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District 1 5A: Wissahickon gets boost from last year to beat Strath Haven

02/22/2018, 12:30am EST
By Austin Petolillo

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Wissahickon still has a bad taste in its mouths from last season’s District 1 5A quarter-final round.

After leading the game most of the way, the Trojans were knocked off by the eventual 2017 5A champions, Penncrest.

On that Wissahickon team was current Gwynedd-Mercy forward Shane Ford, then finishing up his high school career.

Prior to the Trojans District 1 5A first round game against Strath Haven on Wednesday night, Ford sent out a text message to head coach Kyle Wilson and their core of seniors.

“Shane Ford sent a real nice text message to our guys,” Wilsons said, “saying ‘you know the taste was in your mouth when we got knocked out last year when we had Penncrest down, now go out there and avenge that loss and get back to where you want to and don’t let anything stand in your way.’”

The No. 4-seeded Trojans did not let anything or anyone stand in their way as they defeated the No. 13 seed Panthers, 67-48. Now, they are one win away from the goal that they set out for this season.

“The goal all season long was to go to Temple [for the district semifinals] so if we win on Saturday, we’re there,” senior forward Zach Reiner said.

The Trojans starting lineup is pretty veteran-savvy. Aside from Reiner, sharpshooting guard Max Rapoport and forward Anthony Lawrence are the other senior starters and junior guards Cole Hirsch and Eddie Fortescue round out the starting five.

The 6-foot-4 Reiner believes that playoff experience is what won them the game.

“We knew we had the more experienced guys so we had to push through,” Reiner said. “It was pretty close in the first half but experience pays off at the end of the game.”

“We’ve been here before, we know what to do and we showed it in the fourth quarter,” he added.

The Trojans took a 23-17 lead into the break at halftime after forcing eight Strath Haven turnovers in the first half thanks to a full-court press.

“It’s a boring offense but we knew if we speed them up in the first half, we can get them out of their offense and their rhythm,” Reiner said. “We knew that they would stop gagging and it was fine.”

The Panthers (7-14) like to run a slow offense that has them holding the ball for about 45 seconds to one minute until they find the perfect cut. Guard Jordan Graves scored 16 points for the Panthers and center Cooper Driscoll added 11.

The press helped speed that up a bit.

“We had at least six films on them,” Reiner said. “Every day before and after practice, all the guys came in and worked hard and watched film, we had notes, we’re probably one of the most prepared teams I’ve ever known.”

Reiner had his fingerprints all over the game as he scored a game-high 17 points, dished six assists and grabbed four rebounds.

“I try to do the little things to get us the win,” he said. “There are games where Max isn’t hitting his shots and there are games where he’s hitting everything so I have to give him passes but anything to get the win I’m there for.”

Rapoport was hitting his shots on Wednesday night as he went on to finish with 13 points and three three-pointers. Fortescue ended the game with 12 points and Lawrence finished with 10 points.

If Rapoport is hitting his shots and Reiner is contributing in all aspects of the game, the Trojans (17-7) will be a tough out against any opponent whether it be in districts or states.

The Trojans next opponent is No. 5 seed Great Valley in a game at Wissahickon on Saturday. The winner goes to the semifinals at the Liacouras Center. Great Valley was in the district semis last season and lost to Penncrest 41-33.

Wilson and Wissahickon are no strangers to Great Valley though. Just a few years ago, they were the 30th seed in districts and knocked off a Mikal Bridges led No. 3 seed Great Valley team on the road in the old AAAA playoffs.

This time around, the matchup will be held on Wissahickon home floor with one goal in mind: Temple.

“We were close enough to reach out and touch it against Penncrest last year and they beat us fair and square, knocked us out” Wilson said. “But our guys know they’ve got a formidable opponent next game and we got to prepare, prepare, prepare.”

“We have at least three or four films on them and we’re going to have the film from tonight’s game as well so we’ll watch that tomorrow in practice, we got to get to work,” Reiner said.


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