City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The Parkland Trojans are on a mission.

Anybody who was in attendance at Freedom High School on Saturday evening can attest to that fact.

After four straight years of reaching the PIAA Class AAAA second round, this year’s Trojans have bigger plans in mind.

First, though, that involved getting past Conestoga in the opening round for the second consecutive year. But Parkland shut down any thoughts about a potential let-down with a massive run out of the gate, and rode that momentum all the way to a 71-49 win.

“It’s what we’ve been waiting for all season,” senior wing Kyle Stout said of the state playoffs. “A couple of games (this season) we came out lackadaisical, I think today with the energy in the building, we fed off that and it felt great.”

Stout (who’s signed with Lafayette and head coach Fran O’Hanlon for the fall) finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, to go along with five rebounds, five assists and two steals. The 6-foot-5 wing has always been a sharpshooter, but what was most impressive about his game was the buckets he got creating off the bounce--as well as a put-back tip dunk in the second half.

He gave a lot of credit to Parkland strength trainer Mark Ceremeli, a former Penn State linebacker who’s been working with the team since last May and has helped Stout add 20 pounds to what was previously a rather scrawny frame.

“We all put on a lot of weight this offseason, which I think has helped my game tremendously,” he said. “I’ve felt that a lot on defense and on offense, getting to the rim. Strength-wise, we lacked that last year, a lot of us; I think that’ll help us against these better teams.”

The District 11 champs scored the first eight points of the game before the Pioneers could even blink, part of a game-opening 17-2 run for the Trojans that set the tone for the rest of the matchup.

The lead was 14 after one quarter but just 31-19 at halftime, as Conestoga found its footing to take the second quarter by a score of 13-11.

“(We) were looking for mismatches--that wasn’t coming from me, they were naturally doing that,” Parkland head coach Andy Stephens said. “I thought they were a little too focused on that, they just needed to free it up and go side-to-side and just play motion offense, what we call our motion offense to lead into a mismatch.”

That led to a 25-16 third quarter that ended with Parkland up 56-35 and left ‘Stoga with almost no hope of a comeback. Stout was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor during that eight minutes, while junior forward Sam Iorio had nine of his 15 points during the quarter as well.

“Coach says it all the time, we can’t really think about the score, we’ve just got to keep our foot on the pedal," Stout said. "Even if we’re up 20 points or 10 points, we’ve got to keep playing the same way, it’s going to get us ready for some games coming down the road.”

Darryl Caldwell led Conestoga with 19 points in his final game wearing a Pioneers uniform. The three-year starter at point guard had a tremendous run of success for head coach Mike Troy, helping his team to three consecutive state tournaments and three Central League championship games despite being the only returning starter from a year ago.

“He’s set down a marker in terms of point guard play and what we look for,” Troy said of his lead guard. “I said earlier in the year, we’re going to go as far as Darryl takes us, and I thought a lot of times we hopped on Darryl’s back and he led us back to the promised land of state playoffs.

“If you asked people last year when we graduated everybody if we would be in the Central League championship, qualify for states, people would have looked at you like you were crazy,” he added. “I think it’s a tribute to the seniors and their leadership and how hard they worked that we’re sitting here in this game this year.”

Stout was one of three Trojans in double figures, along with fellow senior Kenny Yeboah (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Iorio, who also had nine boards. Two more seniors, Jack Dreisbach (eight points, five assists) and Devante Cross (seven points, three assists), also chipped in a fair bit offensively.

Yeboah, a 6-foot-4 forward who will be playing football at Temple next year, is relishing his final run in a hoops uniform.

“I think about it a lot sometimes, just thinking if we lose my season is over and I won’t be able to play organized basketball anymore,” he said. “This is my last time playing organized basketball, I definitely take it very seriously and I don’t want the season to end.”

In order for this Parkland senior class to reach uncharted waters, they’ll have to get past a Ridley team that bested Conestoga on three separate occasions this season, including in the Central League championship.

The Raiders, led by East Stroudsburg commit Brett Foster, downed Wilson-West Lawn on Saturday 50-34.

“I don’t think we think about it too much because we’re a different team this year,” Stout said of finally breaking through. “Obviously we’re thinking about it a little bit but we’ll be ready for whoever comes our way in the states, we’re a confident bunch and we’re ready to take on anyone.”

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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.