Hershey Park Arena

March 4, 2008

PIAA second round games

A

Friere Charter 50   Scotland 46

In a battle of single A heavy weights, the Philly District 12 champ won out in a closely contested game. We had blocks shots, dunks, threes, drives and bodies flying everywhere. Scotland relied on its tight man while charter used a very effective 3-2 zone. Scotland hit 8 three on the evening. A three ball by Christian Debrest of Scotland got the Cadets to within one at 10-9 at the end of one quarter. Charter drove to the bucket in the second and got to the foul line. Fueled by Jarrod Denard, 6’1” sn. (9 pts in the quarter), Charter led 27 -18 at the break.

Scotland used the three ball, mostly by Debronis Warren, 5’8” sn (3 of them in the period), in the third period to cut the gap to 2 entering the fourth. Scotland would take the lead at 42-41 with 4 minutes to go on another three by Warren. Charter made a foul to tie. Scotland made a foul to take a one point lead at 43-42. Charter got a follow by Octavious Booker , 6’7” soph, to gain the advantage again at 44-43. Yet another three ball by Warren gave Scotland its last lead at 46-45. Charter hit 2 fouls, a drive, another fast break to finish the game on a 6-0 run and advance to the next round.

Koron Reed, 6’5” jn for Freire had an outstanding game on the boards and blocking shots.

 

AAA

Daniel Boone 74  Eastern York 72

 In a game where Eastern was in control for most, if not, the entire game until the end, the Boone Blazers nipped the Eastern Knights at the buzzer to advance to the next round games in the PIAA tournament. Eastern features not one but 2 freshmen starters. Both of the starters, 6’6” Andrew Nicholas and 6’ Austin Tillotson, played well. In fact Nicholas was arguably the star of the game as he drove, got put backs, handled the ball and blocked shots. Boone relied on penetration and backdoors by Daniel Sekulski, 6’1” sn and Jeff Sowers a 6’2” sn. However, when the Blazers were down at the end of the game , they turned to the three ball, making 4 and just missing on making the fifth. The Blazers scored an incredible 30 points in the fourth to overcome a 10 point disadvantage at the end of 3 quarters..

Eastern lead at the end of each quarter except the fourth (15-9 after one. 33-26 at half, and 52-42 at the end of three).

With about 4 minutes to go in the game, Eastern was up 61-49. Boone hit a jumper and then a drive to make it 61-53. Nicholas answers with a post move. Boone would then hit a drive and a three ball. 63-58 and the old Mr. Mo was shifting and the Boone fans were getting into it. Eastern got up by 8 at 66-58 only to see the pattern of 5 more points for Boone repeat itself again.66-64 Eastern. Eastern hit n2 fouls. Boone would score on a drive and a foul on the next possession. 68-67 Eastern. Nicholas with a post and freshman Tillotson got fouled and made both. Eastern 72-67.  A three ball by Sowers cut it to 2 pts. With the score 72-70 at 33 seconds to go, Eastern turned the ball over and Boone hit a lay-up to tie it. Eastern brought the ball up with 19 ticks to go and got stripped with 6 seconds to go..Boone ran down the floor, missed the lay-up but a huge put back by Sekulski at the buzzer gave the Blazers an incredible win in the Arena.

 

 

 

Steel High 71   Hershey 51

In the night cap, Steel High  was in  high gear as the Rollers started out quickly led by Ryan Hill 6’3” soph.. Hill had 11 points in the quarter as the Rollers led 19-9 at the end of one. Steel High was pressing form the start of the game. Hershey would break it but did not seem to be able to finish enough to make the Rollers pull back. Hershey would get to the line in the second period to keep things close. Kevin Kettl. 6’5” sn for Hershey would keep the game close. 28-21. Steel High used its inside strength to pound the ball inside vs the smaller Trojans. A 21-11 third quarter advantage gave Steel High a 49-32 lead that was not to be made up by Hershey. Steel High advances in the “western” side of the bracket. The Rollers might have to take their loud fan base to the western part of the state to continue on towards another shot at a PIAA crown.

Sidelines…Etown College Coach Bob Schlosser and his assistants were out recruiting this evening…The Arena is OLD…bad lighting, no room to move, poor lavs..yep it was good to be back in the old Arena. I can remember way back in the days when John Harris and William Penn would be playing in the Arena and a cloud of smoke would be seen enveloping the ceiling J…The place is cold too J…The Parkside has to have the best food in the area... Outside of the Steel High “clap”, the crowds have been pretty quiet this year and small. Not sure if this is due to gas prices or lack of D1 talent to see?...Ref advisor Bob Newbury gave me some insight on rules before the game…Pennlive carries some games on the net. Check them out on main page…LLhoops.com will be heading to Reading HS Wed. to see the big boys playJ

 

~Dell Jackson

 

 

 

Giant Center , Hershey PA

Semis AAAA

Feb. 19, 2008

 

 

 

Reading 61 Etown 38

 

Reading High cruised to a win in the last game of a triple header at Hershey. The Knights got out to a quick start as Jourdine Burdine, 6’4” scoring machine, scored 11 points in the quarter, including 3 three balls. Reading kept the pressure on the Bears as they trapped and pressed full court. Etown would get some openings but in the end the Bears did not shoot it well enough to mount a challenge to the unbeaten Knights. Reading led 22-11 after one period. The Knights stretched the lead to 34-22 after 2 periods.  Reading outscored Etown 19-8 in the third to effectively put the game on ice. 6’4” Senior, Nathan Koach, led the Bears with 13 points (this included a nice dunk at the end of the game). The Knights played some keep away at the end of the game as they get ready to play CD East Saturday at 1:00 for a district crown.

