City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
––

EASTON >> Part of Chris Roantree’s coaching philosophy is riding the hot hand.

What’s important to note is that belief does extend to just one side of the ball. With Hazleton off to a hot shooting start in Saturday’s PIAA 6A quarterfinal game at Easton Area Middle School, Father Judge found a hot hand defensively in sophomore Rahiky Mason and let it ride.

Mason’s energy on defense and a teamwide unselfish approach to offense led to the guard ending his day with a glistening Judge logo necklace around his neck and the Crusaders a 79-49 winner over the Cougars and onto the first state semifinal in school history

“I come in to bring energy off the bench, when the guys are down, I’m here to pick them up,” Mason said. “If they got the energy, then I’m just giving even more energy. I play defense, play hard, get my guys involved; they make shots, I trust them and I know they trust me too.”

Hazleton might not have owned a gaudy record at 15-12 but the Cougars had won six of their last seven coming into Saturday and they had seemed to find a groove in their first two state wins. That certainly looked to be the case early when they came out firing – and making – most of their perimeter shots with senior Luis Guzman nailing a trio of threes to help Hazleton to an 18-17 lead after a quarter.

Mason was part of Judge’s second wave of subs during the first quarter, sent in to try and help Judge stabilize things on the defensive end. That certainly started to take place in the second quarter with Mason’s tenacious defense an important part of it as Hazleton cooled off and Judge started to heat up.

“We needed it,” Roantree said. “He did, he gave us a spark of energy. He played around 15 minutes, that was the most minutes he’s given us for a while but we always say ‘if you’re going, you’re going and you’re going to get minutes.’

“He came in that second quarter, sparked us in our pressure, got a couple steals and he was really good at finding our guys too so definitely gave us a jolt of energy.”

Hazleton started the second quarter 0-of-6 from the floor and wasn’t getting offensive rebounds, so Judge had ample opportunity to push the ball offensively. Junior Derrick Morton-Rivera smiled as he noted Hazleton didn’t seem to want to slow things down anyway and that suited him just fine.

Morton-Rivera led Judge with 24 points, the smooth-shooting 6-foot-3 wing netting nine points including a pair of three-balls during the onslaught that was the Crusaders’ 26-6 second quarter. His threes came back-to-back and were part of three straight triples that kicked off a 16-0 Judge run to close out the quarter, the bucket coming from Morton-Rivera as he slashed right through the defense for a buzzer-beating layup.

“It’s trusting our teammates and moving the ball,” Morton-Rivera said. “We’ve got a lot of scorers, anybody can do anything, so if we trust each other and keep moving the ball, we can get any shot we want.”

Judge led 43-24 at the half, right on pace to accomplish the goal Roantree had set for them.

“Trying to hold them to 50 was our goal pregame,” Roantree said. “They made some shots, they made a bunch of threes in the first quarter but in our scout and in our film, they were making shots but they were very streaky. We didn’t want to get crazy with it, but we locked down defensively, we kept the ball in front of us in the second quarter, threw a little pressure at them and changed it up defensively.”

Mason provided a second wind to get that run to the end of the half. The sophomore stole the ball on three straight occasions in less than a minute, Judge failing to convert on the first two before Mason decided to take the third one himself, scoring the basket and getting the and-one whistle for good measure.

“I take pride in defense, that’s my No. 1 thing,” Mason said. “I love playing defense. I play to win, I don’t gotta score to have an impact on the team. I can dish it, I can guard one person the whole game, grab rebounds, I just do what it takes to win.”

While Judge had taken control in the second quarter, it would be important for the Crusaders to keep it up into the second half. The PCL champions started the third on a 5-2 advantage, but Roantree didn’t like all of what he was seeing and called an early timeout.

That’s not something he normally does, but the fourth-year Judge coach wanted to “reset and re-focus” on both ends of the floor. It seemed to take hold as Judge won the quarter 22-13, Naz Tyler scoring nine points in the frame to pace the Crusaders.

“We got shooters all around the court so if you make an extra pass, you can make it easier to score,” Morton-Rivera said. “We make a good shot a great shot.”

Mason’s strong play also allowed Judge to get Kevair Kennedy off the floor early. The Crusaders standout rolled an ankle late in the first half and while he started the third quarter and even converted an acrobatic and-one in the frame, the Merrimack recruit was off the floor soon after.

He may not be known as a scorer, but Mason did finish with seven points. Five of those came in the fourth, the sophomore also adding another steal while drawing a charge for good measure and he got to stamp his day by draining a three off an assist from Morton-Rivera before Judge emptied its bench with the clock running.

Still, that’s not going to change the guard’s mentality.

“It’s easier to score than it is to not get scored on,” Mason said. “It’s just taking pride in defense.”

Judge’s first trip to the state semifinals will bring a decisive third game against Imhotep Charter, last year’s Class 5A champions, a 48-30 winner over Parkland. Judge beat ‘Tep in the regular season but the Panthers got payback in the District 12 title game and the winner of next Saturday’s rubber match getting a trip to Hershey.

Roantree has been on a couple long state playoff runs from his time as an assistant at Archbishop Wood, but this is the first time through a PIAA bracket for any of his players. Asked if they were enjoying the fact they were still playing way through March, Mason gave an emphatic “mmm-hmm” in affirmation.

“It gives us more opportunities to play together,” Morton-Rivera added. “We have a lot of seniors on the team so we want to continue to play together. It’s a long stretch, a lot of practices and way more games than we played last year or the year before but we’re ready for it.”

By Quarter

FATHER JUDGE 17 | 26 | 22 | 14 || 79

HAZLETON 18 | 6 | 13 | 12 || 49

Scoring

FJ: Derrick Morton-Rivera 24, Naz Tyler 16, Kevair Kennedy 12, Max Moshinski 7, Rahiky Mason 7, Rocco Westfield 5, Everett Barnes 3, Kevin Beck 2, Dylan Handley 2, Kiev Rucker 4

H: Luis Guzman 15, Dylan Stish 13, Franklin Ritz 5, Melenciano 5, Staffin 4, Perkosky 3, Moran 2, Cruz 2