City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)

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ALTOONA — Locked in a tight game at halftime? No problem.

Trailing at the break? Hey Coach, we’ve got this.

And while a highly experienced Allderdice outfit was chin-to-chin with what typically are uncomfortable situations for most teams Saturday afternoon, Buddy Valinsky’s unflappable Dragons merely stepped inside their locker room and sorted out a number of things before returning to the floor to hoist a few shots.

What followed was a timely explosion that promptly leveled a previously buoyant Carlisle bunch flush with enthusiasm and playing with its typical verve and bravado right up until the halftime buzzer sounded and called for a break.

Ultimately, Valinsky’s superbly talented club parlayed its timely outburst into a decisive 59-42 conquest of Andre Anderson’s wobbly Thundering Herd in a PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal-round scrap at the Altoona Field House.

Ramon Creighton pocketed 18 points, Tim Jackson checked in with 15 and James Jackson collected 10 as Allderdice wheeled into the state semis for the second year in a row. Tim Jackson completed the double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds.

Up next for the Dragons (27-1) is a Tuesday night date with District 3-AAAA champion Reading at a site and time to be determined. Reading, which needed overtime to defeat Anderson’s Herd 78-73 in the 3-AAAA quarterfinals, eliminated Chester 73-64 earlier in the day in Philadelphia.

Valinsky’s potent Dragons, who posted their 23rd straight victory, also picked up nine points and eight boards from 6-5 Jordan Rawls as well as nine rebounds from 6-9 Tim Pugh. Creighton, the powerful 6-1 catalyst, added five boards and five assists.

DeShawn “Dey Dey” Millington uncorked a sparkling effort for Anderson’s Herd, scoring 19 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Carlisle (21-7) also received an 11-board performance from springy 6-1 senior Jordan Purcell.

And with Millington banking 14 of his 19 points in the first half — on a splendid 6-for-8 shooting effort from the floor — Carlisle matched the Pittsburgh City League champs stride for stride as the opening 16 minutes unfolded.

“Listen, they were pumped up to play us in the beginning,” Valinsky said. “That’s how Cinderella teams are. They were ready to play, well-coached, ran good stuff, made their shots. At the end, I said this is 32 minutes, not 16.”

Valinsky also thought Millington’s early burst forced his club to refocus.

“I don’t think our kids felt he was that good,” Valinsky admitted. “And when he started going by us, I said, ‘Daron Russell of Imhotep, he’s as quick as him.’

“He shoots it well.”

Anderson’s Herd actually owned a five-point lead (26-21) with 1:01 remaining before the break once the elusive Purcell was able to slither to the rack and drop in a finish. Carlisle even had a chance to extend its advantage in the closing seconds, but Rawls tipped Ki Barnes’ shot and James Jackson latched on.

An instant later, Jackson’s outlet put Creighton behind the Herd defense and an easy finish at the opposite end resulted. Merely 0.8 seconds remained.

“Listen, we’ve been down before,” Valinsky said. “The thing is we’ve been in close games and when you have five starting seniors and a sixth that comes off the bench, I think that’s the difference. I thought they were a little bit younger than us. They didn’t have the seniors and it shows. It showed out there when the game started getting crucial. Senior-oriented team, I think that’s the key, too.”

“We had a lot of underclassmen playing and like I said, ‘My guys came into this ready,’” Anderson said. “I can’t fault them for anything. They had a wonderful season. We hadn’t been to the Elite Eight since ’88.

“Fantastic season overall.”

Unfortunately for Carlisle — and fortunately for Allderdice — the third quarter proved to be pivotal. And that eight-minute segment eventually dictated which club advanced.

While Anderson didn’t believe his club was shaken by Creighton's late deuce, Valinsky’s senior-oriented Dragons undoubtedly had quite a bit more pep as they bounced enthusiastically into their locker room.

Behind those closed doors, plenty of maneuvering went on.

“A lot of times you don’t get to see teams often, so a lot of it’s on film,” Valinsky admitted. “They were quicker than we were in the first half. The first half they were a step ahead of us. … Even though you have all that film, until you play at that speed it’s difficult. Carlisle played a very good first half.

“They shot it well like Pine-Richland [did in Wednesday’s second-round scrap] and I said, ‘Here we go again.’ Then afterwards we have to make adjustments, but you can only make adjustments if you have the pieces that fit that puzzle.

“You have a 6-9 kid. You have a 6-5 kid. [You have] two 6-3 kids who can run all over. Then you have the pieces to put the puzzle together. I’m lucky. I have those pieces.”

