March 06, 2006

Holy wars

There's something about high school basketball that seems to cause fights to break out.

No, wait, scratch that: There's something about Catholic high school basketball that seems to cause fights to break out. For some reason, when those Catholic high schoolers ditch the navy blue sweaters and plaid jumpers for casual garb and head to a local gym to watch players who can actually shoot free throws, there's bound to be some fighting.

Case in point: After Neumann-Goretti edged Roman on a three at the buzzer in the Catholic League championship, fans threw bottles, tempers flared, and six people were arrested -- including Antonio "Tone" Jardine, father of N-G point guard Antonio "Scoop" Jardine. (The Daily News' Ted Silary is one of the best high school writers in the country, if only because he always puts in the nicknames.)

The Neumann people say it's Roman's fault, since they threw "debris, including plastic bottles, at least some with varying levels of soda/water" -- this is another reason why Silary rules -- at Neumann players and fans. But the Roman people say it's N-G's fault, since Derrick "D.J." Rivera ran over to Roman's bench to celebrate after hitting the gamewinner.

Anyway, Catholic league hoops probably won't be back at La Salle's Tom Gola Arena next year, and the Palestra probably won't take them, either. Are you ready for the Catholic League championship at the Hank Gathers Courts at 25th and Diamond? Actually, that would kind of rock.

Buzzer-beatings follow buzzer-beater [DN]
Photo by absolutwade

Posted by D-Mac on March 6, 2006 09:48 AM
Posted to Basketball , Fights , High Schools

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1634

Comments