City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The first weekend of the PIAA state tournament has come and gone, with each of the four 32-team fields slashed in half after two days of close wins, upsets and big performances.

Here are some takeaways from the action on Friday and Saturday:

Lengthy drought comes to an end
Colliding with a State College program that also calls the Mid-Penn Conference’s Commonwealth Division home, Andre Anderson’s Carlisle Thundering Herd advanced to Wednesday’s second round by knocking off the Little Lions 64-54.

Carlisle and State College split a pair of regular-season outings, each prevailing on the road.

Junior big man Ethan Houston pocketed 20 points, while junior lead guard DeShawn “Dey Dey” Millington added 19 for the Herd (20-6), which captured its first state tournament victory since former Bloomsburg University standout Kirk Ream led Carlisle into the second round in 1994.

Carlisle, of course, rode former star Billy Owens and the coaching of Dave Lebo to the last of its four consecutive PIAA Class AAAA championships in 1988.

Jeff Lebo, now the head coach at East Carolina and a former North Carolina standout, starred on the 1985 championship team. Former all-pro linebacker Lee Woodall, who played for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX, also was part of the last two state championship teams.

Up next for the Herd is a trip west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Altoona for a Wednesday matchup with WPIAL runner-up North Hills. North Hills (17-9) sidelined WPIAL playmate Latrobe 70-60 behind 30 points from Nick Smith and 22 from Ishmael Waldron.

One unbeaten tumbles in opening round
Ranked in the Class A top 10 throughout the season, Williamsport’s St. John Neumann suffered its first loss at the most inopportune time — the opening round of the state playoffs.

Neumann (24-1) was victimized by District 11 runner-up Shenandoah Valley 70-59 in a single game Friday night at Milton High School. Joel Santana was the primary protagonist for the Blue Devils, collecting 23 of his 33 points in the second half as Shenandoah Valley (18-8) rallied from a double-digit deficit to oust the District 4-A champion Golden Knights.

Santana also recorded career point No. 1,000 in the win.

Jermaine McNeil chimed in with 16 points and Isaiah Alvarez pocketed 11 rebounds as Shenandoah Valley charged into a second-round scrap with Delco Christian (15-12).

Neumann also was hampered by the loss of all-state guard Kevin Anderson to a first-half concussion, yet the Knights still led 52-48 entering the fourth quarter. Otis Anderson paced Neumann with 28 points.

Simon Gratz pulls shocker of the weekend
In the span of about three weeks, Simon Gratz has become the feel-good story of southeastern Pennsylvania. Coming out of the Public League’s “C” Division, the Bulldogs have gone from the No. 8 seed in the Public League’s AAAA playoffs--needing to play a preliminary round game just to get into the Pub field of 32--into the final 16 teams remaining in the state.

Gratz had to pull several upsets in the Public League playoffs just to get into the AAAA final against Martin Luther King, where the Bulldogs nearly beat the Cougars before falling a point short. They did bounce back to knock out Catholic League upstart Archbishop Ryan in a PIAA play-in game, showing that head coach Lynard Stewart certainly had something going at his alma mater.

But nothing compared to what the Bulldogs did on Saturday, knocking off three-time state champ Lower Merion in overtime, in the first round. In a game played at Harriton High School--located in Lower Merion School District.

Stewart, who played at Gratz in the early 1990s and went on to star at Temple before a lengthy European career, came to Gratz after spending four years at Penn Charter, where he was unable to get the Quakers to crack into the top half of the Inter-Ac his last two years.

He’s clearly got something special with this group, a guard-heavy bunch that plays for each other and displays the typical Philly toughness on the court. Senior guards Jamal Goode and Tyriek Meredith and junior Johnny Eden have been leading the way, but they’re facing another team with an underdog mindset in J.P. McCaskey (see below) in the second round.

Spring-Ford captures first state playoff victory
Shooting 60 percent from the floor in the opening half and 55.6 percent for the contest, Chris Talley’s Spring-Ford Rams wheeled past Spring Grove 74-43 in the first of two opening-round contests Saturday night at packed West York High School.

