46686364
St. Joe’s Prep knocked down the game’s first three-pointer, but Neumann-Goretti senior guard Lamin Fulton made sure the last one sent his team’s supporters home happy. In a riveting Friday contest, the Saints, 1736 S. 10th St., escaped with a 77-74 victory on Fulton’s buzzer-beating swish, giving them a record-setting 50th straight against Catholic League foes.
The early stages of the senior night duel likely had few, even the plentiful Prep followers, believing the outcome would yield such drama. The Saints’ quickness and offensive rebounding stifled the Hawks, prompting their legendary coach, William “Speedy” Morris, to call a timeout after only three minutes.
Coach Carl Arrigale’s bunch led 19-14 after eight minutes, though their opponents ended the quarter by showing off what would thwart the Saints for most of the night — venomous long-distance shooting.
While the home team muscled inside for buckets, the resilient visitors made the perimeter their playground in the second quarter. Too many open looks gifted them a 37-32 intermission edge, though the five-point deficit did not rattle the experienced Passyunk Square hoopsters.
In his 13th year helming the school, Arrigale spent the break divulging observations about his team’s spotty effort.
“There cannot be a lack of communication on defense,” he said of eliminating uncontested attempts.
Citing the Prep’s lack of an interior presence, he noted his players would have to swarm the outside to produce turnovers and awkward shots.
“‘They should be blowing us out,’” he said of the visitors’ 56 percent field goal accuracy, “but we’re still in it. If we defend, they can’t keep this up. You let them get comfortable in your gym. Go out, and let it all hang out.’”
The Hawks’ comfort level increased in the third quarter, as more three-pointers surely had the Saints’ faithful wondering if the team would have to settle for sharing the longest winning streak with Roman Catholic High School, which won 49 straight from 1989-’92.
Fulton and sophomore forward John Davis continued to penetrate, but whenever they and their teammates scored, the Prep answered. The frame’s frenetic pace kept more than the players’ hearts pounding, as each team’s fans seemed to wage battles over whose cheers were more deafening.
The Prep soon turned cheers for the Saints into groans, building a 14-point cushion near the end of the quarter. The home squad narrowed the gap to 60-49 as the period ended.
Facing the prospect of suffering their first Catholic League regular season or playoff setback since losing a 2008 playoff game to Monsignor Bonner, the Saints began to defend like dams. The teams again matched baskets early on, but the perimeter game began to shift in favor of Arrigale’s players, especially Fulton and junior guard Billy Shank, who finished with 11 points.
Fulton, a resident of the 1300 block of South 29th Street, also activated his legs for a few close attempts that the opposition could not stop. The Saints put more pressure on the perimeter, leaving the Prep with confused possessions and setting up fast breaks that ended either with a Fulton assist or bucket. Though momentum became the Saints’ friend, the clock was chummy with the Prep.
During halftime, Arrigale had mentioned his gang needed the win to show it reigns supreme in the 14-team league. The Prep played as if it were the two-time defending league champion and last year’s city and state conquerors. Fulton, who signed with New Jersey-based St. Peter’s College Nov. 10, proved, however, that how a team finishes resonates more loudly than how it begins.
The 5-foot-9 Grays Ferry product blew by far taller defenders, not wanting the big night for him and fellow senior Jordan Johnson, who scored the Saints’ first two points, to end with his throng heartbroken.
His team tied the game at 72-72, but the guests continued to play destiny deniers, again going up a deuce. Too proud to let history pass them by, the Saints forced another tie, but the Prep raced down the court with ample time to find a great look at a winning score.
Junior forward Derrick Stewart, one of four Saints at 6-foot-5, skied for a rebound, one of his nine, and called timeout with 8.3 seconds left.
“Coach told me it was my night and to go for it,” Fulton said.
“It” ended up being a dead-on three-pointer that sent the crowd into hysterics. With the shot, Fulton matched his career-high for points, 30, which he set Jan. 23 in a 70-62 win against Roman.
“We just had to keep our composure,” Fulton said, adding that his team had overcome a 15-point deficit against Archbishop Carroll Jan. 16, a day that produced their 42nd straight win, a 74-68 road triumph. “I play a leadership role on this team, so I definitely want the ball late in the game,” Fulton, who received chants of “MVP, MVP” after his shot, said.
“The difference was the hard-nosed defense we played in the fourth,” Davis, of the 400 block of Washington Avenue, said.
The 6-foot-4 Davis scored 13 points, easily slicing through the Prep’s defensive schemes for high-percentage shots.
“We knew they couldn’t guard us down low, so we drove for our scores. We worked hard for this win,” he said.
The three-point triumph is an anomaly in the Saints’ streak, which hit 51 Sunday with a 71-49 road win against Lansdale Catholic. The team has had only five games decided by 10 or fewer points and have amassed 32 wins by 20 or more points. Its streak consists of 19 wins in both the ’08-’09 and ’09-’10 seasons and 13 so far this year. Number 52 could come in tomorrow’s home Catholic League quarterfinal contest against the league’s lowest remaining playoff seed. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The semifinals follow on Wednesday with the winners advancing to the Feb. 28 final at the Palestra.
“We teach these players to fight,” Arrigale said. “Defensively, we made adjustments and were able to chip away. Games like this show how fragile winning streaks are, but we stand all alone among this league’s best teams.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
46686374
46686359
