Father Judge looks to leave behind a legacy — knocking off Roman Catholic ‘was step one’

Chris Roantree unleashed a scream as he hoisted the championship plaque at midcourt of the Palestra, then handed the hardware off. The Father Judge boys’ basketball team sprinted toward its student section, where only a line of security guards prevented classmates from storming the court.

Father Judge slayed two-time defending Catholic League champion Roman Catholic on Sunday afternoon by overcoming a double-digit first-quarter deficit to grind out a 41-34 victory. It is the school’s first PCL championship since 1998, when Roantree was a player on the team. And it fulfills the coach’s consistent message about these players building their own legacy.

“We heard it all week about [how Roman was] going for a three-peat,” Roantree said after the game. “If you don’t think these dudes are motivated based off of that … This is hopefully a step for us to take the step to be one of the upper-echelon programs.”

Initially, though, fourth-seeded Judge looked overmatched against second-seeded and more experienced Roman. Judge fell behind, 10-0, and did not score until the first quarter’s final minute. During the break between the first two periods, the purple-clad Roman student section hurled a “Why so quiet?!” chant toward those wearing Columbia blue on the opposite side of the Palestra.

“There’s probably 10,000 people out there saying, ‘This is going to be a blowout,’” Roantree said. “These guys just battled. We locked in defensively. We got stops. We knew the offense was going to come.”

Judge steadily chipped away throughout the second quarter, with a jumper by senior forward Everett Barnes cutting the deficit to 18-17 at halftime. The teams went back and forth during the third quarter, and Judge took a 28-25 lead into the fourth quarter after a feed from star point guard Kevair Kennedy (10 points, four rebounds, three assists) to junior guard Derrick Morton-Rivera for an inside finish.

In the fourth, junior guard Rocco Westfield confidently banged home a three-pointer that put Judge up 32-31 with less than four minutes to play. A transition finish by Morton-Rivera then made the score 35-33 with about 90 seconds remaining. Kennedy and Nazir Tyler’s free throws finished off the victory, as the Judge faithful returned the favor with a “We can’t hear you!” chant toward the stunned Roman side.

» READ MORE: Neumann Goretti secures girls’ Catholic League title over Archbishop Carroll: ‘It means the world’

The victory precisely — and miraculously? — aligned with the timeline projected by Roantree when he met with Judge president Brian Patrick King about its head-coaching job in 2021, and the school was coming off a 2-10 Catholic League record. King asked how long a turnaround would take. Roantree said four years.

That quest began when Roantree landed Kennedy, the “little guard that nobody [wanted]” four years ago. The coach acknowledges today that Kennedy “got into a fight with another guard and chased him out” during his first workout at the school, demonstrating he was a “tough ... dude.” Kennedy is also a hard worker, Roantree stressed, even while the coach “[grinds] him up all the time” and the two butt heads like family.

And after the past two weeks — when Roantree said he has “never seen [Kennedy] so focused in practice, and coaching other guys and pushing other guys” — the coach believes he is now Judge’s best boys’ basketball player of all time.

“But he needed to win to be a legacy dude,” he added, “and he did that today.”

Roantree acknowledges that, in building Judge, he followed a similar blueprint to what he experienced as an assistant coach at Archbishop Wood. He added complementary, under-the-radar players instead of “the dude” who would gravitate to a more-established program. In Roantree’s first season, Judge went 4-9 in Catholic League play, and then improved to 6-7 the following year. Judge again upped its record to 9-4 last season, with wins over Roman and St. Joseph’s Prep in the regular season. It beat Wood in the PCL quarterfinals, then lost to Roman in the semifinals.

And since Kennedy’s freshman season, he said, he constantly uttered a “We Palestra-bound” mantra whenever he needed an extra mental boost.

“That meant go harder in the weight room or on the court, when you’re tired and you just need that one more rep,” he said. “So saying that pushed us through. And that was our focus. We wanted to win it. We wanted to prove to everybody that we’re No. 1.

“And we ain’t even done yet. That was step one. We’ve got two more to get [a district and state championship].”

» READ MORE: Father Judge seals a win over Roman Catholic to earn its first Catholic League title since 1998

Before this season, Roantree recognized a “they trust me, and I trust them” closeness with this year’s Judge team that reminded him of Wood’s 2016-17 group that won its first Catholic League title in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion. Judge’s run through the Philly Live Showcase, plus a challenging fall slate, provided an extra dose of confidence that it could compete with high-level opponents. The team went 10-3 in league play, handing St. Joe’s Prep its only regular-season league loss before dominating the Hawks, 89-61, in the semifinals.

Judge also beat Roman during the regular season, meaning Sunday did not feel like an upset to those players.

While Judge’s student section continued its postgame frenzy in the stands, Roantree navigated the on-court crowd to dap up his loved ones. Morton-Rivera got swarmed by female relatives holding pom-poms and wearing red Judge hoodies, including one that said “my favorite grandson” on the back. “MVP!” chants rang out as Kennedy climbed the ladder to cut down the net. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” played as they all posed for a team photo back at center court.

And as Roantree joined his players at the table for their postgame news conference, assistant Jimmy Reeves — who also was a star on that 1998 team — slung the net around his neck.

“You look better in this, Coach,” Reeves said.

Judge had slain the Catholic League giant gunning for a three-peat inside Philly’s basketball cathedral. It had joined that 1998 team as league champions.

And, more important to their coach now part of both titles, those players have left their own legacy.

“This isn’t about ‘98, I do want to say that,” Roantree said. “I know there’s been a lot of buildup. It’s about these dudes right here.”