Cougars take the big stage at Wells Fargo Center, enjoy an NBA experience and pick up a win while doing it, then going back and watching Embiid put 70 on the Spurs
MONDAY’S BOYS GAMES
Schalick 42, Clayton 35
Clearview 58, Penns Grove 56
Glassboro 74, Pennsville 54
Salem Tech 55, Camden Tech 45
Gloucester Catholic 53, Salem 50
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PHILADELPHIA — Danny Lis wasn’t much good in school today for as long as it lasted for the players on the Schalick basketball team Monday. All the Cougars senior – and the rest of his teammates for that matter – could think about from the time the bell rang was what he was going to be doing later in the day.
Game days occupy a special realm in a player’s mind anyway, but this one was a much different game day entirely. For a high school basketball player with dreams of playing in the big time, it was the ultimate field trip.
Call it Ferris Bueller’s day off with basketball benefits. The Cougars had the good fortune to be invited to play their game with Clayton in the Wells Fargo Center, on the same floor the main tenant 76ers were going to play the San Antonio Spurs later that evening.
They were going to play on the biggest stage in the biggest arena probably all of them will play in their life. They were playing in an NBA arena.
“It’s amazing, honestly,” Lis said. “It’s actually my first time on an NBA court. This is what I’ve been thinking about all day. I didn’t think about anything except just playing basketball on this court where the 76ers are playing.”
What made the trip even better is they beat the Clippers and the clock 42-35 pulling away in the fourth quarter for their fifth win of the year, more than they had the last two years combined.
It didn’t matter there weren’t a lot of people there, just the parents the scattered technical staff getting the arena set up for the NBA game scheduled for later in the evening, a game all of the players and their parents were going to attend.
It was a rather rushed experience that Cougars coach James Turner conceded detracted from making the memories last longer, but he’ll always remember the excitement of the players on an NBA and what it meant to them being in the arena.
The Cougars’ bus pulled in at 1:14 p.m. for the 2 p.m. tip, just a few minutes behind the Clayton bus and weren’t allowed in the arena until 1:30. It didn’t matter that they didn’t dress in one of the fancy locker rooms. Or they didn’t have any interaction with the players who call the place their office. And they had to be off the floor at 2:55 whether the game was over or not, so there wasn’t much of a halftime and they ran the fourth quarter with a running clock.
That was the trade off for being on the floor. That floor. That magnificent NBA floor many of them had only seen before on TV.
The anticipation had been building for weeks. It was all worth it when they magic walked through the tunnel from the concourse and finally stepped onto the court that has hosted Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and the NBA greats of their generation and later tonight Victor Wembanyama.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” junior forward Nylan Sutton said. “I’m running down the court, I’m supposed to get back on defense, and I just look up and I’m like, wow. It was just unbelievable, a time to remember. I’m going to remember it the rest of my life.
“It was a mix of everything. The legends who play on this court. My dream is playing college basketball; me playing on this court in high school is just a dream come true. And just scoring on the court.
“I missed a couple shots, the nervousness in my body, but when I scored my first basket, I was like wow, I just scored where Joel Embiid, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan shot a basketball and it was like wow, I just did it. Me knowing that my sports career is not coming true yet, but I’m getting there, is making me happy.”
As you might expect, between the nerves of the day and the depth perception in an empty arena, both teams had trouble hitting shots. There were times the players looked like they were trying to score like their favorite NBA stars, but many of them missed the mark.
There was one trip down the floor with about five minutes left in the first half Sutton looked like he was going to get a dunk in an NBA arena, but then pulled up and laid it in because he remembered the rules.
“They told us we couldn’t dunk,” he said. “I was feeling bouncy today, I was going to dunk it, but I didn’t want them to kick us out because I dunked it because I know they have a game later today. I was going to dunk, I really was.”
The arena staff might not have let them dunk, but they sure let them shoot the 3. Schalick’s Jordan Johnson had the honor of the first basket of the game and it was a 3 from the top of the key. The Cougars led most of the game after that.
Clayton took its only lead on a basket by A’Shaud Hine-Pope to open the fourth quarter, but it didn’t last.
Reggie Allen and Lis came up big down the stretch. Allen had two big steals and hit four straight free throws to put the Cougars back on top for good. He also took a shot above his left eye that took some doing to close. Lis had two buckets in the closing minutes to extend it to the final margin.
“It felt good to score on an NBA court where the professionals play, like Joel Embiid,” Allen said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day.”
The Cougars’ work was done when the game ended, but their day was far from over. After they were whisked off the concourse and the doors, the players headed out to a nearby Dave & Busters for a post-game meal and some revelry before returning to the arena to watch Embiid put 70 on the Spurs in a 133-123 win with the tickets they had to sell as part of the deal. Their seats were in the upper corner across the floor from the bench they occupied for the game.
“Our job is done,” Turner said. “As coaches and players our job is done. Now it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy.”
SCHALICK 42, CLAYTON 35
CLAYTON (3-11) — Dillon Jones 4 0-0 8, Nazir Davis 3 0-0 7, Demetris Williams 2 0-0 4, Jon Cox 1 0-1 2, Cristan Scott 2 0-0 4, A’Shaud Hine-Pope 1 0-0 2, Nasir Carter 0 1-2 1, Mason Gable 0 0-0 0, John Carter 1 0-0 3, Brian Marshall 2 0-0 4, Dean Madden 0 0-0 0, Isaiah Aviles 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 1-3 35.
SCHALICK (5-5) — Reggie Allen 4 5-6 14, Dan Lis 2 0-0 4, Jake Siedlecki 3 0-0 6, Jordan Johnson 3 0-0 7, Ryan Johnson 0 0-0 0, Nylan Sutton 3 0-2 6, Levi Mason 2 1-1 5, Jase Volovar 0 0-0 0, Nasir Sutton 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 6-9 42.
| Clayton | 7 | 15 | 9 | 4 — | 35 |
| Schalick | 11 | 16 | 5 | 10 — | 42 |
Cover photo: Schalick’s Reggie Allen drives to the basket during the Cougars’ win over Clayton in the Wells Fargo Center a few hours before the 76ers took the floor. (Photo by Brian Tortella).
Riverview Sports News 