City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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NEW HOLLAND, Pa. -- Noah Baldez set the scene with the very first play.

The Phil-Mont Christian senior guard received the opening tip from classmate Sean Griffin and didn’t hesitate, driving straight to the hoop for a layup barely five seconds into the Falcons’ PIAA Class A second-round game against unbeaten District 3 champ York Country Day.

“To be honest, I didn’t even realize it happened,” Griffin said. “I turned around, he’d already scored--I was like okay, let’s go.”

York Country Day had entered Garden Spot High School on a 23-game win streak that had lasted all year long, but it was Phil-Mont who opened with all the momentum thanks to a play designed to do one thing.

“We think it intimidates teams,” said Baldez, who pulled the play off to perfection several other times this season. “We like to start off really intimidating, I guess is the word, so teams get scared and we can play with more of an attack mindset.”

It worked.

What followed was a barrage of buckets by the Falcons, who jumped out to a 19-point halftime lead without making a jump shot and ran away to a 71-45 win.

That advances the small school, located on Hillcrest Avenue in Glenside, to its first-ever PIAA quarterfinal. They made it this far once before, two years back, before losing to also-undefeated St. John Neumann in the second round.

“We keep having the arguments with the seniors from two years ago about how we think our team is better,” Baldez said, “and now we can actually say we’re better.”

Junior forward David Giuliani led Phil-Mont with 19 points, senior forward Osaze Thornton added 18, Griffin 16 and Baldez 11 as the Falcons took advantage of a guard-heavy Greyhounds squad on the interior.

Griffin, a 6-8 forward with several D-II offers, had an impressive all-around game with six rebounds, five assists and three steals.

“He can see stuff inside, he’s got good vision around the basket," Phil-Mont coach Glenn Dolton said. "That’s what I’m talking about about guys being unselfish: they just want to win games, it doesn’t matter who scores, they’ve been like that all season. We’re really happy about that because you can’t key on one guy.”

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PIAA Second-Round Results
Tuesday, March 8
CLASS AAA
Delaware Valley Charter 59, Lampeter-Strasburg 45
Imhotep Charter 72, Lewisburg 47
Neumann-Goretti 113, Scranton Prep 71
Lower Moreland 52, Pottsville 47
Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt 62, Archbishop Carroll 60
New Castle 56, Beaver Falls 52
Highlands 68, Hollidaysburg 55
Mars 58, Erie Strong Vincent 56

CLASS A
Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian 71, York Country Day 45
Math, Civics & Sciences 69, Old Forge 56
Shenandoah Valley 62, Delaware County Christian 58
Constitution 75, Southern Fulton 48
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic 66, Bishop Carroll 55
Kennedy Catholic 65, Coudersport 26
Sewickley Academy 48, Homer-Center 38
Farrell 61, Elk County Catholic 38

Phil-Mont (28-1) made its first nine shots from the floor, all layups, to open up an early 19-14 lead on a nearly-equally-hot Greyhounds squad. Then the defense clamped down in the second quarter, which saw a seven-point advantage grow to 44-25 at the break.

The Falcons were 21-of-32 (65.6 percent) from the floor in the first half without taking a shot further than five feet from the basket.

“We haven’t seen size like that all year, so that was really tough,” YCD coach Corey Stiles said. “And you can’t practice against that, because we don’t have it. At least if we go we’re playing against a 6-foot, athletic guard I can put D.J. or Jordan on the other team and now we can play against them, but it’s hard to simulate a 6-8 kid.”

In fact, Phil-Mont didn’t hit a jump-shot until a 3-pointer by Matt Steiger early in the third quarter, which extended the lead to 50-29.

With the way the frontcourt was playing, the Falcons just didn’t need to.

“We’ve been focused on that a little bit, more in the second half of this season and creating some different types of offensive sets and stuff to focus on that,” Dolton said of his team’s advantage inside against the rest of the Class A bracket. “We’re looking at trying to establish that as our first priority and build off of that.”

The Greyhounds were led by junior guard DeAireus Brown’s 18; fellow junior Jordan Ray chipped in 10 and junior forward Tom Wynard added nine.

Despite the loss, York Country Day (23-1) received a standing ovation from a couple hundred fans who made the trip, many of whom waited around outside the locker room to applaud the players as they left the gym for the last time of the season.

With no seniors in the starting lineup and only one on the entire roster, the Greyhounds expect to be back next year.

“We’ve got a lot to build on,” Stiles said. “You can’t overlook this season, 23-1, undefeated regular season, won three games in districts, you’re district champs, you won a game in states...yeah, (we) lost, and none of us are happy, but at the same time it’s over, you look back, you say it’s a heck of a year, it’s a heck of a year.”

Phil-Mont gets either District 2 champ Old Forge or District 12 runner-up Math, Civics & Sciences in the quarterfinals.

Three more wins and there won't be any argument which Falcons team is best in school history.

"We’re really excited that we’ve got a chance to move into new territory," Dolton said. "We’re excited about moving on and keeping the season going, guys are fresh, they’re excited, there’s no let-down, they want to play, so we’re excited.”

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Delco Christian falls to Shenandoah Valley
The only other District 1 team left in the Class A bracket, Delco Christian saw its season come to an end with a 62-58 loss to Shenandoah Valley.

More details to come on this game shortly