City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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HERSHEY, Pa. -- Before Kennedy Catholic took the court for its first PIAA state championship appearance in seven years, head coach Rick Mancino pulled star big man Sagaba Konate aside for a chat.

“I said ‘Sagaba, here’s the deal,’” Mancino said. “You’re 6-foot-7, 6-8. You were recruited by a lot of major colleges in the country, you signed a letter of intent to go to West Virginia. You’ve got to dominate, you’re the best. It’s that simple."

Dominate is a good word for what Konate did to an undersized MCS squad as Kennedy Catholic won its first PIAA title in 15 years, taking the Class A crown with a 71-60 win.

The big man from Mali finished with 17 points and 22 rebounds in his final high school appearance, helping make amends for his program's semifinal exit a year ago.

“Coach told us earlier, every game is different," said Konate, who speaks with a heavy accent. "You’ve got to go out there and grab everything, offense, defense, loose balls, so that motivated me.”

Kennedy Catholic (28-2) closed out the season on a 23-game winning streak to take the championship, its seventh in school history and first since a string of four straight ended in 2001.

Mancino, who was on the Eagles' roster in 1986 for the program's first title, picked up his first as a head coach in his seventh season at the school.

"No one can every take it away when you’re a player, and my teammates and I are still close," he said. "But it’s pretty special to say that I sat on the bench with such a great group of players [...] we’ve had the best players, so it always makes the coaching good.”

Senior guard Drew Magestrao scored all 14 of his points for the Eagles in the first half. Junior Channing Phillips rounded out the Kennedy Catholic double-figure scorers with 10 points.

As a team, the Eagles out-rebounded a smaller group of Mighty Elephants 45-34, with Konate proving to be an unstoppable force down low on both ends of the court.

Neither MCS sophomore Ed Croswell nor senior Nazir Gossette could do much to slow down the future Mountaineer.

"Size. Strength. Build. He’s a special kind of kid," MCS coach Dan Jackson said. "And I think if you (take) him away from this game, it’s a different outcome. He’s on their team, he’s a player and what did they do? He played well tonight."

Junior guard Malik Archer finished with 21 points to lead MCS, while junior Tymier Johnson and Croswell added 10 apiece.

After trailing 37-28 at halftime, Math Civics & Sciences (15-15) scored the first eight points of the third quarter to close within a point. But that’s when Kennedy Catholic turned on the jets, utilizing an 18-3 run that made it 55-39 with 6:47 left in the game.

That spurt was led by the Austin brothers, senior Jason Austin and freshman Maceo Austin.

Jason Austin, a 6-3 guard with several PSAC offers, took advantage of a Mighty Elephant defensive change from zone to man to start attacking the basket, scoring 10 of his 16 points in the second half.

For the elder Austin, who transferred from Sharon last offseason in order to play his final year in high school with Maceo, leaving Kennedy Catholic on a winning note couldn't have been any sweeter.

"The feeling is...I don’t even know how to explain the feeling, it’s great," he said. "Especially for my last game, playing with my brother and playing with my team, it’s a wonderful feeling.”

Maceo, also a 6-3 guard, scored all six of his points during that game-changing run. A potential Division I target, the athletic wing hit several tough shots, including a left-handed runner in the lane.

“It was only six but it was six that we needed," Jason said. "I was very proud of him, he’s going to be great the next three years and I just can’t wait to see what he does.”

MCS got that deficit down to eight points in the final four minutes before Kennedy Catholic quickly re-expanded it to 15.

It actually got back down to eight points in the final 30 seconds, forcing Mancino to re-insert his Magestro and Jason Austin after having removed them several seconds prior.

"I didn’t realize we were only up 8 or 9 with 30 seconds left--when I was a junior in high school, we blew an eight-point lead with 30 seconds left," he said. "I can’t add, I thought we were up 14 and next thing you know we’re up eight and everything, so that killed me.”