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PIAA 4A: Allentown Central Catholic ends O'Hara's season at the buzzer

03/15/2023, 1:15am EDT
By Matt Gaffney

By Matt Gaffney (@GaffReports)
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March Madness was in full swing at the Geigle Complex in Reading on Tuesday night.

Lucas Mushrush’s buzzer-beating three propelled Allentown Central Catholic to a thrilling 49-46 win over Cardinal O’Hara in the second round of the PIAA 4A playoffs.  

The shot was a dagger to the heart for O’Hara as the loss ended the Lions’ season (18-9) while Central Catholic (22-8) moves on to the quarterfinals against Eastern York on Friday at a site to be determined.

While silver linings are hard to come by in a state tournament loss, O’Hara coach Ryan Nemetz should be happy with his team’s effort because the Lions went down swinging.

They were not ready for their season to end but their late rally was not enough to overcome a cold shooting spell in the first quarter.

“It was a sloppy game. We turned the ball over, but we were super gritty and kept coming back, kept coming back,” Nemetz. “But their kid (Mushrush) hit that three - he’s a very good shooter and he had some space and knocked it down. But I was proud of our guys, and they showed a ton of grit.”


Cardinal O'Hara coach Ryan Nemetz, above, saw his team's season end with a buzzer beater Tuesday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL File)

O’Hara could only muster four points in the first quarter against Central Catholic as it struggled to put the ball through the rim and fell behind by nine. The Lions regrouped in the second quarter to make it a 19-17 game at the half.  

Christian Cervellero (13 points) splashed in a 3-pointer early in the third quarter to give O’Hara its first lead at 20-19 but Central Catholic went on a 20-8 run for a 39-28 lead late in the third quarter.

O’Hara got a spark from Anthony Hobbs, who scored five straight points to cut Central’s lead to six but a three ball from the Vikings’ Griffin Partridge pushed the lead back up to nine ending into the fourth quarter, 42-33.

Both teams increased the defensive intensity in the fourth before Pearse McGuinn scored six straight points to pull the Lions within 42-39 with 4:29 left.

With Central Catholic holding on to a 44-39 lead with two minutes to go, Cardinal O’Hara senior Izaiah Pasha did everything he could to put his team over the top and extend their season.

The Iona-commit made two free throws to cut the lead to 44-41 with 1:42 left and a subsequent jump ball gave O’Hara the ball back. Pasha took advantage as he hit a three-pointer to tie the game with under a minute left. After two free throws by Central Catholic made it a two-point game, Pasha once again tied the game on two free throws with 11 seconds left before Mushrush’s heroics.

The trey from the left wing by the Vikings’ sophomore was pure and set off an ecstatic celebration for Central Catholic while O’Hara could only stand by and watch while wondering “what if.”

“It was tough (coming back) but at the end of the game I was trying to give it my all and bring my team to victory, but unfortunately we fell short,” said Pasha. “We came out flat, we weren’t ready to play. We weren’t on our offensive game, but defensively we were. We just had to do better.”

It was clear to Nemetz where his team struggled.

“We scored off turnovers but even in the half court we weren’t great tonight, and they did a really good job face guarding Izaiah," he said. "They shaded Izaiah and our other guys kind of struggled.”

Despite the loss, there’s a lot for this O’Hara team to be proud of. Multiple players will play at the college level and they were a top fifteen team in the state for much of the season.

For Nemetz, the end is a unique opportunity to say goodbye to the seniors, to look back for a moment on the season that just concluded and look ahead to the future.

“I thanked each of the seniors individually for what they’ve brought to the program, to the team, for the coaches,” said Nemetz. “I told the younger guys, now you see what it takes to get to this point. Where do you want to take the program now that you see the vision, how do you accomplish even more?”

Pasha, who scored a game-high 18 points, hit three 3-pointers and went 5-5 from the line in his final high school game, is looking to accomplish more when he moves on to Iona next season. After the game, he took a moment to look back on his season and what he will remember the most.

“Great teammates. They just helped me become the person I am today, so I thank them," he said.

Despite the loss, Nemetz can’t help but feel very optimistic about Pasha’s future.

“His future is so bright for what he could possibly accomplish at the collegiate level. I’m excited for him because he’s so talented and he puts so much work in when it comes to the game."

 

1

2

3

4

Final

O’Hara

 4

13 

 16 

 13 

 46

ACC

13

 6

 23 

  7

 49


O’Hara: Izaiah Pasha 18, Christian Cervellero 13, Pearse McGuinn 10, Anthony Hobbs 5.
ACC: Lucas Mushrush 14, Nico Pulleri 13, Jahril Vigo 8, Anthony Jones 7, David Fridia 4, Griffin Partridge 3. 

~~~

Girls 6A
(3-1) Cedar Cliff 39, (1-6) Upper Dublin 26
(7-2) Upper St. Clair 42, (1-4) Pennsbury 31
(1-9) Abington 40, (1-8) Springfield-Delco 35
(12-1) Cardinal O’Hara 42, (1-3) Spring-Ford 39
(12-3) Archbishop Carroll 41, (1-1) Perkiomen Valley 38 (OT)

Boys 5A
(1-1) Radnor 75, (12-3) West Philadelphia 61
(12-2) Archbishop Ryan 59, (1-5) West Chester East 46
(12-1) Imhotep Charter 68, (3-5) Muhlenberg 32

Boys 4A
(3-5) Eastern York 75, (12-2) Overbrook 54
(11-1) Allentown Central Catholic 49, (12-3) Cardinal O’Hara 46
(12-1) Neumann-Goretti 74, (11-2) Bethlehem Catholic 49

Girls 3A
(4-1) Mt. Carmel Area 48, (12-2) West Catholic 38
(3-1) Lancaster Catholic 64, (1-1) New Hope-Solebury 54

Girls 2A
(1-1) Faith Christian 35, (4-1) South Williamsport 28
(1-2) Sacred Heart Acad. 42, (4-2) Line Mountain 40

Boys 1A
(1-1) Chester Charter 56, (4-2) Northumberland Christian 38
(3-1) Linville Hill 50, (12-1) City School 42
(1-2) Phil-Mont Christian 57, (3-5) Mount Calvary Christian 46


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