City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HERSHEY — Even though they carried just a small lead back to their locker room at halftime, there was little concern among Northeastern’s confident basketball team nor was there time to even go into a state of panic.

So when the second half began a short time later, Jon Eyster’s Bobcats merely unleashed their athletic man defensive looks, cranked up their lethal transition attack and let those elements take over a once-close game.

And using a series of spurts to open things up and create plenty of separation Monday night at Hershey’s Giant Center, Northeastern cruised to a decisive 78-58 victory over YAIAA playmate Spring Grove that propelled Eyster’s explosive Bobcats to their first District 3 championship game in 13 seasons.

Antonio Rizzuto banked 30 points — including 15 in each half — and Fred Mulbah backed his junior teammate with 25 more as the top-seeded Bobcats (26-2) extended their winning streak to eight games while earning a return trip to Giant Center to face Mechanicsburg in Friday night’s 5A championship game.

Mechanicsburg downed Milton Hershey 56-45 in the other semi.

Michigan-bound Eli Brooks poured in 35 points for No. 4 Spring Grove (20-7), which also tumbled in last season’s District 3-AAAA semis. The Rockets will meet Milton Hershey in

Wednesday night’s third-place game at Lower Dauphin.

Up 10 (37-27) with 1:49 to play in the opening half after freshman Nate Wilson buried one of his two treys — yet with Rizzuto parked on the bench with a pair of fouls — the Bobcats watched that double-digit lead shrink just before the break.

Flashing a zone to prevent additional foul difficulties, the opportunistic Rockets sliced their deficit to four as Jake Messersmith and Drew Gordon each knocked down treys to make things interesting heading into the halftime respite.

“We weren’t going to lose the game in the second quarter, but we wanted to get through it without any more foul trouble,” Eyster said. “They had some guys that we didn’t close out on properly and they made some shots.

“We were fine. We felt pretty confident that as long as we were carrying out the game plan and helping on Eli we’d be OK.”

“We went into a zone to get to halftime without foul trouble, so when we got to halftime we knew we were gonna be good in the second half,” Mulbah said. “We didn’t have that much foul trouble and we were all able to play.”

And play the YAIAA Division I and YAIAA postseason champs did.

Whatever momentum the Rockets brought back to the floor disappeared quickly, as Northeastern spent the early parts of the third quarter rattling off nine straight points en route to a 46-33 advantage. Brandon Coleman sandwiched a driving layup and two freebies around Rizzuto’s short jumper and another Wilson trey.

“Second half, that’s a big thing for us,” Rizzuto said. “So when we got the lead like that that’s what we did. In the second game we played them, we didn’t have the opportunity to do that. They stayed with us the whole game, but this game was different.”

Much different.

Although the Rockets were within 10 moments later following Brooks’ old-school three-point play, Northeastern closed the quarter on a 12-4 cruise that had the Bobcats sitting on a comfortable 58-40 cushion heading into the fourth.

“We didn’t expect to beat them like that,” Rizzuto admitted. “We were expecting to go as hard as we could to get the W, but we played really good obviously.

“What we did as a team, they couldn’t stop us — second half especially.”

“We said in a coaches meeting in August that if we rebound well, we’re going to be pretty good,” Eyster said. “I thought we rebounded pretty well.

“When we rebound, that lets us go. That leads to spurtability.”

Forced to push forward defensively in an attempt to turn the Bobcats over, Northeastern solved Spring Grove’s press and opened the fourth with a 12-2 spurt that featured four Rizzuto finishes at the rim, another Coleman layup.

“We’re good at spreading teams out and getting what we want,” said Mulbah, who pocketed 15 of his 25 points in the first half. “Finishing at the bucket. We try not to settle, we try to get to the bucket when we open it up.”

“We’re hard to press,” Eyster added. “It’s not just Fred. It’s Austin [Greene] and all of us. We have a six-man rotation. When we play focused and we have a little composure, we’re gonna be in every game. It’s not just Fred.

“Fred certainly makes us hard to press,” continued Eyster, whose Bobcats split a pair of regular-season games with Spring Grove. “He can do things [with the ball] that nobody can do that we have. When he’s under control [he’s more than a handful].”

Some might say Mulbah can fly, too.

And when the 5-9 Mulbah punctuated that run with a calculated windmill jam, the Bobcats were holding a 70-42 lead that had them dreaming about chocolate, pondering a return trip to Giant Center to face Mechanicsburg and more.

“It was a great feeling,” a grinning Mulbah said of his spectacular flush. “I looked at all of my teammates and they were hyped, so I got hyped, too.”

“It was worth two points,” Eyster deadpanned.

What’s next is playing in the program’s first District 3 championship since the 2004 Bobcats tumbled in the Class AAA championship game to a powerful Steel-High program fueled by greats Tramayne Hawthorne and Tristan Crawford.

“You want to play your best game tonight so you can have another one,” Eyster said. “We didn’t want to be in the play-in bracket. We wanted to be here again.”

“It’s crazy,” Rizzuto offered. “It’s always been like a dream of all of ours. A goal we had was we wanted to win our division, we wanted to win counties and we want to win districts and we’re actually here. Giant Center’s a great place to play.”