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PIAA 1A/3A Championship Preview: New stars leads Kennedy Catholic in title defense

03/23/2017, 12:00am EDT
By Josh Verlin & Michael Bullock

Maceo Austin (above) and Kennedy Catholic are one win from a state championship title defense. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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The big man in the middle is gone for Kennedy Catholic.

But Rick Mancino has a new star who’s ready to shine at the GIANT Center.

Last year, the Eagles relied on Sagaba Konate to lead the way against Math, Civics & Sciences in the 2016 PIAA Class A championship game, and the powerful 6-foot-8 forward responded with 17 points and 22 rebounds to lead his team to a 71-60 win.

Though Konate is now at West Virginia, where he’s playing a solid reserve role for a Mountaineers squad currently in the Sweet 16, Kennedy Catholic isn’t lacking for a Division I prospect as it treks back to Hershey to defend its crown at 2 PM on Tuesday.

Sophomore Maceo Austin, a 6-4 guard who was the Eagles’ sixth man a year ago, has blossomed into a featured scorer for Mancino, averaging 19.3 ppg and 5.1 apg, and schools are taking notice. Penn State, West Virginia, Akron and Duquesne have all offered the lanky scorer, according to Mancino, who also said that Kansas State and other high-majors are on the trail.

“He’s just such an all-around player,” Mancino said by phone on Monday. “If you sag on him, he’s shooting on you, if you get too close he’s taking it to the basket. He looks thin but he’s so strong and he uses his body so well; if you get too close he’s going right around you. He’s got a quick first step and he’ll pull on you too, and we post him up, if you put a guard on him he goes right inside.”

Austin isn’t even the leading scorer on Kennedy Catholic, however. That honor goes to 6-2 senior Drew Magestro, who’s averaging 20.2 ppg, 6.3 apg and 4.0 rpg; Magestro, Austin, 6-4 senior Mohamed Konate (10.0 ppg) and 5-11 senior Channing Phillips (7.0 ppg) are all back from last year’s run.

New to the rotation this year are 6-7 senior Marcin Wiszomirsky (10.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg), 6-3 senior Clay O’Dell (7.6 ppg) and 5-8 sophomore Manis Norman (1.9 ppg), while a few others see time in certain situations.
The Eagles (25-3), who won the District 10 tournament, once again are taking on a team from Philadelphia in the state championship game in District 1 champs Girard College (24-8). The Cavaliers are back in their first state championship game since 2009, which ended successfully for a team led by future Pitt/Penn State guard John Johnson, then a sophomore.

This year’s Girard squad, under the direction of first-year head coach Clyde Jones -- previously a successful coach at notable District 1 AAAA squad Penn Wood -- has its own promising youngster in Mikeal Jones (22.2 ppg, 8.8 rpg). A 6-8 forward with a Penn State offer of his own, Jones isn’t the physical specimen that Konate is, but he’s a much more skilled face-up forward who can score inside and out.

“We know what they have because we went against it every day last year and the year before. We know that’s a big advantage for them,” Mancino said. “When you think you have an open lane, that 6-8 kid can close it quite quick. So I can tell you that right off the bat, we’ll going to have to just see what they’re going to do to see how we’re going to attack him.”

While Mancino said he’d be watching film on Girard College to pick on some things, and that he’ll be letting his team know which players to focus on -- 6-4 junior Daiquan Copeland (20.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg), 6-2 junior Craig Logan (9.1 ppg), 6-6 sophomore Brandon Smith (6.5 ppg), 5-3 freshman Aquil Stewart (5.6 ppg) and 5-9 sophomore Kasim Toliver (5.4 ppg) round out the rest of the typical six-man rotation -- he’s not worried much about preparation from that standpoint.

It’s all about handling the atmosphere, the pressure of expectations and finishing the task at hand.

“My team, if I sat there and tried to tell my team every play that they did the whole game, it just doesn’t work like that with my players,” he said. “I have enough confidence in my players that I think they’ll pick it up, as the game’s going, they’ll know.

“We won’t lose because we don’t know what they’re doing,” he added.

~~~

3A Championship: Neumann-Goretti vs. Lincoln Park
The Saints’ hunt for a four-peat comes to its terminal game in the second final on Wednesday, as Neumann-Goretti meets a Lincoln Park squad that’s got some championship pedigree of its own. The Leopards last played in state final in 2014, when Leopards rallied for 70-66 win over Math, Civics & Sciences in Class A final.

Bowling Green recruit Nelly Cummings scored eight points in that win, but is now well over 2,000 career points as he heads into final high school game. He put up 30 against Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic in the semifinals, including 21 from the foul line in the fourth quarter; he as 23 of 24 at line for game.

Cummings was the only double-figure scorer in that one, which saw Lincoln Park (25-5) rally from down 11 to take home a 54-46 win. He’ll need more scoring help against Neumann-Goretti, especially from 6-0 senior Evan Brown, a D-III La Roche commit; 6-2 sophomore Keeno Holmes, 6-5 sophomore Thomas Melonja, 6-3 junior Nick Antonucci and 6-1 junior Gibbs Kanyongo round out the rotation.

Carl Arrigale's Saints (23-7) haven't really been challenged thus far in a romp through the state playoffs, winning their four games by an average of 27.5 points after a 76-47 win over Del-Val Charter in the semifinals. So far, nobody's been able to stop the duo of Kentucky-bound point guard Quade Green and future Villanova big man Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, not to mention a talented cast that includes 6-3 senior Mike Milsip (East Stroudsburg), 6-9 junior Marcus Littles, 5-11 junior Noah Warren, 6-1 sophomore Christian Ings and 6-2 junior Dymir Montague.


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