Roman Catholic downs Martin Luther King for first state title

HERSHEY, Pa. - For Roman Catholic basketball, greed is good.

The Cahillites had already wrestled the coveted Catholic League title from six-time champ Neumann-Goretti and followed up with the Class AAAA city crown.

Roman completed its championship sweep with a 62-45 triumph against Martin Luther King in the PIAA Class AAAA state tile game at the Giant Center on Saturday.

"From Day 1," junior guard Tony Carr said, "we made it our goal to win everything we partook in.

"Whether it was a scrimmage, a tryout, anything; we just wanted to go as hard as we could. If we did that, we knew we could win."

Despite a dreadful performance from the foul line, Roman's second-half defense suffocated the Cougars.

After taking a 30-29 edge into the half, Roman won the decisive third quarter, 14-4. The Cahillites finished the game 23 for 41 (56 percent) from the foul line.

Senior guard Gemil Holbrook led the Cahillites with 18 points. He shot 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. Nazeer Bostick grabbed six rebounds and scored seven points. Manny Taylor came off the bench to couple eight points and six rebounds.

Carr was sensational in every facet of the game.

The 6-foot-4 guard finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field. He also added six assists and three steals.

"Everybody says, 'Roman is soft - Roman this, Roman that,' " Carr said. "Now, nobody can say anything. We have every chip!

"I just want keep winning, and most of all, make my grandpop [former Roman player Anthony Smith] proud. I know he's looking down on me, and that's special for me and my family."

For King, Sammy Foreman scored 20 points and added seven rebounds. Tyheem Harmon added 10 points.

The Cougars offense netted just two field goals apiece in the third and fourth quarters against Roman's stingy defense.

"Tells you about our group and our kids," head coach Chris McNesby said. "We wanted to win anytime we stepped on the floor.

"You think you can win a few, but you don't think you can win all of them. But, as the year went along, you have guys like Tony Carr, Naz, Gemil; they all stepped up at different times. You start saying, 'This team is pretty special.' "

As a whole, District 12 was special.

Constitution, Conwell-Egan and Neumann-Goretti claimed the A, AA and AAA state titles, respectively.

The last time a district won swept the boys' championships in a single year was 1945 when District 11's Allentown won AAA and McAdoo won AA.

Don't expect the Cahillites to be satisfied with their Class AAAA title.

"The future is bright, man," Carr said. "We just want to come back and do the same thing and do it all over again."

Roman Catholic 14 16 14 18 - 62

Martin Luther King 11 18 4 12 - 45

RC: Tony Carr 14, Gemil Holbrook 18, Paul Newman 1, Nazeer Bostick 7, D'Andre Vilmar 10, Manny Taylor 8, Dakquan Davis 4.

MLK: Jabri McCall 2, Tyheem Harmon 10, Tyere Marshall 2, Ladji Fofana 6, Sammy Foreman 20, Nasir Bell 3, Rasool Samir 2.