By Matthew DeGeorge
There were moments Sunday afternoon where it was hard to believe Lansdale Catholic and Cardinal O’Hara had gotten near the halfway point of the Catholic League season without a conference win. The exquisite half-court ball movement executed by Kyle Kane in LC’s circle-cuts and the picture-perfect 18-foot jumpers hit by O’Hara big man Solo Bambara in the first quarter held the promise of two teams whose talents exceeded their win totals.But by the fourth quarter, as the turnovers and missed free throws piled up, it became clear why they entered among the five winless squads at the foot of a PCL standings quickly sorting into two distinct tiers. And befitting a matchup of stragglers, it was the team that made the fewest mistakes that got its first tick mark in the win column.
Despite faulty shooting from the free-throw line late, LC held on at home for a 53-48 victory.
“It was scary,” LC forward Nick Romeo said. “Coach (Joe Corbett) told us yesterday that free throws might be big tomorrow, and he was right. But luckily that didn’t hurt as much as it could have.”