Despite big deficit, Eagles never stopped fighting in season-opening loss
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It certainly wasn’t easy for Exeter basketball coach Jeff VanGorder to watch his team give up 91 points his first night on the job.
The 35-year-old Van Gorder, like his players, has been chomping at the bit to get back on the court and get started.
The defending District 3 Class 5A champion Eagles got off to a great start, too. Twenty seconds into the game Aiden Dauble took a feed from Kevin Saenz and scored the first points of the season. Half a minute later Saenz took the ball to the hole and the Eagles were up four over Archbishop Carroll.
Then reality hit, and it hard: The Patriots, despite not having a junior or senior in their seven-man rotation, are head and shoulders above the Eagles right now.
Guys in their lineup already have scholarship offers from Villanova and St. Joe’s. They’ve got two 6-5’s in the starting lineup and the first guy off the bench is 6-8. They move the ball quickly, hit open shots and run the floor like gazelles.
“We knew they were pretty good, and they were athletic,” said Exeter senior guard Alex Kelsey, a key part of last year’s 27-win team, “but not that athletic and that good. We realized that after that first quarter.”
They Eagles trailed by 15 points after the first eight minutes and it only got worse from there, the Patriots piling it on throughout a 91-58 victory Friday in the City of Basketball Love Tournament on Exeter’s home court.
Carroll sophomore guard Ian Williams scored 18 points – in the first quarter. He finished with 28, hitting 4-of-5 shots from beyond the arc and all four of his free throws. Freshman guard Darrell Davis scored 18. So did sophomore Nasir Ralls. All five starters reached double figures.
“They were really good,” VanGorder said. “I thought on film they were terrific. Live in person, they were better. They’ve got some really talented guys who play hard. I think they’re going to surprise some people in the Catholic League.”
Archbishop Carroll had 53 points by intermission. It led by 30 or more throughout the final quarter. The mercy rule – which goes into effect with a 35-point lead, much rarer in basketball than football – kicked in midway through the fourth quarter.
None of that seemed to affect the Eagles. They kept playing, and playing hard. They continued to battle the bigger Patriots on the boards. They maintained pressure on defense. They kept taking the ball to the basket.
If nothing else Game No. 1 showed VanGorder he’s got some fighters on his team; he was happy with that takeaway.
“I wouldn’t want any team that I coach to show that they quit, and they did not,” he said. “I’m really proud that we competed till the end. Every single one of them. Senior leaders were asking to go back in the game in the fourth quarter. They were competing their tails off.”
That shouldn’t come as a surprise: The Eagles have a roster full of competitors. Kelsey is a Division I baseball athlete who will play at St. Joe’s. Dauble is an all-league linebacker. Saenz and Reece Garvin will play basketball at the next level.
They all went through last year’s grueling playoff stretch, a good bit of it short-handed when Garvin, their No. 2 scorer and rebounder, was injured and missed several key playoff games. They didn’t back down then and they weren’t about to on their first night back.
“It’s not fun to lose,” VanGorder said, “but the bench was into it, the energy was still high, so that was exciting for me.”
Kelsey, a key reserve who got a couple of postseason starts as a junior, scored a career-high 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Saenz, taking on a new role as point guard, scored 15 and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Garvin had an extremely frustrating night, fouling out early in the second half. He was on the court for all of five minutes. He picked up his second foul 67 seconds into the game, sat a while, returned late in the opening quarter, then picked up his third foul 33 seconds into the second quarter.
VanGorder inherited a brutal opening assignment and had to make the best of it. He’s been preparing his guys, telling them throughout the preseason that they would face adversity this season. They probably didn’t realize they’d face so much, so soon.
The chalkboard was erased after the game and the Eagles began preparing for their second challenge, Saturday at 6 against Perkiomen Valley on the second day of the tournament.
“It’s really tough,” Kelsey said of the one-sided loss, “but tomorrow we’ve got a new game, a new start.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Archbishop Carroll | 26 | 27 | 16 | 22 | 91 |
| Exeter | 9 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 58 |
| Patriots (4-0) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Davis | 7-13 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
| Williams | 10-15 | 4-4 | 4-5 | 4 | 2 | 28 |
| Foster | 4-8 | 4-5 | 0-3 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| Greig | 4-9 | 2-4 | 0-1 | 1 | 7 | 10 |
| Ralls | 7-12 | 0-2 | 2-6 | 0 | 2 | 18 |
| Corrao | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Rusike | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Murawski | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Kingkiner | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 34-63 | 12-19 | 8-21 | 10 | 32/36 | 91 |
Turnovers: 8. Team rebounds: 4.
| Eagles (0-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Kelsey | 4-7 | 5-8 | 2-4 | 0 | 8 | 15 |
| Saenz | 6-17 | 2-5 | 1-4 | 2 | 10 | 15 |
| Garvin | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Murray | 2-8 | 0-0 | 2-7 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Dauble | 4-13 | 2-4 | 1-5 | 2 | 8 | 11 |
| Flanders | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ware | 0-4 | 1-2 | 0-4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Nester | 1-5 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Redding | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Gwitira | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Magee | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Orbe-Ochoa | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Davis | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 20-63 | 10-19 | 8-35 | 5 | 36/42 | 58 |
Turnovers: 18. Team rebounds: 6.
