Author: delcohoops

By Jack McCaffery

With decades of results to draw on, there is little Bonner & Prendergast girls basketball coach Tom Stewart hasn’t seen, tried or mastered. So every 20-plus years or so, he figures, he will have the kind of talent that will thrive the way the Pandas did Saturday.

Aware that Bermudian Springs would likely go small for a PIAA Class 4A tournament opener, Stewart would choose to go smaller. Aware that a quick-strike offense would best suppress the Eagles’ upset notions, he would start not one guard, not two, not three, but four.

So he surrounded starting forward Ariana McGeary with unselfish, ball-handling guards Bridie McCann, Meave McCann, Alexis Eagan and Dakota McCaughan, watched the Pandas grab a quick lead and leave neutral-site Cardinal O’Hara with a thorough 59-35 victory.

The Pandas’ ball-control and passing were impressive. And, at least in Stewart’s experience, rare.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

You could forgive Missy Massimino for feeling good about her defensive effort at halftime Saturday afternoon.

Massimino’s Radnor team went into the break against Southern Lehigh down by nine points, and Massimino’s primary mark, Olivia Snyder, had eight points. But on just 4-for-13 shooting, Snyder could’ve done much more damage. Especially in light of the balloons and posters that would be brandished in the second half, it was a pretty gutsy effort from Massimino and company.

“I’ve done it all year against every team’s best player, so I have experience,” the guard said. “But she’s definitely one of the best I’ve played against.”

And for a player like Snyder, it’s less about stopping her than delaying the inevitable.

Snyder scored 25 points, including the 2,000th of her high school career, leading District 11 champion Southern Lehigh to a 58-27 win in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A tournament at Freedom High School’s Joseph J. McIntyre Gymnasium.

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By Matt Smith

A questionable off-the-ball foul in double overtime Saturday may have prevented Springfield from winning its PIAA Class 5A tournament opener.

Maybe questionable is putting it too lightly.

“Bogus,” said one disgruntled Springfield fan.

The officials sure didn’t discriminate. There were too many head-scratching fouls called against both teams to count. But this one infraction, called on sophomore Rachel Conran as the Cougars were preparing to throw the ball in with less than a minute to play, sparked outrage among Springfield fans and coaches. One question, in particular, was left unanswered: Why would the officials make that call now?

That’s not to say Archbishop Wood, the No. 3 squad in District 12, didn’t deserve to come out with a 51-47 victory over Springfield, the third-place finisher in District 1. It was an exciting, back-and-forth game that neither team deserved to lose.

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By PAPrepLive

With The Christian Academy girls stepping up into a state tournament Saturday, coach Jason Wilt knew they would have a tough task in the opening game against Weatherly, District 11’s Class A runner-up.

But TCA hung around, and was within just a few possessions of Weatherly until the fourth quarter, when the team from the Poconos suddenly pulled away en route to a 63-41 victory.

Weatherly had a 26-point fourth quarter, but maybe it took that long to realize TCA (19-7) wasn’t going to go away easily.

“It was a good year,” Wilt said. “We had no business being where we were and the game was a lot closer than that score indicates. Once they busted it open, they kept pouring it on, but it was a close game for a long time.”

TCA was led by senior guard Grace Gormley, who poured in 18 points. Britney Dike and Deasia Speaks added eight points each.

Weatherly, which led 28-23 at the half, was boosted by Lindsey Hoffman’s 23-point outing. Emily Zoscin added 15 points. Weatherly (17-4) moves on to play Benton in the second round Wednesday.

By Jack McCaffery

Marvin Freeman took his first deep warmup shot Friday at Plymouth Whitemarsh and watched it twist and spin cleanly into the net. He did the same with his second. And his third. And he knew.“For 20 minutes, I was feeling it,” Freeman said. “So I said to my teammates, ‘Do you have a good shot on these courts? Because I am feeling it right now. I don’t know. They might be in trouble.’”

The Sun Valley senior was right. For as it would happen, Garden Spot would be in trouble early and late in a PIAA Class 5A opening-round boys basketball game. With Freeman dropping three 3-pointers in the first quarter, five overall, 17 of his 22 points in the first half and his first career in-game dunk just before the horn, the Vanguards advanced with a rugged 65-44 victory.

In a game so rough that Sun Valley would take 31 free throws and win despite not making a third-quarter field goal, Freeman was able to spring to the perimeter and do what he always has done best, if with his own style. His unorthodox shot twirling sideways rather that with the traditional spiral, his outside play was the difference on a night when everything else was happening inside.

“I’ve been shooting like that my whole life, since I was so young,” Freeman said. “And I tried to fix it, but it didn’t work. My dad (Marvin) told me if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. So I’ve got to just keep shooting like that.

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By Jack McCaffery

Matt Arbogast stepped to the perimeter Friday, accepted a pass, turned toward the basket and wondered where everybody had gone.

The Penncrest forward, a key to the Lions’ continuing successful season, didn’t see a defender in his face. Or within a foot. Or two. Or three. Or anywhere.

“It was different,” Arbogast said. “So I just thought, ‘Get to the hoop.’”

