PIAA playoffs: Why a Roman Catholic star duo’s last hurrah will be a sight to see in Hershey

The two seniors came up clutch down the stretch against Archbishop Wood in the PIAA 6A semifinal on Tuesday. They'll be large contributors next fall at St. Joseph's University.

Roman Catholic’s Anthony Finkley celebrates after a dunk against Archbishop Wood in the PIAA 6A semifinal on Tuesday.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

by Isabella DiAmore

Published March 23, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Whenever Anthony Finkley slams home a dunk, the Roman Catholic faithful go wild.

The 6-foot-6 senior forward did just that in the third quarter of Tuesday’s 66-56 win over Archbishop Wood in the PIAA 6A boys’ basketball semifinals.

“I think once we had that, the game was over,” Finkley said. “The momentum was on our side. It was about finishing.”

The Cahillites (27-3) grabbed that momentum and took over in the fourth quarter, thanks to the production of Finkley and guard Xzayvier Brown, who finished with a team-high 29 points.

The defending champions are heading back to the Giant Center and will take on Reading High School (31-1) at 8 p.m. Saturday in Hershey.

Win or lose, though, Brown and Finkley, who are taking their talents to Saint Joseph’s next fall, have compiled quite the senior season and come up clutch down the stretch on multiple occasions for Roman.

“The first thing is [Xzayvier] and Anthony are great senior leaders — they’re humble,” said Roman coach Chris McNesby. “They’re great with everyone else on team and all these other guys, they want to play for them. And that’s what’s important is that those guys believe in them.”

Staying cool under pressure, like they did in the Philadelphia Catholic League final against Neumann Goretti or Tuesday against the Vikings (19-9), will be key against a Reading team that’s only lost one game this season.

Back to that PCL final for a moment. Neumann Goretti was up by three with 2.6 seconds on the clock, but the 6-foot-1 Brown hit a game-tying three to force overtime, and Roman beat the defending champions, 57-52.

Brown had a similar fourth-quarter approach Tuesday, when he scored 15 of his 29 points.

“He’s a Philly guard. He’s a student of the game; he’s a junkie,” McNesby said. “We always tell him, he can’t work out today. He’s always in the gym. He just makes big plays. He has that knack of knowing the time to score, knowing the situation, and he just makes the right plays at the right time. ... Makes the coach look good.”

His knack for stellar fourth-quarter finishes was something, Brown said, he learned from stars before him at Roman. As a freshman, Brown played alongside Jalen Duren (Detroit Pistons), Justice Williams (LSU), and Lynn Greer III, who’s now a sophomore guard at St. Joe’s.

Finkley, on the other hand, burst onto the scene this season. He started at West Catholic, which is heading to its first PIAA 3A championship on Saturday, then transferred to national powerhouse Huntington Prep in West Virginia before landing at Roman. He officially joined the Cahillites’ program in January 2022 and didn’t play a single minute last season because of transfer rules.

Besides adding size from inside the paint, the small forward is another scoring option as he finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, and four assists against the Vikings.

Brown and Finkley work in sync, which was illustrated Tuesday when Brown caught the ball from the arc and passed down low to Finkley instead of forcing a shot, leaving defenders who’d double-teamed the guard to scramble back into place.

Their dominance this season is only a sample for what they’ll bring to Billy Lange’s Hawks next season. On Saturday, however, the two have one last goal to reach before closing out their high school playing careers (with maybe a few one-handed dunks along the way).

“They’re so close, best friends,” McNesby said. “They pull for each other, and they also break each others’ chops at the same time.”