Carroll withstands heat, holds off Imhotep
After last week's disappointing loss in the Catholic League semifinals, perhaps what Archbishop Carroll needed was to be thrown back into the fire as soon as possible.
After last week's disappointing loss in the Catholic League semifinals, perhaps what Archbishop Carroll needed was to be thrown back into the fire as soon as possible.
The District 12 3A seeding game Wednesday against Imhotep at a steamy Archbishop Ryan was exactly that.
In an at-times ugly and disjointed fashion, the Patriots held off the heat and the Panthers, 70-61.
"Yeah, it felt like a sauna on the floor," said a smiling Josh Sharkey. "We just had to deal with it. We can't control the temperature whether it's cold or hot, so we just had to be ready in any circumstances."
The senior guard, who will play at Samford next season, scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and added seven assists.
Fellow senior John Rigsby led Carroll (22-3) with 18 points, while Ryan Daly added 17. Miks Antoms contributed 13 points and three blocked shots.
Jaekwon Carlyle (Hampton) led the Panthers (21-5) with 16 points.
The game, however, was not pretty.
The Patriots, who will be the No. 3 seed in the PIAA playoffs, committed nine turnovers in the fourth quarter and 16 for the game.
Imhotep, which will be the No. 4 seed, finished with nine turnovers for the game but also shot 14 of 25 from the foul line (56 percent). Carroll finished 15 of 24 in freebies (63 percent).
"The name of the game right now is resiliency," said Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk. "It took that and then some tonight. It just had the feel that no matter what our lead [would] go to - the game just wasn't over."
The Patriots, who lost last week to eventual Catholic League champion Roman Catholic in the semifinals, led Imhotep, 61-45, in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers, who lost in the Public League playoffs to eventual Public League champ Del-Val, trimmed the deficit to seven late before running out of time.
"We just showed a lot of toughness tonight," Sharkey said. "Coming off the loss to Roman, we wanted to get on the floor as quickly as possible.
"Imhotep is a very physical team," he said. "They're really athletic and they play hard. We just had to outwork them and play together."
Archbishop Carroll 12 24 15 19 - 70
Imhotep Charter 12 11 18 20 - 61
AC: Josh Sharkey 14, Colin Daly 6, Ryan Daly 17, John Rigsby 18, Miks Antoms 13, Jesse McPherson 2.
IC: Jaekwon Carlyle 16, Daron Russell 14, Jaquan Arrington 2, Koby Thomas 6, Josh Townsend 5, Bernard Lightsey 5, Nysir Marshburn 1, Khatib Cousins 6, Donte Scott 6.
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