City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The last time Bangor won a PIAA state playoff game, head coach Bron Holland was just finishing up his high school career.

That was 1988, when the Slaters made it to the second round of the tournament, beating Selinsgrove before losing to Pottstown. For 28 years, they were the program’s only two tastes of state playoff action.

Now, with Holland back as head coach, Bangor’s once again making waves at the state level.

The Slaters’ first state playoff game in nearly three decades couldn’t have gone much better, as Bangor rode out a slow first half to pull away for a 57-37 win over Central Bucks East at Freedom High School on Saturday afternoon.

“Feels great to be in this position,” said senior guard Michael Martino, the school’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,174 points after dropping a game-high 15 in the win. “There’s only 16 teams in AAAA still left and it feels great to be one of them.”

The Benton twins, Dylan and Seth--both 6-4 junior forwards--weren’t bothered in the slight by C.B. East’s 6-7 Blake Peterson or 6-9 Tiemo Fenner. With Dylan’s 14 points and 11 rebounds leading the way, the two combined for 25 points and 14 boards while Peterson and Fenner had just five points and four rebounds between them.

“We knew they had that 6-7 kid [Peterson] starting and then they had one of the big guys off the bench,” said Dylan. “(We had to) keep them off the boards, pump fake, get them in foul trouble, that was the goal and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

Their coach couldn’t have been more pleased with the play of his forwards.

“I think Dylan is one of the best big guys in the area because he can take guys out on the perimeter, he can shoot 3s, he can take guys off the dribble and he can post up low,” Holland said. “He’s just a tough matchup for anybody, and I thought he proved that tonight.”

Neither team was in much of a hurry in the first half, which ended with the District 11 runners-up holding a 20-18 lead. The Slaters (26-2) led by as many as six at the 2:20 mark of the second quarter before the Patriots (16-12) closed things out with a bucket by Elijah Seger and one by Tommy Strasburger.

C.B. East’s momentum continued into the second half, when they went up 25-22 with 4:15 left in the third quarter after a bucket by senior guard Justin O’Neill, who finished with a team-high 11 points.

A timeout by Holland got his team back in the right mindset.

“We weren’t very moving well on defense, and our guards weren’t moving, our back guys on the wings in the zone, they were sucking down too low so we made that adjustment,” said the former St. Bonaventure and La Salle big man. “Once we did that, I thought they had some trouble getting off 3s...as time wore down they started settling for some more 3s and fortunately we were holding them to one-and-done, got them in foul trouble, got the 1-and-1s and capitalized.”

From that point onwards, Bangor outscored its opponent 35-12, dominating in all facets.

A 9-2 run made it 31-27 going into the fourth, and C.B. East--making its first state playoff appearance in 32 years--couldn’t score for the opening five minutes of the final frame as the Slaters expanded their lead to as many as 13 before the Patriots managed a foul shot by Matt Pattyson.

“We don’t feel like we attacked enough, shots didn’t go enough and that little bit of a stretch, we needed a couple stops right there and we didn’t get them,” Patriots head coach Erik Henrysen said. “We wanted to get the ball into the paint, that was our key, and it seemed like we were reluctant to do that.”

Martino, a 5-10 point guard with interest from D-III Moravian College, had several key dishes down the stretch along with a tough finish inside. Reece Jones, another junior--Martino is the only senior in the top’s top eight players--added 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Jones’ last triple made it a 17-point game with under three minutes left and all but sealed the victory.

“Reece is very confident, he’s a sniper for us, he’s a great shooter,” Martino said. “Once he hit that, we felt we were rolling and our momentum just continued throughout the game from there.”

Up next for Bangor is District 1 champion Plymouth Whitemarsh, who took down Lebanon 81-41 in its own dominant performance Saturday afternoon.

Though Rider commit Xzavier Malone and the Colonials (26-2) are a sizeable step up in competition from the Patriots, Bangor isn’t yet worried about the next challenge.

“Certainly Plymouth Whitemarsh is going to present problems but at this point in the year, there’s 16 teams left, for me I’m just so happy I have three more days to coach these kids, game plan for another game,” Holland said. “Nobody wants it to end right now, because the camaraderie is just so good.”

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Saturday's Results
CLASS AAAA
FIRST ROUND
Saturday, March 5
Plymouth-Whitemarsh 81, Lebanon 41
Bangor 57, Central Bucks East 37
Simon Gratz 63, Lower Merion 61 (OT)
J.P. McCaskey 50, Abington Heights 46
Parkland 71, Conestoga 49
Ridley 50, Wilson West Lawn 34
Central Bucks West 60, Central York 55
Roman Catholic 73, Academy Park 58
Reading 61, Hatboro-Horsham 44
Emmaus 74, Martin Luther King 63
Chester 55, Hempfield 46
Spring-Ford 74, Spring Grove 43
Carlisle 64, State College 54
North Hills 70, Latrobe 60
Pine-Richland 81, Bethel Park 57
Taylor Allderdice 66, Penn Hills 50

SECOND ROUND
Wednesday, March 9 (sites/times, TBA)
Plymouth-Whitemarsh (1-1, 26-2) vs. Bangor (11-2, 26-2)
Simon Gratz (12-3, 15-10) vs. J.P. McCaskey (3-7, 22-7)
Parkland (11-1, 26-3) vs. Ridley (1-3, 27-2)
Central Bucks West (1-6, 24-6) vs. Roman Catholic (12-1, 23-4)
Reading (3-1, 26-3) vs. Emmaus (11-3, 20-8)
Chester (1-2, 21-7) vs. Spring-Ford (1-5, 23-7)
Carlisle (3-5, 20-6) vs. North Hills (7-2, 17-9)
Pine-Richland (7-1, 21-6) vs. Taylor Allderdice (8-1, 25-1)

QUARTERFINALS
Saturday, March 12

SEMIFINALS
Tuesday, March 15

CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, March 19
At Giant Center, Hershey, 8 p.m.