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VILLANOVA – Don’t try talking to Ryan Arcidiacono about moral victories.The Neshaminy sharpshooter was taking no consolation from the fact that his underdog Redskin squad had stayed with top-seeded Chester for the better part of 32 minutes before falling 77-67 in a District One AAAA semifinal game at Villanova University.
“We thought we were going to come in here and win,” Arcidiacono said. “We weren’t trying to prove to anyone we could come within 10 points.
“We thought coming into this game that we could beat them. They weren’t the 2000 (state championship) Chester team, they weren’t the 2005 (state championship) Chester team. We weren’t playing the program. We were playing this team right now. We thought we could win. We had a chance. We let it slip away.”
And that is what made Tuesday’s loss such a bitter pill to swallow. Neshaminy led by four at the end of one quarter and still led by three at halftime, and it was clear that the Redskins – who found themselves tied 50-50 in the closing moments of the third quarter - could play with the state’s top-ranked squad. But running and gunning with the high-powered Clippers was not exactly the game plan.
“I think we should have won,” Arcidiacono said. “They’re a great team – don’t get me wrong. They play great defense. They pushed the ball, and we tried to play with them.
“Like coach said - but we didn’t listen and we didn’t execute the game plan. He said we can’t play with fire the whole game because it would come back and burn us, and that’s what happened. That’s my fault. I’m the point guard and leader of the team, and I’ll take responsibility for not getting our guys into the right sets.”
Arcidiacono scored 20 points to lead the Redskins while teammates Michael McGarry and Dwight Williams both added 13 points. Charlie Marterella added 10 points.
“Our kids played tough,” coach Jerry Devine said. “I’m proud of their effort, but beyond that, you still have to do some other things to beat them.
“I felt more comfortable going into this game than I did going against Lower Merion (in the quarterfinals) because I knew we could get out and make some things happen. We weren’t the top seed, so there was no pressure. We felt good about it going in.”
The game began to slip away from the Redskins in the third quarter. Granted, things looked promising when McGarry found Williams for an easy bucket to put the Skins on top 42-37 early in the third quarter. Chester’s Lamon Church immediately answered with a bucket, and after Williams sank one-of-two from the foul line, Chester’s Dequann Walker hit nothing but net on a trey to make it a 43-42 game.
“I kept saying, ‘We’re playing with fire,’” Devine said. “Our game plan wasn’t to sit there and run with them every possession.
“Our game plan was – we had opportunities to attack the glass on two-on-one situations, and we did that for awhile. The other plan was to break the pressure, and when it’s not there to kick the ball back out and run (our) offense and shorten the game a little bit. In those situations, we took too many quick jump shots, or pull-up jump shots that were contested, and that’s not what we wanted to do.
“I called a couple of timeouts to settle them down, and out of the timeout, we’d take a one-pass shot.”
With the Clippers breathing down their necks, the ‘Skins were whistled for a costly technical, and although Chester’s Maurice Nelson misfired on both foul shots, Erikk Wright (20 points) scored on his team’s ensuing possession to put the Clippers on top 44-43 at the 5:33 mark of the quarter.
Neither team scored during a frenetic two-minute span that featured several wild sequences, including a non-call on what Neshaminy partisans believed should have been goaltending on a shot in close.
Instead, it was Walker cashing in at the other end with a three-point play that put Chester on top 47-43.
“It was a tough time for us,” Arcidiacono said. “I should have got us huddled up and said, ‘Guys, we’re going to make our next shot. We’re going to get a defensive stop.’
“We just didn’t make shots. There were a couple of stretches where we missed a layup or two, and they got a couple of buckets. That’s an eight-point swing right there. It was just a tough game overall.”
Arcidiacono connected on a three-pointer to break a Redskin field goal drought of more than three minutes, making it a 47-46 game.
Chester was whistled for a charge, and when Williams buried a pair from the foul line, the Skins led 48-47. It was a 48-48 game after Walker sank one-of-two from the charity stripe. Walker followed a Neshaminy miss with a bucket to put the Clippers on top by two, but McGarry, who was saddled with foul trouble, scored on a putback to knot the score 50-50.A Nelson trey sent the Clippers into the fourth quarter with a 53-50 lead that grew to six after a Darius Robinson three-pointer to open the fourth quarter. Arcidiacono answered with a three-pointer, but Nelson came right back with another trey to make it a 59-53 game.
It was an uphill battle the rest of the way for the Redskins, who made it a 61-59 game after McGarry buried a tough shot from the top of the key. Rondae Jefferson sank a pair of foul shots, and after a Neshaminy turnover, Wright sank a pair from the foul line.
The Clippers led 67-59 after another Wright basket before Aricidiacono found Williams for an easy bucket, but the Redskins would get no closer than four the rest of the way.
“I would love to see them again,” Arcidiacono said. “They’re a great team, very well-coached. They’re a force to be reckoned with. “
The Redskins showed that they were a force to be reckoned with as well when they turned an 11-6 first-quarter deficit into a 14-11 lead when Arcidiacono buried a pair of foul shots after picking up a steal at the defensive end.
Nelson answered with a three for the Clippers, but McGarry buried a three-pointer to put the Skins back on top 17-14. Robinson’s three knotted the score, but a fastbreak against the press saw McGarry find Williams for an easy bucket, and when McGarry scored on a tip at the buzzer, the Redskins led 21-17.The second quarter featured four ties, including a 31-31 tie after Arcidiacono found Marterella with a no-look pass for an easy bucket. The Redskins led 35-34 after Arcidiacono buried a pair at the foul line with 40 seconds remaining, and that lead grew to 38-34 when – after a Chester turnover – Arcidiacono hit nothing but net on a three-pointer. A foul shot by Richard Granberry made it a 38-35 game at halftime.
Despite his team’s lead, Devine was concerned.
“We were up – I understand that, but I wasn’t happy at all with the first half,” he said. “We didn’t execute the game plan.”
Things didn’t improve a whole lot in the second half, and instead of playing for a district title, the Redskins will be playing Plymouth Whitemarsh on Saturday in a battle for third place.
“If they were playing for a moral victory to prove to people that they were good enough to play with Chester, then they won that battle,” Devine said. “We didn’t prove as a team that we were mentally tough enough to execute a game plan to be smart enough to beat them, and that’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to not just compete with them. We wanted to beat them.
“If we played a little smarter and executed our game plan a little bit better on the offensive end, then we would have had that opportunity.”
CHESTER 77, NESHAMINY 67
Neshaminy (67) – Tyler Katz 2 5-6 9; Ryan Arcidiacono 4 9-13 20; Michael McGarry 6 0-0 13; Dwight Williams 3 7-8 13; Richie Schafer 1 0-0 2; Charlie Martarella 3 3-4 10; Shaquel Vaughn 0 0-0 0; Dave Baron 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 24-31 67.
Chester (77) – Maurice Nelson 4 2-4 13; Darius Robinson 4 2-2 14; Dequann Walker 5 2-4 13; Lamon Church 3 3-5 9; Richard Granberry 0 1-2 1; Erikk Wright 8 4-4 20; Tavaune Griffin 0 1-2 1; Kareem Robinson 0 0-0 0; Tymier Butler 0 0-0 0; Rondae Jefferson 1 4-9 6. TOTALS 25 19-32 77.
Neshaminy 21 17 12 17-67
Chester 17 18 18 24-77
3-point goals: Neshaminy-Arcidiacano 3, McGarry 1, Martarella 1. Chester – Robinson 4, Nelson 3, Walker 1.
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