City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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SHILLINGTON, Pa. -- LaPri McCray-Pace wasn’t going to let Conwell-Egan go out without a fight.

The Eagles' senior guard, one of two starters left over from last year’s PIAA Class AA championship run, saw his team down five at the half to Minersville and knew he had to do something about it.

“We just had to pick it up,” McCray-Pace said. “I had to pick it up on both ends and we just had to get going.”

The 6-foot-2 senior wing scored 12 points in a third quarter that really helped fuel an Eagles comeback, finishing with 30 points in a 54-51 victory at Governor Mifflin Intermediate School.

While his team won its seventh straight PIAA state playoff game to advance into the quarterfinals, Conwell-Egan head coach Frank Sciolla was not exactly pleased with his team’s overall effort against the District 11 champions.

The Eagles were just 8-of-25 in a first half where they trailed by as many as eight, and didn’t bring the defensive intensity that they displayed in winning five games by double figures in last year’s championship run.

“They really out hustled us from tip-to-buzzer,” Scolia said. “They handled situations really really well, they came and they played super hard and they played like it was their last game and they respected that, they respected the nature of the game.”

A 3-pointer by Vinny Dalessandro to start the fourth quarter gave the Eagles a 39-38 lead--their first since a layup by the 6-8 senior big man, bound for D-II Pace University (N.Y.), made it 2-0 to start the game.

“He had to get himself rolling,” McCray-Pace said. “I think that three gave him a bit more confidence, he attacked the glass more and started knocking down shots.”

That triple began a 12-2 run that stretched the Egan lead to 48-40 in the final four minutes, before free-throw woes allowed Minersville to stay in the game.

The Eagles shot just 1-4 in one-and-one situations in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter as the Battlin’ Miners made one final push.

Triples by Shane Hoffman and Aaron Snyder closed the gap to as little as one with 30 seconds remaining.

But it was McCray-Pace who elevated his team to the victory, sinking four consecutive free throws to close out the game and allow his Eagles to advance to the quarterfinals of the PIAA tournament.

“All of the seniors, we didn’t want it to be our last game,” Dalessandro said. “My mindset, was every play we have to be in it, the whole game: cannot let them get open shots, we’ve got to get plays going, work together and not turn the ball over.”

For the game, Dalessadro chimed in 15 points of his own as the only other Eagles player in double figures. McCray-Pace also surpassed Andrew Holland to become Conwell-Egan’s modern-day scoring leader with 1,250 points.

Minersville was paced by senior guard Chris Leshko, who finished with a team-high 16 points, along with junior Shane Hoffman who chimed in 14 points.

The Fightin’ Miners seemed to have luck on their side with several wild plays, including a behind-the-back pass that resulted in a layup to end the third quarter with a two-point lead, and a banked 3-pointer with under a minute left that cut the Egan lead to three.

It wasn’t until a full-court heave at the buzzer clanked off the backboard that Sciolla finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“When he threw that baseball pass, he threw it and I thought 'why not,’” Sciolla said. “You need those type of things to win in the state playoffs.”

Conwell-Egan will take on Camp Hill out of District 3 on Saturday in the AA quarterfinals.

And based on the volume level of Sciolla's speech to his teammates resonating out into the hallways, he won't be letting his team come out with the same energy level this weekend.

“The only way you get anything out of these guys is with the hammer,” Scolia remarked. “I even said it, the last two days were like Club Med. And as the game was going on I just thought, sometimes that maybe a team’s personality is that you have to keep having the hammer...it will be making its reappearance tomorrow, and then we have to be ready to roll on Saturday.”

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Wednesday's Results

Class AA -- Second Round
Conwell-Egan 54, Minersville 51
Camp Hill 45, Wilkes-Barre Meyers 40
Mastery Charter North 85, Danville 52
Trinity 67, Parkway Center City 48
Aliquippa 56, Bishop Canevin 38
West Middlesex 55, Penns Valley 52
Lincoln Park 76, Washington 73
Quaker Valley 57, Greensburg Central Catholic 47

Class AAAA -- Second Round
Plymouth-Whitemarsh 58, Bangor 44
Simon Gratz 64, J.P. McCaskey 56
Parkland 54, Ridley 50
Roman Catholic 60, Central Bucks West 41
Reading 71, Emmaus 54
Chester 74, Spring-Ford 49
Carlisle 74, North Hills 69
Taylor Allderdice 75, Pine-Richland 60