City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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The PIAA 6A state tournament has been anything but easy for the Rams of Pine-Richland.

From their 83-82 win in the opening round over Latrobe back on March 11, to their 65-60 semifinal win over Carlisle on March 21, the last couple week of basketball have been constant battles for the Gibsonia-based squad.

Pine-Richland’s road to a PIAA 6A state title will certainly not get any easier, as after winning four games in 10 days to get to the championship game, the Rams will be paired up with the Red Knights of Reading High School on Saturday night at Hershey’s Giant Center to see who will take hoisting the ultimate prize from Pennsylvania’s largest classification.

Rick Perez’s Red Knights are led by Miami (Fl.) commit Lonnie Walker, who poured in 35 points in Reading’s 57-51 triumph over Archbishop Ryan in the semifinals.

The 6-foot-5 super-athletic Walker presents a problem for every team he plays against, as his great success in his senior season has earned him the right to play in both the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic once the season concludes, but Pine-Richland plans on being ready for everything the five-star recruit and the rest of his talented teammates bring to the table.

“Lonnie Walker, huh? He’s good. I’ve watched on film; he’s good,” Pine-Richland head coach Jeff Ackermann said following the win over Carlisle. “We’re going to do the best to try to watch them and learn as much as we can about them and get ready for a state championship game on Saturday night. We’re excited.”

Pine-Richland will counter Walker with a highly-coveted recruit of its own.

The only difference is, Pine-Richland’s superstar is a prized possession on the gridiron instead of the hardwood. 

Phil Jurkovec, a junior who is committed to play quarterback at Notre Dame who also stands 6-foot-5, will be the one primarily responsible for containing Walker, a task that Ackermann knows Jurkovec will be more than willing to take on, as winning is only thing on the four-star recruit’s mind at this point. 

“Phil is such a competitor, such a competitive kid. He hates to lose. He despises losing,” Ackermann said. “He’s all about being aggressive and winning. He doesn’t care what he does. He just wants to win.”

Jurkovec knows that containing Walker will be no easy task, but he’s confident that Ackermann will put his squad in a position to come out on top. 

“We’re just gonna it our all, but we know Lonnie Walker is a special talent, a special player,” Jurkovec said. “We’ll be ready for them. Coach will give us a good game plan.”

Jurkovec will not be containing Walker alone though, as senior guard Andrew Petcash is another player that Pine-Richland boasts who is similar to Walker in size as he stands 6-foot-4 but can also keep up with him athletically. 

While stopping ESPN’s No. 19 player in 2017 class will be a difficult challenge, Reading’s talent doesn’t stop there. Seniors Isiah Cook and Tyrone Nesby have also turned in quality state tournaments and play a huge role in the game plan of the squad who presents the challenge that lies ahead. 

Pine-Richland is ready for that challenge though, and is also ready to leave it all on the floor at the Giant Center on Saturday. 

“We know we’re good enough. We got this far,” Petcash said. “There’s nothing stopping us now, so we’re just gonna give it our all.”

PIAA Class 4A Preview: Imhotep (30-2) vs. Strong Vincent (27-3)
While Pine-Richland and Reading each battled their way to the state championship game with hard-fought contests over each of their opponents and the largest margin of victory being Reading’s 13-point victory in the opening round, the exact opposite has held true for the way that Imhotep Charter and Strong Vincent High School have made their respective runs to the PIAA 4A state championship.

Since the 4A tournament tipped off back on March 11th, each of these two squads have asserted their dominance throughout the state, with both posting impressive margins of victory.

Imhotep Charter has been winning games by an average of 29.4 points, while Strong Vincent has been disposing of opponents by an average of 19.5 points per contest. 

While Strong Vincent boasts a talented roster of its own, led by senior guard David Morris, who poured in 25 points in his squads semifinal win over Quaker Valley, Imhotep counters Morris with what might be the most impressive roster in all of the PIAA. 

Imhotep will come out on Saturday afternoon at the Giant Center more motivated than usual, as none of the players who currently take the floor for Imhotep were around the last time the Panthers hoisted the state crown, an AAA state title back in 2013. 

The 6th-ranked team in the country per USA Today’s Super 25, will be led by the efforts of seniors Daron Russell, who will continue his basketball career at Rhode Island and David Beatty, who will be playing at South Carolina. 

Russell led the way for Imhotep in their semifinal blowout victory over Greater Nanticoke with 22 points and four assists while Beatty added in just four points but made his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball. 

Russell and Beatty are joined by seven underclassmen in the rotation, which all have Division I potential.

Bernard Lightsey, who scored ten points in the semifinal contest, is the lone junior in that rotation while the other six are a group of talented sophomores in guards Fatayn Wesley, Karam Cummings and Dahmir Bishop and forwards Chareef Knox, Donta Scott, Jamil Riggins. 

Though Imhotep’s talent can be overwhelming for the opponent, Strong Vincent will surely be putting everything on the line on Saturday afternoon with the season’s ultimate goal at stake.