Roman Catholic defeats Archbishop Ryan in OT for Catholic League title behind Kabe Goss’ buzzer-beater

The best program in Catholic League history did it again.

Facing an Archbishop Ryan squad hungry for its first-ever PCL championship, defending champion Roman Catholic’s group of new seniors and previously untested underclassmen got it done. The Cahillites defeated the Raiders 46-45 in overtime on Monday night at the Palestra.

Kabe Goss played hero, hitting the game-winning shot on a pull-up jumper from the foul line that dropped through as the buzzer sounded, setting off a celebration from the Cahillites’ student section.

“It could have been anybody,” Goss said. “Today was just my night. I’m glad my guys trusted me with the ball, glad my coach trusted me with the ball in the last few seconds.

“Coming across the court, I turned around and looked at the time, so I knew there wasn’t enough time to get anything, so I just had to trust myself and have confidence in myself.”

It was a rapid-fire ending. With six seconds remaining in overtime, Ryan’s Ryan Everett seemingly played hero, knocking down a corner three-pointer, and before you could blink, Goss raced down the floor and the 5-foot-4 guard’s jumper caught nothing but net to seal Roman’s 34th title in program history.

Trailing by eight at halftime, Ryan battled back to tie it at 35 with four minutes remaining. Roman extended its lead at the free-throw line, getting two foul shots from Goss and one from Travis Reed to make it 38-35 with 3:02 remaining.

Both teams had moments they’d like to have back before the game went into extra time. For Ryan, it was a missed layup and dunk, both within the final three minutes and would have been critical buckets. Roman had a pair of missed foul shots while holding a one-point lead with 54 seconds left.

It was after those misses that Ryan’s Darren Williams hit the night’s first big shot, a three-pointer from the corner that put the Raiders up two with 20 seconds to play. But Roman answered back with a Shareef Jackson layup off a Goss feed that tied it with 2.1 seconds to play.

It was a battle of programs that couldn’t have had more different Catholic League championship resumés. Roman rolled in with 33 league titles under its belt. Ryan had only been to the league championship four times.

Though it was Ryan’s Thomas Sorber who went into Monday night as the most heralded big man in the Catholic League, Jackson won the battle of the bigs, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the first half.

“I was feeling amazing today, not going to lie,” Jackson said. “Feeling good coming into it, good in the middle of the game, and afterward — you can’t really put a feeling on this.”

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.