By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
John McArthur isn’t your prototypical big man. But he’s been a perfect fit for the Princeton Day School boys basketball team.
In his first season with the Panthers, McArthur was part of what head coach Tim Williams called a total team effort that helped the PDS capture its first state Prep B title since 1999 with a 66-62 overtime win over Morristown-Beard on Wednesday.
“We have worked hard all season,” said McArthur, a Robbinsville resident who scored a team-high 18 points in the win over Mo-Beard. “I feel like I am getting more experience in the paint. I wasn’t really used to playing in the paint from my other school. It’s been fun and I have had a lot of help.
“The guys on this team always impress me. Every game they do something new. We have become a better team and we have developed more chemistry over the course of the season. We have had better ball movement.”
The top-seeded Panthers needed a contribution from every last player to hold off third-seeded Mo-Beard in the final. PDS had an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter only to see the visitors rally and force overtime.
Our guys showed a lot of grit,” said PDS coach Tim Williams, whose team improved to 15-7 with the win. “We always talked about this, but the last two or three weeks of the season we have really emphasized individual sacrifice for the team. What are you going to do? It could be really big. It could be really small. But you have to sacrifice for the team.
“I think the guys really did that. It was a total team victory. We couldn’t have done it without the defense we played.”
Paul Franzoni had 16 points, Chase Lewis added 15 and David Coit finished with nine for a balanced Panther offense. PDS was making its first finals appearance since 2013 when the Panthers fell to Rutgers Prep.
“I think we had some modest goals at the beginning of the season,” Williams said. “We thought about a state championship, but I think it was way out there. The guys really started to solidify and think about what they were doing and how well they were doing it. I thought this could be a real reality for us. We were working for it.”
McArthur’s improvement as the Panthers lone big made a huge difference. He arrived as a transfer from Robbinsville as a wing player and over the course of the season has become the inside force the team needed to compete for a state title.
“I have worked a lot on finishing in the paint,” said McArthur, who had 21 points in the Panthers’ semifinal win over Wardlaw-Hartridge. “That has been one of my struggles and I feel like I have improved there over the course of the season. In AAU I would play more of a 3or a 4 and handle the ball more outside.”
Added Williams: “John does a lot for us. He has been asked to play a number of different roles for us, which has been great. His natural position is on a wing. We’ve asked him to play some inside and a little outside but more inside because we don’t have a lot of height. We appreciate what he has done for us. He personally controlled the boards for us in the first quarter with seven or eight rebounds of his own. We just need more help for him. That’s why we play more of a full court style.”
For the Panthers, the road to a Prep B title was a process that involved the entire team, making the title that much more fulfilling.
“I know we hadn’t made a Prep B final since Davon (Reed) was a senior in 2013,” Williams said. “It means a lot to be able to come back and do that. The returning guys worked really hard in the offseason and the new guys really bought into what we have been asking them to do and that has been the key. They have really improved incrementally.
“I think things clicked defensively. We have a number of really good offensive players. I thought the defense would lag behind after watching us play in the summer. I think once the defense started to click and the team concept of the defense started to click that was when we really started to roll.”
