Wood’s Jalil Bethea and Ryan’s Thomas Sorber break records; Perk Valley girls prevail in OT

One of the best high school girls’ basketball games took place Friday night in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, and the race for spots in the boys’ Catholic League got complicated.

Here’s a look at the games that went down this weekend and where it leaves teams with the postseason approaching.

St. Joseph’s Prep gave Neumann Goretti its second Catholic League loss of the season with a 79-71 win on Friday night. Juniors Jordan Ellerbee (21 points), Jaron McKie (19), Olin Chamberlain (15), and senior Jalen Harper (19) carried the load in scoring as the Hawks secured the program’s first win against Neumann Goretti since 2018.

Roman Catholic sits alone atop the Catholic League with a 9-1 record after a 49-42 win over Carroll on Friday night.

The Hawks’ win over the Saints means four teams — the Prep, Neumann Goretti, Archbishop Wood, and Father Judge — have two losses in the PCL. Archbishop Ryan is right behind them in the standings with three losses.

» READ MORE: After Roman dealt Neumann Goretti its first loss, the Catholic League looks wide-open

Archbishop Wood senior Jalil Bethea set the program’s career scoring record in the Vikings’ 62-51 win over Devon Prep on Sunday. Bethea surpassed 2021 grad Rahsool Diggins (1,513) for first place. It was also a milestone afternoon for Wood head coach John Mosco, who recorded his 200th career win.

Bethea’s AAU teammate Thomas Sorber also had a record day in a 67-26 win over Conwell-Egan. Sorber surpassed 2016 grad Izaiah Brockington (1,292) to become the program’s all-time scoring leader.

There’s some added intrigue to next week’s Pioneer Athletic Conference tournament after the league’s top two teams, Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford, needed overtime to decide Friday’s game.

Perkiomen Valley junior Grace Galbavy hit a clutch three-point shot and came up with a block in the final minutes of regulation to send the game into overtime against Spring-Ford before the Vikings secured a 56-48 victory.

“I prefer to play basketball like this,” Galbavy said. “I look forward to games like this. It makes you better, it makes them better, it prepares you for the postseason, and I think win or loss, it’s going to teach us something.”

The Vikings and Rams have met in the last two PAC championship games with Spring-Ford winning in 2022 and PV won in 2023. They’re the two favorites to reach the title game again this season.

Downingtown East was knocked out of the Ches-Mont League postseason picture two weeks ago with three consecutive national division losses. But they responded with three straight wins including a 45-40 defeat over National Division champion West Chester East on Saturday.

Sophomore Chloe Hunold and Kendall Chiavelli had 13 apiece for the Cougars.

“It’s been a lot of learning, like in a positive way, a lot of great learning,” Chiavelli said. “I feel like we’ve all grown as a team from the beginning of the season until now.”

Despite the loss, the Vikings still clinched at least a share of the National Division championship and a first-round bye in the Ches-Mont League playoffs.

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.