Boys: Painful loss for Penncrest in tourney final

Penncrest's Branden Hemphill, in action last season, scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds as the Lions fell to SLA-Beeber, 53-52, in the championship game of the Penncrest tournament. (Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group).

Penncrest’s Branden Hemphill, in action last season, scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds as the Lions fell to SLA-Beeber, 53-52, in the championship game of the Penncrest tournament. (Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group).

By Matthew DeGeorge

With ice on his ankle and a slight stoop in his shoulders, Branden Hemphill saw both sides of it Thursday night.

There is progress from a young Penncrest team, of which the senior guard is one of a select few returning contributors from last season, since four consecutive losses to begin the 2022-23 season.

But there remains a nagging disappointment, centered on the fact that three possessions separate the Lions from a winning record. And on a night like Thursday, when more than mediocre end-game execution was required to top Science Leadership Academy Beeber in a 53-52 loss in the final of the Penncrest Holiday Tournament, the sting sets in particularly deep.

“We were really on a roll,” Hemphill said, “and it really hurts to lose this game.”

Hurts because the Lions (3-6) had fought back from a deficit that stretched as large as 11 points in the second quarter. Hurts because the Lions got 21 points and eight rebounds from fab freshman Mikey Mita. Hurts because Penncrest weathered seven ties and nine lead changes, the last on Amadou Dia’s two free throws with 14.4 seconds left, after the Rockets (8-2) had missed not two but four free throws at a 52-51 deficit to go ahead.

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