City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HERSHEY — For nearly a year — some 364 days actually — James Williams and Nick Gemmell could not shake the burn that smoldered deep down inside.

And given the circumstances that shrouded the finish of last year’s District 3-AAA championship game — when Gemmell appeared to get hacked in the act while hoisting a half-court heave in Bishop McDevitt’s loss to Steel-High yet the zebras said the foul occurred on the floor — no one could blame either of the Crusaders’ talented seniors for harboring such year-long feelings.

Anger.

Disappointment.

Toss in a few other emotion-riddled descriptions and that likely sums up McDevitt’s collective mindset rather conclusively — and then some.

Well, with another District 3-AAA championship game playing out with McDevitt as one of the combatants, Williams and Gemmell were able to ease plenty of sting as Mike Gaffey’s Crusaders wheeled past Eastern York 71-47 for the school’s first district crown since the 1989 club knocked off Muhlenberg.

“We’ve been thinking about [that 70-67 loss] all season, [and we desperately wanted] to get back here,” Williams admitted. “The Milton Hershey loss a couple weeks ago [in the Mid-Penn Conference tournament semifinals] pushed us even more than our disappointment from last year.

“Our goals have always been to win a district championship and hopefully a state championship,” Williams continued. “So when we got here tonight, we knew Eastern York was going to be ready to play so we had to come out strong and make sure we didn’t give up shots they could knock down. Just make it tough.

“We were just so hungry to win a title.”

Up next for Gaffey’s Crusaders will be a date in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA Class AAA tournament against District 11’s third-place outfit, Bethlehem Catholic or Salisbury. Those teams will collide Friday night in Allentown.

Eastern York will open state play next Friday against Imhotep Charter, the No. 4 side from Philadelphia’s loaded District 12 at a District 3 locale.

The 6-4 Williams — conjuring visions of his dynamic performance last season against eventual state champion Neumann-Goretti in a narrow quarterfinal-round loss — was nothing short of fabulous while tormenting the Golden Knights (22-6).

Williams nearly pulled off a triple-double, scoring 21 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and turning aside nine shots. His presence on the defensive end literally prevented Jon Reichard’s club from generating any offense from the painted area.

“I know [Williams] can do some of that stuff, but he took his game to a whole other level,” said Gaffey, whose brother, John, was on McDevitt’s 1989 3-AAA champs.

“Everything he got out there, he earned.”

“Trying to play good in a big game and help my team,” Williams said, referring to his pre-game mindset. “My teammates helped me out a lot by just putting me in situations to get good blocks, easy buckets, stuff like that.”

Williams, who was 7-for-12 from the field and 7-for-10 from the free-throw line, also dropped five dimes before he left to a hearty round of applause.

“I tell him the only person that can stop him is himself,” Gemmell said of Williams. “We just feed him the ball and when he’s hot, he’s hot.”

Virginia football recruit Bryce Hall banked 13 of his 18 points in the opening half — the 6-3 Hall was 8-for-9 from the floor — and sophomore Tim Kater chimed in with 10 as McDevitt (20-6) zoomed to a 24-14 lead after one quarter of play.

“Timmy, he’s always been good, especially as a shooter,” Williams said of his 6-3 teammate. “Bryce is so athletic. He’s probably the most athletic player, maybe in the state. Him and Kobay [White] are just so athletic.

“And then his dunks … get us going even more,” Williams added, referencing the 6-3 Hall’s pair of jams. “We’re just able to feed off each other.”

Gemmell, McDevitt’s able floor general, added six points, four boards and three assists before his memorable night came to a close.

Eastern, which picked up 12 points from Shippensburg recruit Broguen Nicholas and 10 more from sixth man Colby Shimmel, never got closer than eight the rest of the way — and that was a minute or so into the second quarter.

That’s how dominant third-seeded McDevitt was while taking apart the No. 4 Knights during a 32-minute demonstration on District 3’s brightest stage.

“Coming out and getting the lead and setting the tone early in the game was huge for us,” Gemmell said.

Even when the Crusaders managed just six points as the pace slowed in the second quarter, Gaffey’s club limited Eastern to a mere five. Reichard’s Knights could not gain any traction, bagging just two of their 14 looks from the field.

And when McDevitt returned to the floor for the third quarter, the Crusaders weren’t about to let up against the Knights. Especially since all of Gaffey’s players were well aware that Eastern roared back from a double-digit deficit to deck top-seeded Milton Hershey three nights earlier in a semifinal-round surprise.

Williams scored seven points in the third, Kater added four, Boston College football recruit Kobay White contributed more and Hall pitched in with three as McDevitt’s lead grew to 51-33. Actually, the only drama left was the medal presentation.

“When you practice as hard as we’ve practiced, I think that leads to that type of early lead,” Gaffey admitted. “In my 29 years of coaching, we’ve never run sprints the day before a playoff game. And we’ve been running them for three weeks now.

“If somebody doesn’t do something the right way in practice, that’s our way of reminding ‘Hey, we have to get this right and we have to get this right now.’”

“We wanted to keep it going because the last game Milton Hershey came out and got a big lead and Eastern York came back and won,” Williams said. “They’re a great team, so we just had to keep pushing and keep pushing.”

So when Gaffey made his way down the line of Crusaders, hanging one gold after another on willing shoulders, several dozen grins were already in place as each and every McDevitt player celebrated a memorable accomplishment.

Finally, much of a year-long burn that lingered deep within a number of blue-and-gold tinted bellies, began to disappear as silver morphed into gold.

“We reminded our guys,” Gaffey remarked. “You figure there’s 365 days between last year and this year, they’ve probably been reminded 366 times about what happened. So they were tired of it and we were tired of it.

“We’re just happy and so fortunate to be back in the same situation so we could correct some things that went wrong last year. And it felt pretty good.”

“I feel super great, so happy,” Williams said. “Just to win it with my teammates. We love each other so much and we’re so blessed and we’re so happy for each other.

“It’s just a great feeling.”