Some 10 minutes later, those rejuvenated pieces unleashed a trapping defense meant to get the ball out of Millington’s mitts — Purcell’s, too — and put much more juice in Allderdice legs. Suddenly energized, the Dragons quickly gained control.

“It took him out,” Anderson said. “They were sending two the minute he got to half-court, even before half-court. They extended that thing in the second half and, like I said, they just came out and put it into a whole other gear.

“And they played a whole lot harder in the second half. It was tough. Because it wears our guys down when they were trapping us and we just didn’t get the ball to the middle and we didn’t convert there early. We needed to hit a few shots and make a few layups and we didn’t do that.”

Conversely, Allderdice did.

Rawls’ trey off a Creighton feed — the 6-5 senior booked two of Allderdice’s three deep looks — tied the score with just 1:20 gone in the half. Rawls’ 3-pointer also triggered the Dragons’ transition game as Valinsky’s opportunistic crew reeled off 17 more points before the quarter mercifully came to an end for the Herd.

“That 16 minutes was great,” Anderson said of the first half. “I don’t want to say it was a set-up or anything like that, but we’ve watched a lot of their games and they kind of do that in the first half. They stay neck-and-neck with you in the first half and then they bring out a different sort of energy in that third quarter.

“That’s what they did today and we didn’t punch back. We didn’t punch back right away. We had some turnovers, some missed lay-ups and we weren’t making shots in that third. With a team like this that gets out like they do in transition, it’s tough.”

Tim Jackson scored nine points during Allderdice’s blistering run, which gave the Dragons a 43-26 lead heading to the fourth. Eight turnovers also hindered the Herd, which failed to convert any of its 10 field-goal attempts during that decisive stretch.

“First half, they made shots so we can’t run,” Valinsky said. “If a team’s making shots, you can’t run. So they bottled us pretty good. We didn’t get our transition points, which is what we live off of. The second half when we got some steals, then we got the Jacksons in the open court and they’re open-court kids.”

The Herd’s ineffectiveness also allowed Valinsky’s outfit to continue employing its preferred 3-2 zone rather than the man looks Carlisle was able to coax out of the Dragons late in the opening half when the situation was much, much different.

Carlisle’s devastating dry spell continued into the fourth quarter, the Herd finally cashing in with 7:04 to play when Gavyn Barnes buried two freebies and brought a halt to a scoreless drought that covered nearly 10 minutes.

Carlisle didn’t can another field-goal attempt until Millington knocked down a 10-foot pull-up with 2:54 remaining — a span stretching just over 14 minutes.     

A few more numbers bring even more clarity to a murky Carlisle picture.

While the Herd connected on nearly 41 percent of its first-half looks (11-for-27), Carlisle was just 4-for-23 (17.4 percent) after the break. Anderson’s club also was outboarded by the Dragons 42-34, including 28-21 in the third and fourth.

“And a lot of those boards were on the offensive end,” Anderson lamented. “We just didn’t rebound the way we needed to rebound down the stretch. We got worse as the game went on. Like I said, you can’t do that against a team like this because those rebounds were coming to their four and five men and they were throwing deep outlet passes to their guards in transition.

“We just gave up so many transition buckets,” Anderson continued. “When they start scoring, they can score quickly.”

By then, with the game in hand at 50-34, Allderdice was on cruise control. 

“Listen, I know that feeling,” Valinsky recalled. “[Against] Martin Luther King last year in the Final Four we didn’t put up a lot of points until the last 12 minutes.

“I know that feeling.”

Valinsky & Co. also know what it’s like to play in the state semifinals, one round short of playing at Hershey’s Giant Center with gold on the line.

Next up is Reading.

“We’re excited to play them,” Valinsky said. “When we read stuff, my kids want that challenge. We went to Philly and we saw all of the teams play, and now we want to see Reading and I’m sure they want to see us.”

Anderson, however, has seen both of them.

“I think it’ll be a good game,” Anderson said. “They both have athletes No. 1. They both have kids that are capable of getting up and down the court. Everything’s going to come down to defense. It’s going to come down to playing for a full game.

“I can tell you this: If Allderdice comes out and tries to beat Reading with just the second half, they’re going to have a game on their hands. Reading has some special players and it’ll be an interesting game to watch to say the least,” Anderson added.

“Both very, very good teams, both very well-coached and both fully capable of winning the state championship in my eyes.”