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PIAA Class 5A/2A Championship Preview: Wood one win from achieving its goals

03/23/2017, 10:15am EDT
By Michael Bullock

Collin Gillespie (above) and Archbishop Wood are one win away from their first-ever state championship. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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Three times in his basketball coaching career — and not all that long ago — John Mosco has found himself in the middle of state championship celebrations.

And while Mosco was an assistant coach when Neumann-Goretti collared its first three PIAA championships at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center — in 2010, 2011 and 2012 — come Friday night at Hershey’s Giant Center he hopes to get one of his own.

If so, it’ll be the first state title for Archbishop Wood, the Philadelphia Catholic League program that Mosco has fronted since taking the job in 2013.

Should Wood (27-3) complete its postseason run by knocking off District 10 champion Meadville (26-1) in the PIAA’s Class 5A title game (8 p.m.), Mosco’s Vikings will complete an unlikely double dip by claiming state gold in their first state tournament.

With the talented rotation that Mosco can put on the floor at any time — he’s used an eight-man group religiously — there’s nothing unlikely about this Wood club that spent the entire season sitting atop City of Basketball Love’s Class 5A rankings.

Not a Vikings squad that’s already tucked away Philadelphia Catholic League and District 12 championships and pocketed 21 consecutive victories.

One more victory will mean clearing more space for even more memorable hardware.

And while starters Collin Gillespie, Tyree Pickron and Matt Cerruti shared 45 points in Wood’s 68-57 conquest of District 2 champion Abington Heights in Tuesday’s semis, the Vikings found even more punch when Andrew Funk popped off the bench to add 17.

“On this team, anybody can get hot at any time,” Funk, a 6-4 junior, told CoBL afterward. “That’s what this team’s been all about. Anybody can go off any time, so that’s one of the great things about us.”

Flush with balance, size and a wealth of assets that any high school coach would gladly embrace, Mosco typically starts the 6-2 Gillespie, 6-3 Pickron and 6-5 Cerruti alongside 6-0 senior Keith Otto and 6-11 junior shotblocker Seth Pinkney.

That deep depth comes into play when Funk, 6-7 junior Karrington Wallace, 6-5 soph Julius Phillips and 5-9 senior Shawn Thompson enter the fray.

Although Funk added needed pop in Tuesday night’s success, Pickron erupted for 32 points in Sunday’s quarterfinal-round victory — banking career point No. 1,000 in the process. The Villanova-bound Gillespie, though, is the guy who really makes Wood go.

Meadville may not have the productive depth that Wood can offer, but Mark McElhinny’s Bulldogs have a remarkably dangerous catalyst in 6-2 senior Armoni Foster (26.6 ppg), the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,760 career points.

Foster collected 18 points in Monday’s 56-49 victory over Northeastern, but fouled out with 6:24 to play and watched the rest of the game from the bench.

Electric 5-9 lead guard Simeal Wofford (15.5 ppg/4.0 rpg/4.3 apg), a 5-9 senior who transferred back to Meadville from Class 4A finalist Erie Strong Vincent, chipped in 15 points. The Bulldogs also picked up a team-high 20 points and nine rebounds from powerful 6-7 sophomore Lashon Lindsey (14.6 ppg/9.2 rpg).

While Foster, Wofford and Lindsey have accounted for 90 percent of Meadville’s offense in state play, McElhinny will run a number of players in and out, including Penn State football recruit Journey Brown (1.3 ppg), Jayden Agnew (3.5 ppg), Jayson Rhoades (0.7 ppg), Jack Stevens (1.5 ppg), Malik Wilson (1.7 ppg) and Rashard Willis (3.6 ppg).

Unlike Wood, Meadville’s program has appeared in a state championship game although that appearance came 30 years ago when the Bulldogs lost 48-47 to a Carlisle side led by Billy Owens that claimed its third straight Class AAAA crown.

That said, someone is going to hoist a championship trophy for the first time.

Might be Wood. Might be Meadville.

~~~

Constitution, Sewickley Academy to battle for 2A supremacy

While it took surviving yet another titanic struggle with Philly Public League playmate Math, Civics & Sciences just to get back to a state championship game, Robert Moore’s Constitution Generals will be chasing their fourth PIAA title on Friday afternoon.

And when they peer down at the opposite bench, Moore’s surging Generals (20-9) will see a Sewickley Academy program (24-4) that will be seeking its third state title when the ball goes up at Hershey’s Giant Center for the PIAA’s Class AA final (2 p.m.).

For those who may have lost track, Constitution claimed state gold in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Win Palmer’s Panthers were crowned state champs in 1997 and 2010.

As for Tuesday night’s semifinal against Math, Civics & Sciences, returning all-state lead guard Tamir Green scored 17 of his 28 points in the second half as Constitution emerged in overtime with a 73-68 victory. Maurice Waters added 14 points in the win.

While Green and Waters have been important components throughout the season, Moore’s Generals also have received productive outings during the past two weeks from Raquon West, Youssef Diabate, Keshaun Hammonds and Hakim Hudson.

The 5-11 West, a junior transfer from Upper Darby, topped Constitution’s scoring chart in each of the first two rounds, leading the Generals past Church Farm and Holy Cross.

Sewickley Academy, meanwhile, turned back WPIAL rival Bishop Canevin 50-48 on Tuesday night as Chris Groetsch canned a pair of free throws with 25.4 remaining to snap a 48-48 tie. A Groetsch pilfer in the final seconds preserved the win.

Groetsch, a 5-10 senior headed for Johns Hopkins, scored a team-high 15 points as Palmer’s Panthers won for the 18th time in 19 games. David Groetsch, a 6-1 junior, added 11 points while 6-3 senior Justin Pryor collected eight points and 10 boards.

Rounding out the Sewickley Academy lineup are 6-5 sophomore Neil Ridgeway — Ridgeway totaled 57 points in the Panthers’ first three state victories and averages around 20 points per game — and 6-5 senior Declan Hickton.

Oh, by the way, both sides dropped seven-point decisions to Class 1A finalist Kennedy Catholic during the regular season. Should be interesting.


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