Basketball Post-Season Write Up

Passion, resilience, excitement, fear, and disappointment. These are all words to describe the 2024-2025 St Joe’s Prep basketball season. The team started out 2-4 after a tournament in Las Vegas and were able to come back to Philadelphia and go on a 15 game winning streak. The regular season would culminate in a 72-64 loss to Father Judge, a team that The Prep would see again and meet the same fate. The Hawks were the #1 seed in the PCL playoffs and finished their season at the Palestra. The last time The Prep was at the Palestra was 2018, and this time they would fall again to Father Judge.

We saw passion over the course of the season from The Prep. Every single game, the team brought the intensity and energy that they needed to be a successful squad. The Prep was always outmatched when it came to height so they had to face it with great transition offense and aggression. In the beginning of the season, we might have seen the team struggle but we never saw them shy away from effort and the willingness to fight for one another. If this team should be remembered for anything, it should be the brotherhood and the love these guys had for each other.

The next adjective you need to use when it comes to describing this team is resilience. When I interviewed Coach Harrigan, he talked about resilience and how that is what his team needed to be. We saw resilience from this team so much throughout the season and the games to highlight would be the regular season games against Archbishop Wood and against Bonner-Prendie. In the first game against Archbishop Wood, it was a battle for the Hawks to fight back. They were down as much as 13 in the fourth quarter and then with four minutes to go, everything changed. With the help of Jordan Ellerbee ‘25 and Olin Chamberlain ‘25, The Prep were able to take the game into overtime where they would dominate and get the win. In the game against Bonner, The Prep looked to be dead in the water, and then Chamberlain rose the team to shore as he took over in the later part of the fourth quarter to command a very tight victory.

I think many students and fans of The Prep really got the excitement factor halfway through the season. When The Prep dominated LaSalle, it seemed like that was the game that installed the faith that everyone needed in The Prep. The game against LaSalle is always the biggest game of the year no matter what and beating the biggest rival up will always make The Nest believe. The other game with the most excitement was the first playoff game, which was the team’s second matchup against Archbishop Wood. Everyone was excited because The Prep had to win one more game to go to the Palestra and the team hasn’t been there since 2018. The student section really showed out in this game and they were alive due to their intentions to frustrate Archbishop Wood’s Brady McAdams ‘26. The Nest was on his case the whole night and it definitely entertained our WSJP crew. That game gave the fans the confidence we needed going into the Palestra because after the first loss to Father Judge, a lot of people had seemed to lose faith. 

I think that fear and disappointment have to go in the same category because of the fact that there was one team that made The Prep and the fans feel this way. In the first game against Father Judge, The Prep started out hot but then it all seemed to come crashing down. Kevair Kennedy ‘25 of Father Judge was on fire and Nazir Tyler ‘27 couldn’t stop making three point shots. This was the game where everyone had fear instilled in them because we have seen The Prep find a way to win for 15 straight games, and this was the one where they couldn’t find a way to win. Finally, disappointment for The Prep came upon them as they suffered a stunning blowout loss to Father Judge once again. This was a game where nothing was going right for the Hawks as Judge continued to make three point shots and The Prep were either getting unlucky bounces on the rim or they would turn the ball over from a bad pass. Disappointment was not the way that anyone wanted the season to end but it was an unfortunate reality. 

While the season didn’t end the way we all wanted it to, anyone who did not watch this team on a regular basis, doesn't know how special this season actually was. We saw Ellerbee win the PCL MVP, Jaron McKie ‘25 solidify his status of a top five player in the state, Chamberlain prove he is a point God, Mekhi Robertson ‘27 develop into a young star, Will Lesovtiz ‘26 improve his game, we watched Julian McKie ‘28 live up to the hype and look like a future 1,000 point scorer at The Prep, and Coach Harrigan showed why he is a current and future great coach in this state. This season was not a failure by any means, it was a season that could have resulted in a championship, but now one that the program can build off of. For myself, I am so thankful for the relationships I built with these players and I hope the seniors can go on and do great things beyond St Joe’s Prep.