City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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HERSHEY — Zane Conlon and Shane Doyle sat on the Devon Prep bench at the Giant Center two years ago as freshmen, watching the Tide capture the first PIAA title in program history.

The juniors made their return to Hershey on Saturday afternoon with a completely different set of teammates — all 10 of the players who played in the 2022 championship game gone to graduation.

As they envisioned from the bench two years ago, Conlon and Doyle helped Devon Prep to its second state title with a 60-56 win over Franklin Area in the PIAA Class 3A title. 

Conlon led the way with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Doyle piled up 15 points and four assists as the new-look Tide squad captured the program’s second state championship in three years.

“As soon as me and Shane stepped foot on campus, we just knew we wanted to win as much as we could,” Conlon said. “After we got that one freshman year, we just set our minds to it.”

The Devon Prep boys basketball title celebrates with its student section after winning the PIAA Class 3A championship on Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

Aside from those two on the bench, Devon Prep 11th-year coach Jason Fisher was the only holdover from the 2022 title game. He said the experience helped, even if it didn’t show early on.

After jumping out to an early lead, Devon Prep (15-13) fell behind by five in the second quarter when Franklin Area senior Cole Buckley rattle off eight in a row for his team. Doyle canned a pair of triples to give the Tide a 25-24 advantage at half.

“I thought we were playing a little too timid in the first half,” Fisher said. “We passed up a lot of good shots that normally we wouldn’t even think about passing up. … That third quarter, they relaxed and got the tempo a little bit more where we needed it to go … and then we held on for dear life.”

The Tide extended the lead to five less than two minutes into the third on a thunderous slam from junior Reece Craft. Conlon got going with 10 of his points in the period, and senior Zach Orchard hit a three for his first points of the game late in the period to send the Tide into the fourth quarter with a 46-37 lead. 

Orchard’s second triple of the game put Devon back up 50-42 with 5:57 left, but Franklin Area had a run. Buckley finished with 20 points, senior Jalen Wood scored 16 and senior Damarco Payne scored 12 for Franklin Area. They combined for eight unanswered, tying the game 50-50 with 3:27 left on an and-one by Buckley.

When his older brother Lucas helped Devon win the state title two years ago, Orchard was essentially the team’s waterboy. This time he was on the court, finishing with 11 points — the biggest coming on his third triple that gave Devon the lead back, 53-50, with 2:24 to play.

“I was just ready to shoot because I passed up one earlier in the game, and they told me, ‘You gotta be ready to shoot. You can’t play scared,’” Orchard said. “I was like, I worked my whole life for a moment like this, and I just caught it, shot it, made it, and focused on finding No. 5 (Wood) and denying him the ball.”

From left, Devon Prep seniors Jackson Buzbee, Greg Perullo, Ben Costello, Zach Orchard and juniors Mike Pergolis and Ayinde McClendon pose together after Saturday's PIAA 3A championship. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

Craft was at Malvern Prep as a freshman and came to the program last year. The 6-foot-7 forward finished with 11 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and three blocks. 

He said the play he’ll remember most was the thunderous slam, but his two most important contributions came after Orchard’s clutch triple. He swatted a drive on the other end and then hit a pair of free throws to put Devon up by five with 1:48 to play. 

After some struggles at the free throw line, the Tide had to sweat out a pair of game tying shots before they did enough at the charity stripe to celebrate a state title.

“This is the most joy I’ve ever felt playing basketball in my life,” Craft said. “We work really hard as a team, so this is just a great experience.”

The Tide joined the Philadelphia Catholic League in 2018-19. This season they were the lone Philadelphia Catholic League boys team to hoist a PIAA trophy despite finishing eighth in the league (5-8) with a 9-13 overall record entering the PIAA postseason. 

“I don’t know if we’re ever going to be mentioned in the same breath as some of those teams. I get it,” said Fisher, who joined Roman Catholic’s Chris McNesby and Neumann-Goretti’s Carl Arrigale as the only PCL coaches to win multiple state titles. “We don’t have Top 5 players in the country, but they play good basketball. They really do, and they’re really tough and they work hard, and we’ll keep on getting better.”

Even without junior starters Mason Thear and Calvin Smith, whot sat throughout the PIAA postseason due to transfer rules, the Tide won the program’s first District 12 title and first district title overall since 2012 on March 1 to start a six-game win streak on the way to state gold. 

Fisher started a different lineup every game during the stretch.

Seniors Orchard, Ben Costello, Brian Kamara and Greg Perullo will be missed next season from the tight-knit group. Conlon applauded senior manager Jackson Buzbee for his role in turning the team into one of the closest Fisher has been around.

The rest of the core and players like freshman Cooper Fairlamb and juniors Mike Pergolis and Ayinde McLendon, who stepped up in the postseason will be back next year along with Thear and Smith. They’ll look to make some noise in the Catholic League before trying to make another state title run.

“It’s a great building block,” Craft said. “Everybody’s coming back, so it’s really exciting. For us to have this, in a year when no one really expected us to do this, and then have another group come back it’s awesome and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Devon Prep 60, Franklin Area 56

By Quarter

Franklin Area  11 | 13 | 13 | 19 || 56

Devon Prep  14 | 11 | 21 | 14 || 60

Scoring

Franklin Area: Cole Buckley 20, Jalen Wood 16, Damarco Payne 12, Damon Curry 5, Dreyden Payne 3.

Devon Prep: Zane Conlon 20, Shane Doyle 15, Reece Craft 11, Zach Orchard 11, Cooper Fairlamb 3.