman this year and all the seniors took care of him, so I’m proud of all six of the seniors for what they’ve done.”
In other quarterfinal action: BONNER & PRENDERGAST 88, CARDINAL O’HARA 63 » The Friars had to fight for their lives to beat the Lions, 6763, in the regular-season finale last Sunday to secure the top seed in the playoffs. This time, with a PIAA Class 5A tournament berth and a spot in the league semifinals on the line, Bonner & Prendergast did not mess around.
Isaiah Wong recorded a triple double to set up a semifinal showdown with fourthseeded Archbishop Carroll in the first game of a semifinal doubleheader next Wednesday at the Palestra (6:30 p.m.).
Wong poured in 32 points, handed out 11 assists and pulled down 11 rebounds. Tyriq Ingraham added 13 points, Ajiri Johnson 12 and Yohancey Garner 11.
Antwuan paced O’Hara with 23 points, while Jordan Hall chipped in with 12.