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Corr's big day includes LaSalle win over Pennsbury

12/13/2014, 10:00pm EST

By Tom Reifsnyder

LaSalle senior guard Dan Corr hit two key 3-pointers in a win over Pennsbury on Saturday. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Tom Reifsnyder (@Tom_Reifsnyder)
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It’s safe to say things are going pretty well for Dan Corr.

First, the LaSalle College HS senior hit two big 3-pointers to help his team to a 57-44 victory over Pennsbury at Cheltenham high school on Saturday.

But that was only the beginning of a very successful day for Corr.

Just a few hours after the final buzzer, he received word that he had been accepted by his dream school, the University of Notre Dame.

“I’ve actually wanted to go to Notre Dame since kindergarten, so this was kind of the finish line of what I had been building up to for a while,” Corr said. “My Dad went there and three of my five older siblings went there, and ever since I went to my first football game there I just fell in love with it.

“I will definitely be going there next year, no doubt.”

Corr, who will spend his college years with the Fighting Irish, also applied to Duke, Boston College and Vanderbilt.

Notre Dame, however, isn’t the only thing that he has in common with his family.

“My Dad played at [Archbishop] Carroll back in god-knows-when, and my Mom played at [Cardinal] O’Hara so they were both Catholic League players,” he said. “My Dad was kind of hoping I’d go to Carroll but…oh well.

“He’s always cheering for me over anyone, but he definitely loves Carroll. He knows a lot of guys through graduating from Carroll and they have great alumni so he always chums it up with them whenever we’re over there.”

Despite his father’s strong connection to Carroll, Corr ultimately decided to attend LaSalle instead; a choice that head coach Joe Dempsey is very thankful for.

“Danny’s one of those kids that we pride ourselves in with our building of the program,” Dempsey said. “He knows his role and he doesn’t try to do too much; hit open shots, stay calm, play defense, that kind of thing.”

Despite being held scoreless in the first half, Corr was on the floor for the vast majority of the 16 minutes of action.

Pennsbury’s pressure defense didn’t seem to bother him at all, but he certainly wasn’t getting many open looks. Instead of forcing contested shots, Corr looked for teammates Shawn Witherspoon and Shane Stark, who had their way with the Pennsbury defense in the first half. Witherspoon, a senior, led all scorers at the half with 14 points while Stark, a 6-6 junior, scored eight.

LaSalle finished the second quarter on a 14-0 run to establish a 27-11 lead at the midway point.

Pennsbury showed signs of life in the third quarter, scoring as many points as they had in the entire first half (11). Corr continued to see lots of playing time, but still remained scoreless as LaSalle came down the court, holding the ball for the last possession of the third quarter.

As the clock ticked down with less than 10 seconds, Corr stood in the corner, waiting patiently for an opportunity.

While Witherspoon dribbled over to the left wing, Corr shuffled up from the corner to create some space; it was just enough.

Witherspoon kicked it to Corr, who splashed a triple for his first points of the game; he would finish with eight in the contest.

The LaSalle fan section exploded as the Explorers took a decisive 39-22 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“Some 3-point shooters are volume guys…in that I mean they need to take ten shots to make four…but he [Corr] could take three shots and make two; that’s how good he is,” Dempsey said. “He’s that accurate, he’s that efficient, and anytime he’s got one he’s got the green light.”

In the fourth quarter, Corr scored back-to-back buckets: a driving layup followed by a corner three-pointer which forced a Pennsbury timeout with 4:53 remaining in the game.

Pennsbury cut LaSalle’s lead to just 11 points with less than three minutes to go, but failed to get any closer as they fell to the Explorers 57-44.

Senior guard Mekhi Bryant led Pennsbury (3-1) with 15 points while backcourt mate Cameron Jones finished with 11. The team’s offensive struggles mainly resulted from the relative ineffectiveness of St. Bonaventure commit Derrick Woods, who scored just 11 points and appeared out of rhythm for most of the game.

In their return from one-game suspensions, seniors David Krmpotich and Najee Walls played significant roles in LaSalle’s victory. Krmpotich, a Colgate commit, scored 13 points while Walls scored just four as he opted to focus more on playmaking. But Walls is nowhere near 100 percent according to Dempsey.

“Najee’s been coming off mono [mononucleosis], not a lot of people know that, so he’s still not himself and he’s still not firing on all cylinders,” he said. “He’s probably 50 or 60 percent right now, but it’s good to get him back.”

For not being at full strength, Walls looked pretty comfortable out there today. It’ll be scary to see what this team is capable of when their lead guard gets healthy.

Up next for LaSalle (3-0) is a home matchup with New Media Technology Charter School at 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15.