 

Unofficial stats

 

Turnovers

 

Etown

20

 

Reading

20

 

Rebounding

Etown 23

 

Reading 22

 

 

CD East 45 Harrisburg 39

 

The Panthers earned the right to play in the district title game by beating 2 time defending champ Harrisburg. CD East beat the Burg for the third time this season- this game being the most important. It would have been difficult to predict a low scoring game from these Mid Penn foes , but that is what we had. The game was marked more by excellent defense by both teams and slow whistles rather than by spectacular offense plays. Both teams would go on scoring droughts. East led 12-11 after one. Harrisburg would go on a mini run of 10-2 to take a 23-18 lead into the locker room. During the third quarter it was the Cougars who went cold from the field. East by 5 at the end of the 3^rd – 32-27.. The Cougars would go on a 10-2 run again to take the lead at 37-34 with about three minutes to go. Demon Bates would hit a huge three ball for the Panthers to tie it at 37. CD East would hit 8 out of 11 from the line in the fourth quarter to win the game.

 

Unofficial stats

 

Turnovers

 

CD East

15

 

Harrisburg

18

 

 

Rebounds

CD East

25

 

Harrisburg

28

 

 

Sidelines…Attendance for the triple header was a bit over 4000…special thanks to Ron

Strailley for keeping out stats…Jim Gano, ex Reading high coach, was on the floor for the game….Reading will be seekings its second District 3 AAAA crown. CD East will be seeking its first…In the first game, CDEast girls beat Cedar Crest 49-39. Crest would miss a bunch of shots in the second half as the Panthers took control late in the game…Etown will play Harrisburg Thursday for the 3^rd and 4^th place game.

 

 

Manheim TWP High

Play-in game AAA

Feb. 18, 2008

 

Lancaster Cath 65 Hershey 57 2OT

 

Lancaster Cath.e  a gritty win and a trip to the PIAA state tournament with a 2 OT win over Hershey. Sometimes the play-in games can be poorly executed and a poor atmosphere but this game was anything but. The game had so many plots and subplots it will be difficult to get a tru feel for this game from your readings. First and foremost, the refs allowed the teams to bang each other hard and often. Lanc. Cath. shot its first one and one with 2:04 on the clock in the first OT. Of course once they got to the line, the Crusdaers missed—a lot.  In fact in the the first OT, LC shot  2-for 6 missing 3 one and ones. There would be runs, technical fouls, intentional fouls, blocking out fouls with 3 seconds to go in the first OT, and a key 5^th fouls on one of Hershey's top player.

 

The Crusaders started out quickly with a 7-0. Hershey called timeout and went out on a 12-0 run of its own. Cath. comes back with an 8-0 run - highlighted by 2 three balls from Tyler Purvis. LC 18-15 after one.

 

The second period was a bit slower paced. Lanc. Cath ran some 2-3 zone while Hershey pretty much stuck with man, Every time it looked like Cath. would be in control, Hershey would counter with big buckets. 30-27 at the half.

 

Hershey was on fire to start the third. A foul on Simon O'Leary resulted in a "TÓ  Hershey's Chris Barsanti made 3out of the 4 fouls shots.. O'Leary would sit out the rest of the game due to a team rule.  The run continued with #25 hitting 2 jumpers. Hershey was then called for an intentional fouls vs. high scoring Cullen Farrell, 6' shooting guard for LC. A three ball by Chris Markel for LC ended the quarter at 40-39 Crusaders.

 

Back and forth went the 4^th (nice wording huhJ). The quarter featured 9 lead changes.  Hershey's 6'5Ó forward/guard, Kevin Kettl had 6 points in the period. Dan Sweigart for LC was also carrying his team as he had 7 in the period and an apparent game winning drive with 13 seconds on the clock. Hershey got the ball up the court and had a decent look from the corner. The ball rebounded long and LC came away with it only to be called for a pushing foul. 6'1Ó guard, Chris Barsanti hit the first foul shot. Coach Joe Klazas called time-out to try to freeze him but he made the second and into the first OT we went.

 

A follow by Tyler Purvis gave the Crusaders the first lead at 54-52. That was early in the 4 minute OT. LC missed 3 straight one and ones but Hershey could not answer. With Sweigart hounding Kettl and pulling down multiple rebounds, it appeared that the Crusaders were in control. After a collision in the backcourt, Keegan Tymon was bloodied and had to leave the floor. Coach Joe put in seldom used due to injury Jonathon Markel. Markel hit one but missed the second. Hershey got the ball to Kettl for a nice baseline jumper to send the game into the second and last OT.

 

Sweigart followed a miss on Catholic's first possession to give LC a 57-55 lead. Kevin Gibbons made 2 fouls shots as Hershey's shooting guard Barsanti fouled out. Hershey could not get the ball to fall as Kettl would drive but would come up empty. The Crusaders would make 8 of 12 fouls shots in this OT to finally seal the game.

 

Points

Lancaster Cath.

Tyler Purvis 15

Cullen Farrell 23

Dan Sweigart 15

 

Hershey

Chris Barsanti 20

Kevin Kettl 19

 

 

 

Quotables...Joe Klazas of LC "We executed on offense. We moved the ball well and made our threes...We were shooting with confidence. Cullen has come up with some good scoring games. He is feeling it right now...Dan's offense feeds off his defense. When he plays good d , he seems to have a good offensive game...Hershye did a good job keeping us out of the paint. ..Playing in the losing brackety is always tough. You never know how teams will come out. ..It's great feeling to get back to the states."