Who is our Bucks County/Montco Boys Basketball Player of the Year?

Great players like Jalil Bethea are at their best when it matters the most.

Bethea put up 40 points in an overtime win over St. Joseph Prep, plus 30 — 14 of which came in the fourth quarter — during Archbishop Wood's Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinal playoff victory. He had 31 in a win over defending PCL champion Neumann-Goretti and 25 of his game-high 28 points in the second half of a victory vs. La Salle.

For those and other unforgettable performances during the 2022-23 boys basketball season while leading Wood to the PIAA Class 6A state semifinals, Bethea is the Courier Times/Intelligencer Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

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Bethea, a junior shooting guard, averaged 23.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and shot 53.6 percent from the field and made 89.2 percent of his free throws for for the Vikings. He helped John Mosco's team to the state title game as a sophomore, earning 6A second-team all-state honors largely due to his late-season emergence.

"Nobody really knew my name last year, so I kind of had a chip on my shoulder and went to the next year and just like believed," Bethea said. "And everything just came to me."

Bethea has received more than 20 offers to schools ranging from UCLA to Syracuse to Villanova and Temple. The entire Syracuse staff, including new head coach Adrian Autry and associate head coach Gerry McNamara, watched him in the PIAA first-round win over Central Bucks East and then again in a quarterfinal victory over Coatesville in which he scored 31 points to surpass 1,000 for his career as a junior.

"(That doesn't really affect me) because when you're in the zone during the game, you're really not supposed to pay attention to any of it," he said.

Not paying attention to Bethea on the court is impossible because he does so many things well, including on the defensive end.

After Bethea had 23 points and 13 rebounds in Wood's season-ending 66-56 PIAA semifinal loss to Roman Catholic, Roman star guard Xzayvier Brown raved about Bethea, saying his "ceiling is through the roof. … He can pretty much do everything."

Wood head coach John Mosco agrees.

"Jalil really stepped up this year leading a young team and scoring while being every team's focal point," Mosco said. "He is one of the most efficient scorers I have coached."

Friendly boys basketball rivals: Buddies Jalil Bethea, Xzayvier Brown excel in Archbishop Wood loss to Roman Catholic

Tom Moore: tmoore@couriertimes.com; @TomMoorePhilly

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Archbishop Wood's Bethea is our top boys basketball player