City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Jack Coolahan knew his team needed a bucket.

In the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s District 1 AAA semifinal, Holy Ghost Prep saw its 14-point lead dwindle down to six against Octorara with about five minutes left. After multiple turnovers due to full-court pressure, Holy Ghost was letting its lead slip away.

Then Coolahan found a spot, got to the lane and hit a floater while absorbing a foul. He hit a free throw to put the Firebirds back up by nine, and they eventually ran away with the lead for a 57-37 victory.

“Coach called a timeout right before that and he tried to settle us down,” said Coolahan, who had a game-best 22 points. “We were forcing things and turning it over a couple possessions before that. So I just wanted to drive and I saw a lane. …I think that was a big shot because it slowed the game down and got it back to our tempo.”

Holy Ghost, the No. 3 seed, will face top-seeded Lower Moreland in Saturday’s 8 p.m. championship game at Council Rock South and also advances to the PIAA Class AAA state tournament. Lower Moreland downed Bishop Shanahan, 77-56, and a full recap of that game can be found below.

The Firebirds fell behind the second-seeded Braves early, but had a six-point lead at halftime thanks to a 13-5 advantage in the second quarter. Holy Ghost then started to pull away in the second half.

After Octorara cut its lead to four, the Firebirds went on a 15-5 run to take a 39-25 lead late in the third quarter. Coolahan, a senior, and junior guard Mike McFadden led this charge, and the duo was a huge part of the Holy Ghost offense all night.

McFadden turned it on in the second half to finish with 16, and he also grabbed six rebounds. Meanwhile, Coolahan got his 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting, but no shot in the game was bigger than his and-1 floater to stop Octorara’s run in the final quarter, said Holy Ghost coach Tony Chapman.

“He’s our go-to guy,” Chapman said of Coolahan. “They’re not going in all the time, but the kids know that most of the time, he’s the one taking shots in a big situation. He made that shot and after we struggled with the press, we started getting layup after layup.”

Holy Ghost also had success because of a clear defensive gameplan that the team executed well. The Firebirds packed the lane, wanting to cut off Braves’ drives and turned their opponent into shooters. It didn’t go well for Octorara.

The Braves went shot just 28.2 percent from the field and made just one of their 14 field goal attempts. Octorara got 16 points from Christian Ray, but no other player had more than seven.

“For the most part, with their speed, they could blow by us a lot of the time,” Chapman said. “So our philosophy was in practice to extend on the defense and try to keep it away from 24. I think they stepped out on the shooters well, and they didn’t get by us too much.”

Top-seeded Lower Moreland advances

With 10 seconds left in the first half against Bishop Shanahan, Lower Moreland led by just two points. By the time the third quarter started, the Lions had a 10-point advantage.

This unusual swing of the scoreboard and momentum happened due to a two technical fouls assessed to Bishop Shanahan’s bench. Lower Moreland’s Dan Duffey drove to the basket and an official said he got fouled on a layup attempt with about seven seconds left.

Unhappy with the call, Bishop Shanahan coaches pleaded their case, but were hit with a quick technical from one of the officials. Duffey hit four free throws (two for the layup, two for the technical) and also scored a layup off the possession the Lions got before halftime to give his team a 37-29 lead at the break.

Then, heading into halftime, the same referee gave another technical foul, this time to a Bishop Shanahan assistant, and Duffey hit two more free throws to put his team up 39-29 before a second ticked off the second half clock.

The odd circumstance resulted in eight of Duffey’s game-high 33 points, and No. 1 Lower Moreland eased past the No. 4 Eagles, 77-56. Doug Costin and Drew Dolan combined for 27 points for Bishop Shanahan in the loss.

Senior guard Tyler Millan chipped in 22 points for the Lions, including a 3-for-3 performance on 3-pointers.

Saturday will mark the fourth meeting between Lower Moreland and Holy Ghost this season. The pair of BAL teams met twice in the regular season with Holy Ghost winning the first meeting. But the Lions have won the last two, including a 63-52 win on Feb. 9 during the BAL quarterfinals.