Harriton Comes Up Short Against Holy Ghost Prep

As the Harriton boys’ basketball team left the locker room Saturday night, some players were wrapped in bags of ice and some came out limping gingerly. Harriton was in a war alright—and it looked it. The Rams visited area powerhouse Holy Ghost Prep in its tiny bandbox gym and guess what—the Firebirds kind of felt like they were in a war, too.

But in the end, it was Holy Ghost Prep’s superior depth, clutch outside shooting and size that spelled the difference in ending ’s season, 43-38, in the second round of the PIAA District 1 Class AAA playoffs.

The No. 2-seeded Firebirds, who improved to 19-7, will advance to the semifinal round, while Harriton, the No. 6 seed, concluded its season at 12-12.

“This was tough, really hard saying goodbye, especially to the seniors,” said Rams’ coach Jesse Rappaport, who did a fine job in guiding Harriton to its most victories in a season since 2005. “I’m proud of these kids. My guys went to war. But you have to give credit to Holy Ghost, they had some role players step up and make big shots in the first half and when they started making some threes, we had to go out and chase them.”

And make the Firebirds sweat a little on the way. Harriton had one lead, 2-0, on a Marquis Baker basket to start the game and that was it. But when it looked as if Holy Ghost Prep would pull ahead for good late in the third quarter, going up 35-24, Harriton scratched and clawed its way back to 35-30 with 5:56 left to play, and again 37-32 with 4:31 remaining in the game.

“That’s an extremely well-coached team, an extremely well-coached team,” said Firebirds’ coach Tony Chapman about Rappaport, high praise coming from one of the best coaches in the Delaware Valley area. “I told my kids before the game not to look at Harriton’s record. They’re better than that. I was expecting a really good game, and I’ve been preaching defense, defense this whole year, I’m happy we got it at the right times.”

Baker finished with a team-high 12 points and Matt Sherman scored eight for Harriton, which also received six points each from Samir Muhammad, who was exceptional in the second half, Andre Dixon, who nailed some key threes to keep the Rams close, and Ryan Kelly, who stood strong against Holy Ghost Prep’s 6-foot-7 Ryan Lantzy and 6-foot-5 James McDade.

It should be noted the Rams played without starting forward Mike Allen, who missed school Thursday and Friday and was unable to play.

Still, Harriton kept coming each time it seemed Holy Ghost Prep was ready to run the Rams over.

“I think that came from the idea before the game that no one gave us a chance, no one believed in us except us and the coaching staff,” Muhammad said. “We laid everything out there and knew this was it for us. I think the only regret I have is not playing as hard as I should have in the first half. But otherwise, we did a lot this year.”

Baker concurred.

The 6-foot-4 Baker was a role player last year who blossomed into a go-to guy this season. Against Holy Ghost, he was a match-up problem, too big for the guards to cover, too fast for Prep’s big men. Baker kept hammering the boards and played with the urgency that it would be his last high school game.

“I have no regrets at all,” Baker said. “We did a lot of things this year. Everyone played to their highest ability and we had great, great support from the student body, which all showed up here tonight. During the season, I was picked up by the coaching staff the times that I was down. I know I just played my last high school basketball game, but I can look back at this time with no regrets at all. I think I’ll look back with a smile.”