Steel High 70 Johnstown 48

Hershey, PA..March 19, 2005

The Steel High Rollers won their 4th PIAA state championship in fine fashion. It took The Rollers some time to get started but once they did, Steel high was fun to watch. The veteran club produced dunks, fast breaks, steals, off boards and excellent team play. Of course, a great performance (30 points) by 6’3” Tristan Crawford did not hurt the cause. Crawford hit threes, dunks, spins and pull up jumpers as he dominated the game on the offensive end.

Early on it look as though Johnstown would be up to the challenge of playing the district 3 champ on its “home” floor at the giant Center. JT started out in man and then switched to a 2-1-2 for most of the game. The Trojans brought a ton of fans, dressed in light blue T-shirts. They were loud and proud as JT took an early lead on the strength of their inside game. Kurt Hoffman, 6’6” jn, and Derek Rose , 6’2” jn, scored early vs the Steel High 3-2 zone. A follow by Rose gave the Trojans a 9-6 lead with 2:15 left in the quarter. Steel High’s Coach Binder call time out to settle his troops. Whatever he said , it must have been magic. A three ball by Jerel Lewis and a jumper by Hawthorne and another jumper by Jerel Laymen, gave the Rollers a 13-11 lead at the break.

As the second quarter started, Steel High switched its def. from a 3-2 to mostly man with some full court traps. The game got faster and the Rollers got better. Hawthorne had a traditional three point play, Sean Alexander scored on a jumper, Hawthorne scored on a spin move as the Rollers increased their lead to 22-13 in the middle of the 2nd period. In the next 3 minutes, Hawthorne scored all of the Rollers next 14 points. Steel High 36-24 at the half.

The Mid Penn runner up Rollers came out focused as they went on a 13-4 run to open up the third. Any doubts about this game were pretty much over. The highlights included a dunk by Hawthorne and a nifty basket off of a steal by Laymen where at least 3 steel High players made great passes to lead up to the bucket. The Roller faithful were in a frenzy.

Some delay game, a dunk, and fouls highlighted the 4th. The rollers coasted home to take the crown.

Stats:
Reb.
Jtown 34
steel high 39

Turnovers
JTown 16
Steel High 11

Shooting %
Jtown 36%
Steel High 52%

Points
JTown
Kurt Hoffman 12
derek Rose 19

Steel High
Tramayne Hawthorne 11
Tristan Crawford 30

Sidelines....Thanks to PIAA for allowing LLHoops.com to cover the game...Good to see our NEast beat writer, Jon K. and dad at the games. Also, HS guru Jerry Shenk provided us with his usual historical perspective on the games. Look for Jerry's final ratings to be out soon........Attendance for the evening boy / girl double header was 8, 833. ...MIA was Melissa Mertz, PIAA executive and PR person, as she was working the swimming championships........Thanks to long time stats guy , Barry Kauffman , who provides the media with all the stats that they could ever use.........Dave Porter of www.tornadoalley.com provided us with the picts of the games. Individual picts of the “poster” can be ordered by contacting Dave at vze3mf7n@verizon.net.......Also past games of LL play can be ordered from him. I appreciated his taking the time to show us how he does his trade. Shame on PennLive for taking him off the Bboard.......LL refs Dinny Kinlock, Mel Newcomer, and Lenny Neff worked the 1A boys games. Congrats to our refs. ..... Finally, nothing better than stopping after the game to the Parkside. With 3 tv’s (Bucknell upsets Kansas) and great food and good prices and an eclectic bunch of people, it makes the trip down 283 a lot easier for this sports writer!

~ Dell Jackson

Picts by Dave Porter - www.tornadoalleyhoops.com