skip navigation

PIAA A: Girard College surges past York Country Day

03/19/2017, 12:15am EDT
By Michael Bullock

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)

--

NEW HOLLAND — With a critical result still dangling there unclaimed — as it was Saturday afternoon — Girard College simply got the basketball to the one guy who’d been exposed to the postseason experience and got the heck out of the way.

Mikeal Jones handled everything else.

Collecting the final six points of a PIAA Class A quarterfinal-round duel that packed all sorts of drama between the opening tip and final horn, the 6-8 Jones rang up 28 points,  snatched 13 boards as Girard College rallied for a 75-72 victory over York Country Day in overtime Saturday afternoon at electrified Garden Spot High School.

Jones, who relocated to Girard College (23-8) and reclassified to the 2020 graduating class after spending his first varsity season celebrating a PIAA Class AAAA championship at Roman Catholic, also dished out three assists and blocked two shots.

“At Roman last year, that was just an amazing feeling and it prepared me for this moment,” Jones admitted. “Because I knew that looking up to those guys, those Roman guys, makes me feel like I can do what they did.”

Clyde Jones’ Cavaliers also picked up 21 points, nine rebounds and four dimes from hobbled 6-5 junior Daiquan Copeland and 13 points from Craig Logan before finally subduing the pesky Greyhounds, pocketing the victory and earning a spot in Monday’s semis opposite the same Faith Christian side GC blistered in the District 1 final.

Faith Christian upended previously unbeaten St. John Neumann 44-43 in another tight quarterfinal-round showdown at Pottsville’s Martz Hall.

Country Day (21-5), which held the lead until Jones stepped back into the spotlight in the decisive final moments, popped all five of its starters into double figures and put on a dandy deep shooting display before a late turnover ultimately sealed its fate.

While Jordan Ray topped the District 3 champions with 20 points, 6-4 sophomore Jalen Gorham was ridiculously impressive before fouling out. All Gorham did was ring up 17 points, get his mitts on 16 rebounds, dish out three assists and block four shots.

DeAireus Brown (12), Greg Gladfelter (12) and D.J. Hamilton (11) tacked up the remaining 35 points for Chris Charleston’s Greyhounds, who knocked down 13 treys against GC’s assortment of zone and man defensive sets.

“Those guys, they played a great game,” Jones said of the Greyhounds. “I can’t say enough about those guys, because they played us hard and they played us right from the start. We just came away with the win.”

Down 72-67 after Ray converted the back end of a two-shot look with just over a minute to play, Girard College’s deficit soon stood at three after a Logan stickback.

Re-enter Jones.

“Definitely,” Jones said. “I know adversity happens everywhere every day. So I just told myself, ‘We good. We good.’ I just kept telling myself that ‘We good.’

“And I just came up with a big play.”

Hacked in the act of following up a miss, Jones had a chance to pull the Cavaliers even when he strolled to the foul line for the and-one. While that freebie didn’t drop through the net, Logan snared the offensive board and returned the ball to Jones.

What followed was a slash through the paint for a finish at the rim that popped Girard College back in front (73-72) with some 20 seconds to go by just the slightest of margins and led Country Day to request a TO with 15.4 showing on the clock.

With Jonathan Goodstein and Luke Greisler in the lineup since Brown and Gorham fouled out — Copeland and Brandon Smith fouled out for GC — the ball wound up in Goodstein’s hands in the right corner and he quickly hoisted a 3-ball.

When Jones came down with the rebound, he was fouled immediately.

Stepping back to the line with just 3.5 seconds to play — where he’d canned just two of his previous 11 looks — Jones calmly swished a pair that bumped the lead to 75-72.

“That was just the time of the game when I told myself, ‘We need it. We need it.’” Jones recalled. “If I don’t make them, we go home. I did not want to go home.”

Despite Jones’ two makes, York Country Day still had a chance.

“It’s crazy, because for the season, he shoots 73 percent from the line,” Clyde Jones said. “But he’s had a stretch the last few weeks where he would miss three or four or five. We shoot them every day, but we missed [a bunch] today.”

That opportunity soon disappeared as Ray, who will play football at FCS entry Hampton beginning in the fall, dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds.

Girard College was moving on.

And the guy who last March collected two points, grabbed two rebounds, dished out two assists and redirected one shot in Roman’s 73-62 victory over Allderdice in the Class AAAA title game had rescued the Cavaliers when it counted most.

At the very end.

“Survive and advance,” Clyde Jones said. “It’s really new for this group, so it’s really important. The good thing about is you see when we get down, they don’t really panic. They just continue to play and I want them to understand that the game still has time left and you don’t want to let it get away from you.”

Yet while both sides flashed zones throughout the first half — in an effort to avoid foul troubles since both had short benches — Gladfelter, Ray and Hamilton shared 24 points as York Country Day opened a 27-21 lead at the break.

Once Girard College switched to its man defense in the third quarter, the Cavaliers’ energy picked up as the pace quickened. Plus, Clyde Jones’ bunch was determined to get the ball into the paint against Country Day’s 2-3 scheme.

“When you watch them, they’re an extremely athletic team,” Clyde Jones said. “They can shoot the ball well and they get the ball down court quickly. So we were playing some soft pressure to have them slow the ball down and fall back into a 2-3 zone simply to stay out of foul trouble and Daiquan Copeland was playing on a badly sprained ankle.

“I wanted to see how his foot was feeling before he was running around too much and we went man,” Clyde Jones added. “So, our plan was to try to slow the game down and play the first half to get to the second half.”

Worked, too, as Girard College grabbed a 48-46 lead after three behind 10 points from Copeland and nine more from Jones. 

“Once he gets going, I get going,” Jones said, commending Copeland. “We just feed off each other’s energy like that. We’re like Batman and Robin. We’re right next to each other all the time and once he gets going, I get going … and vice versa.”

And when Jones flushed a Copeland dish with 3:12 to play, GC was sporting a 61-53 cushion that seemed too tall for Charleston’s plucky ‘Hounds. 

Yet it wasn’t, as Brown buried a jumper, Ray sank the last of his five treys and Gorham drilled a 3-ball that pulled Charleston’s group within one (62-61) with two minutes to go.

Moments later, Country Day was back in front after Gorham converted both ends of a one-and-one. While both sides exchanged misses at the stripe, Gorham tied the game with 30.4 left by sinking the front half of a two-shot look.

Jones had a chance to put GC back in front at the 8.5 mark, but missed both.

Yet when he had another chance to deliver, he did so … in multiples.

Hey, get it to the guy who’s been there before.

“It’s really big, because he’s the only one that’s been in this environment,” Clyde Jones stated, referring to his prized youngster. “He’s the second-youngest guy on the team, but he has the most experience as far as what we’re going through right now. 

“So I expect him to lead,” added Jones, who took over at GC prior to this season following a lengthy stint at Penn Wood. “I expect him to show decorum on the court and have those guys look to him as they gain in experience.

“Since he’s already been there, they can lean on him.”

And, in the game’s waning yet decisive moments, they did just that.


HS Coverage:

Recruiting News:

Tag(s): Home  Old HS  Suburban One  District 3  York Country Day