Needing just nine seconds to push in front on Nigel Cooke’s and-one, and unleashing some nasty half-court traps that kept the Rockets from getting comfortable offensively, Talley’s Rams (23-7) never trailed and led by as many as 16 points (32-16) before the halftime break.

While Spring-Ford benefited greatly when Spring Grove star Eli Brooks was assessed his third foul just 3:31 into the contest, the Rockets had all sorts of trouble trying to contain remarkably athletic guards Cooke and Charles Drummond. Matt Gnias, a terrific catch-and-shoot guard also knocked down some key shots for Talley’s Rams.

Cooke led the way with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Drummond added 15 and Gnias 12. Big man Cameron Reid, who had first-half foul issues of his own, added 12 points and seven boards for an unselfish Rams side that assisted on 19 of its 25 buckets.

Despite playing in front of a York County-heavy gathering on hand to back a Spring Grove (25-4) program making its state playoff debut and second-game participant Central York, Spring-Ford looked mighty, mighty comfortable while playing in the school’s second state tournament contest.

Talley’s Rams made it two seasons ago as District 1’s No. 7 seed — Spring-Ford is a No. 5 seed this time around — but dropped their opening-round scrap to Cedar Crest.

They’ll need to play it mighty cool again on Wednesday night at Cheltenham, where Talley’s Rams will square off against perennial state hammer Chester.

Could we be witnessing more thrills from McCaskey’s unpredictable Tornado?
Plugged into the Class AAAA tournament field last season as District 3’s eighth and final entrant, Steve Powell’s McCaskey ballclub shrugged off its circumstances and began an improbable run to the state semifinals by knocking out District 1 champ Abington.

And while victories over Methacton and La Salle College followed, Powell’s Tornado tumbled in the state semis to eventual state champion Roman Catholic.

Well, McCaskey was at it again Saturday.

After landing in the 32-team bracket as District 3’s No. 7 seed, Powell’s Tornado opened Class AAAA play by upending District 2 champion Abington Heights 50-46 … in Scranton. Jathan Gonzalez knocked down a late trey and returning all-state guard Kobe Gantz canned three of his four freebies in the closing moments to push McCaskey forward.

Gantz banked 19 points and Ricky Cruz finished with 13 for McCaskey (22-7), which trailed twice in the final quarter before rallying. Seth Maxwell and Tim Toro shared 30 points for Ken Bianchi’s Comets (23-3), who had a significant size advantage up front.

Up next for the Tornado is a second-round scrap with another surprise, Philadelphia’s Simon Gratz, Wednesday night at Coatesville. Might be a favorable matchup for McCaskey, since Gratz ousted a Lower Merion club that dominated the Tornado in December.

AAAA favorites dominate first round matchups
Everyone always says basketball in March is supposed to be surprised nothing but shocking upsets for the teams that are expected to be cutting down the nets.

Those teams in the PIAA class AAAA state bracket are having none of it.

The four teams that each could be considered the biggest favorites at the AAAA level--(1-1) Plymouth-Whitemarsh, (12-1) Roman Catholic, (3-1) Reading, and (7-1) Allerdice--each rolled in their opening contests, advancing into the second round by an average margin of victory of 22 points.

The outlier in that group of four was Plymouth-Whitemarsh--fresh off a district one title, the Colonials nearly doubled the score of their opponent, Lebanon, in a crushing 81-41 victory led by Xzavier Malone’s 30 points.  

As for the other three, Roman--the defending champions--downed Academy Park by 15, Allerdice knocked off Penn Hills by 16, and Reading took down Hatboro-Horsham by 17.

A couple of dark horses, Parkland and Ridley, also handled their first round opponents to set up an intriguing second round matchup Wednesday night at Reading that will feature top-notch guard play in Ridley’s Brett Foster, an East Stroudsburg commit, and Parkland’s Kyle Stout, a Lafayette commit.  

Needless to say, the best basketball is yet to come with teams like these playing at their best when it matters most.