Former Cardinal Dougherty player Gibbs finds West to be best fit

The final-day matchup in Catholic League basketball featured Christen Gibbs' Eventual School vs. his Almost School.

"You know I had to play hard in this one," he said. "To show I made a good decision."

When Cardinal Dougherty ceased to exist last June, Gibbs registered at Bishop McDevitt and was all set to become a Lancer, along with numerous other ex-Cardinals. But then Doug Hatcher, another ex-Dougherty player (though at the JV level), seized a spot in Gibbs' ear and commenced to twisting his arm.

His new school: West Catholic.

"He said I should come to West's summertime workouts, that I'd like it," Gibbs said. "I tried it out and things went nice, so I decided to come to West. Once the season came around, I told my coach [Guy Moore] I'd do whatever he wanted to earn my minutes.

"I'm an all-purpose guy. Put me in any position. I'll do my best with it."

Gibbs, a 5-11, 180-pound senior, yesterday totaled 13 points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals as the Burrs bested visiting McDevitt, 63-54.

They tied with Monsignor Bonner for eighth place, but will get to host Bonner in Wednesday's first round because of their triumph in the teams' regular-season meeting. (It's possible West officials will opt to move the game to a neutral site because West's gym isn't exactly Palestra-sized. A decision is expected today.)

During yesterday's game, Gibbs said some of the Lancers hit him with the occasional verbal barb. As in, why'd you sell us out?

"I responded a little," he said. "But mostly I let my play respond."

Gibbs shot 5-for-13 from the floor. However, he nailed his first four shots of the second half and one of those was a trey. In the Burrs' closing 11-3 run, he scored on a follow and assisted Julian Lee on a three-point play.

Earlier this season, home equaled horror for West. It dropped Burrdome CL tilts by 37, 34 and 39 points.

"It was a hurt piece," said Gibbs, who lives near 31st and Huntingdon. "There's a winner and loser every game, but to lose that bad, it affects you.

"We had a players/coaches meeting after our [road] loss at Ryan. We talked about a lot of things. It was mentioned that it looked like a couple guys weren't fully into the team. We had to start trusting each other. We've done much better since that happened."

Lee and Mark Perez (eight rebounds) halved 22 points. Yuri Burton managed 10, plus nine boards. Brahieme Jackson (22, eight) and Marquise Chandler (14, five) led McDevitt.

And the winner is . . . Joe Getz.

Entering the final day of regular-season CL play, the top four scorers found themselves within a nine-point pack and a fifth was only nine more points in arrears. But with a 23-point outing in Archbishop Wood's 59-52 loss to Roman Catholic, Getz, a senior guard, finished with a 20.2 average (13-263).

Others in the ballpark: Carroll's Juan'ya Green (13-255-19.6), Ryan's Eric Fleming (13-250-19.2), St. Joseph's Prep's Stephen Vasturia (13-249-19.2) and Neumann-Goretti's Lamin Fulton (13-242-18.6).

The coaches' All-Catholic voting will take place tomorrow night. New this season: 10-man first and second teams and a five-man third team.