Delcohoops.com

By Will Slover

The PIAA 6A state tournament has been anything but easy for the Rams of Pine-Richland.

From their 83-82 win in the opening round over Latrobe back on March 11, to their 65-60 semifinal win over Carlisle on March 21, the last couple week of basketball have been constant battles for the Gibsonia-based squad.

Pine-Richland’s road to a PIAA 6A state title will certainly not get any easier, as after winning four games in 10 days to get to the championship game, the Rams will be paired up with the Red Knights of Reading High School on Saturday night at Hershey’s Giant Center to see who will take hoisting the ultimate prize from Pennsylvania’s largest classification.

Rick Perez’s Red Knights are led by Miami (Fl.) commit Lonnie Walker, who poured in 35 points in Reading’s 57-51 triumph over Archbishop Ryan in the semifinals.

The 6-foot-5 super-athletic Walker presents a problem for every team he plays against, as his great success in his senior season has earned him the right to play in both the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic once the season concludes, but Pine-Richland plans on being ready for everything the five-star recruit and the rest of his talented teammates bring to the table.

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By Matt Smith

Boyertown’s Abby Kapp knew the shot was in the moment it left her fingertips.

It was a beauty of a basket — the game-winner, of course — and the last ride for an awesome Cardinal O’Hara team that was a heavy favorite to return to Hershey’s Giant Center for a second straight season.

And yet, every once in a while, there’s a team that comes along and rewrites the script. It was District 1’s sixth-place finisher, one of 11 teams from the district to qualify for states, that gave O’Hara the fight of its life and proved deserving of a spot in Friday’s state final game against North Allegheny.

In the end, it was all about Abby Kapp, the best player on the floor Monday night at Spring-Ford High. Kapp’s 15-foot jumper sailed over the reach of Mary Sheehan and was deposited for the deciding two points in Boyertown’s stunning 39-37 defeat of O’Hara in the PIAA Class 6A state semifinal.

The game clock expired, and teammates rushed on the floor to congratulate Kapp, but officials put 1.1 seconds back on the scoreboard. Alas, O’Hara’s desperate, full-court heave as time expired didn’t come close to falling in.

(Webmaster’s note: The Cardinal O’Hara vs Boyertown game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link on the left hand side of the page.)

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By Thomas Nash

Everyone inside Spring-Ford’s Gymnasium knew where the ball was headed.

Everyone, that is, except her.

Abby Kapp knocked down the game-winning jumper with 1.1 seconds left in regulation to lead Boyertown past Cardinal O’Hara 39-37 in the semifinal round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs on Monday night.

We were trying to run a play to get Alli (Marcus) the ball,” recalled Kapp of the inbound play, “but they were face-guarding her because they didn’t want us to get into any offensive set. So I heard coach (Jason) Bieber say, ‘Abby, go get the ball.’”

Kapp got the ball, got to her spot and proceeded to get the Bears to their first state final in school history while sending defending state runner-up and District 12 champ Cardinal O’Hara home empty handed. Boyertown will face off against North Allegheny (winner over Souderton) in Friday night’s state championship game (6 p.m.) at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Just two days after she nailed a clutch 3-pointer with 17 seconds left in the quarterfinal round, she was at it again. Kapp corralled the ball at half court and glanced up at the clock.

What happened next was vintage Abby Kapp.

(Webmaster’s note: The Cardinal O’Hara vs Boyertown game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link on the left hand side of the page.)

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By Jack McCaffery

When she’s 20, when she’s 30, when she’s 40, for as long as girls play basketball at Cardinal O’Hara High, Mary Sheehan plans to follow the same routine.

She will enter the gym.

She will look to the banners on the wall.

She will remember her senior season, and she will smile.

“It will say that we won the Catholic League,” Sheehan said. “And the two teams that we beat on the way will probably win state championships in their own right. I’m hoping for that. It’s a competitive league and it’s an historic league and I’ll have that memory forever.

“That memory will trump this one in the end.”

The Lions’ season had been over for about 15 minutes Monday night, punctured by a 16-foot jumper with 1.6 seconds left from Abigail Kapp that gave Boyertown a 39-37 victory in the semifinals of the PIAA Class 6A tournament. But that was plenty of time for the perspective to subdue the expectations. And there were expectations on the Lions, most from the outside, at least some from within, and they had been building for years.

(Webmaster’s note: The Cardinal O’Hara vs Boyertown game was our Game-of-the-Week and can be heard on our Archives link on the left hand side of the page.)

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By Bob Grotz

Chester High coach Larry Yarbray probably can count on one hand the games where his guys “played like Clippers” yet lost.

One of the heartbreakers was Sunday.

The Clippers bounced back from a couple of double-digit deficits but ran out of plays in the second overtime against Abington Heights, which rode the hot hand of scorer Jackson Danzig to a 65-61 victory in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal at Bethlehem’s Liberty High.

Danzig scored 18 of the Comets’ 22 points in the overtimes against a variety of defenders. The 30-point performance was so off-the-charts that Clippers fans waiting for their team paid their respects to the senior when he walked by. Danzig has totaled 55 points the last two games for the Comets.

“It was a heck of a game to watch,” Yarbray said. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t come out on the other side. But the kids played hard. They did everything we asked them to do. It just came down to making plays and (Abington Heights) made plays at the right time while we couldn’t come up with the loose ball or the rebound. They hit a couple shots to put the pressure back on us. And they made a couple foul shots at the end.”

Seniors Ahrod Carter, Jamar Sudan and Jordan Camper gave the Clippers a chance to win late in regulation. Carter buried two of his six 3-pointers in the frame while Sudan worked the low post for seven points to knot the game at 41. With 42.4 ticks left, Camper tapped in a miss to give the Clippers their first lead.

But, well, you know who converted a reverse layup just before the buzzer to force the first extra session. Danzig had four points in the frame for Comets, who downshifted into a clock-killing mode, only to be unable to finish around the basket.

The Clippers never trailed in the second overtime. Carter got them started with a 3-pointer and Michael Smith canned two straight shots from beyond the arc. Sudan’s free throw with 1:04 to go staked the Clipper to a five-point lead, their largest of the game.

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By Bob Grotz

Archbishop Carroll’s quest to reach Hershey ended inconsolably Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the boy’s PIAA Class 5A state tournament.

While there are no moral victories, it took Northeastern four quarters to catch up to the Patriots, and two overtimes to break through for an 86-84 decision at Garden Spot High.

“It was a really good high school basketball game and all the credit goes to Northeastern and how they battled,” Patriots coach Paul Romanczuk said. “They didn’t give up. They could have laid down there and they just kept coming. They have a lot of toughness about them and that’s what it takes to make deep state playoff runs. And I thought my team really had that as well.”

The Patriots will secondguess themselves for blowing the 15-point lead they carried into the fourth quarter. But they can find solace in rallying from an almost impossible sixpoint deficit with 28 seconds left in the second overtime.

A.J. Hoggard drilled backto-back treys to make it a onepossession game for the Patriots. The third attempt wasn’t a charm, the Bobcats grabbing the rebound to secure their 30th victory of the season.

“We got one of the best shots we could possibly get, a little floater from a guy who just hit two three-pointers and had played well down the stretch for us,” Romanczuk said. “We had a lot of chances. There were some breakdowns we’d like to have back but it’s still high school basketball and teenagers. We kept battling even though there was some adversity going against us there and I’m proud of the guys. I’m really proud of them.”

The Patriots got after the Bobcats from the outset. Senior Colin Daly scored 11 of his team-high 19 points to stake the Pats to an 18-16 lead entering the second quarter.

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