Though it didn’t happen immediately, it happened enough late at Plymouth Whitemarsh for Arbogast and the Lions to punish a strangely risky Wallenpaupack defense in a 53-42 first-round victory in the PIAA Class 5A boys basketball tournament.

Determined to defend with diligence everywhere else, the Buckhorns were content to plant center Gabe Springer in the lane. That allowed Arbogast, or any one Lion at a time, to not be defended at all.

The gimmick worked only to a point. That point came in the second half when Arbogast wrestled inside for all of his nine points and help reject a late Wallenpaupack push. More, the 6-4 Arbogast made a vital steal with 3:03 left to preserve a 10-point Lions lead, then had two massive rebounds in the final 1:30 to show that he was big enough to meet the challenge to play underneath.

“I like playing against those types of kids,” Arbogast said. “The energy comes out. There was a little smack talk here and there. But that was about it.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

As Archbishop Carroll entered the locker room at halftime Friday evening, it didn’t take much to divine what was missing for the Patriots.

Yes, they had led the entire first half until Nicholas Filchner’s buzzer-beating, step-back 3-pointer sent Allentown Central Catholic into the break up a point. But with just four combined points from their big men and an unsustainable hit rate from 3-point range, the remedy was clear: Carroll had to pierce the Vikings’ aggressive 2-3 zone by going inside.

It took all of three possessions in the second half, all passed through the hands of junior pivot Tairi Ketner, to ingrain a plan that would eventually earn Carroll a victory.

Ketner scored 14 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as Carroll pulled in the third and hung on in the fourth for a 64-57 win in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A tournament at Bethlehem Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

Carroll (16-10), the third seed from District 12, advances to Tuesday’s second round to take on Lancaster Catholic, the District 3 runner-up that beat Northwestern Lehigh 63-46 Friday.

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By Christopher A. Vito

Donovan Rodriguez was feeling it.

He clapped his hands. He bobbed his head. He started chirping his opponent, admitting afterward to letting emotions get the best of him.

That’s what happens, he said, when he’s in the zone defensively.

“It’s exciting,” the Bonner-Prendergast guard said, “because when you shut a guy down, your coach always notices defense first. It’s a good feeling.”

Rodriguez’s contributions on the defensive end, coupled with teammate Isaiah Wong’s deft scoring touch, provided Bonner-Prendergast with more than enough to cruise past Littlestown, 64-38, Friday night in the opening round of the PIAA 4A playoffs.

The Friars (19-5), champions of District 12, advance to Tuesday night’s second-round pairing with Nanticoke Area (22-7), the runner-up from District 2.

In this one, Wong led the state’s top-ranked team with a game-best 23 points on an efficient 8-for-11 effort from the floor. Malik Edwards had 13 points and Rodriguez rounded out the Friars’ double-digit scorers with 10.

Rodriguez had only one steal to show for his dynamic effort defensively. His workload showed through on the other side of the box score. Littlestown leading scorer Logan Collins, who had 10 first-quarter points on 5-for-6 shooting, went scoreless with four missed shots in the second frame—most of which featured Rodriguez pinned to his hip.

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By Matt Smith

Cardinal O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan got a kiss on the cheek from her daughter, Maggie, after Friday night’s game at Archbishop Carroll High School.

She told Maggie to have fun at the O’Hara freshman dance.

“I told her if she didn’t make those shots, she wasn’t allowed to go,” mom said.

Coaching in her first PIAA tournament game, Chrissie Doogan pushed the right buttons in the second half and watched as her young kids — biological and otherwise — stormed back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat Plymouth Whitemarsh, 41-39 in the first round of the Class 6A tourney. O’Hara will play Spring-Ford in the second round Tuesday.

Maggie Doogan was among the players who performed down the stretch for the Lions (14-11). She made a three-point play when her team needed a boost, and hauled in a defensive rebound in the final 30 seconds to keep the Colonials (21-7) from making the tying or go-ahead basket. Coming off the bench, Doogan scored a season-high 11 points and led all O’Hara players with five rebounds.

“The senior class has been great to me,” she said. “They’ve really helped me a lot.”

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By Bruce Adams

District 1 champion Garnet Valley reached a new milestone in its 52-34 win against Cedar Crest in the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball opener Friday at Spring-Ford High School.

With the victory, the Jaguars (27-1) established a school season record for wins for both the girls and boys basketball programs. They now advance to a second-round match Tuesday against the winner of Friday’s Bethlehem Freedom-Souderton contest.

Cedar Crest (19-9), the seventh-place finisher in District 3, committed numerous turnovers thanks to Garnet Valley’s aggressive defense, but kept the score reasonably close for most of the first three quarters with some accurate outside shooting.

At the end of the first quarter, Garnet Valley led by only five points (17-12). It was quite a difference from the Jaguars’ last game, in which Garnet Valley jumped out to an early 20-3 against Neshaminy en route to capturing their first District 1 championship.

“Defensively, we came out strong, got some steals and created some turnovers,” Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods said, “but give Cedar Crest credit, they have some good shooters, and those threes kept them in the game.”

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