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PIAA 5A: Northeastern erases fourth-quarter deficit to topple Penncrest

03/14/2018, 12:45am EDT
By Ryan Brennan

Fred Mulbah (above) and Northeastern are back in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals after making it to the semis last year. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Ryan Brennan (@ryan_brennan63)
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NEW HOLLAND, Pa. -- Fred Mulbah was not feeling 100 percent when he stepped on the court for Northeastern’s PIAA 5A second round matchup against Penncrest Tuesday night.

The electrifying 5-foot-9 point guard had been sick and missed multiple practices leading up to the game; he was even forced to miss school Monday for a doctor’s office visit, according to Bobcats head coach Jon Eyster.

For those looking on it was hard to tell as the senior point guard put on a show, leading the Northeastern to a 63-60 victory and a second straight state quarterfinals appearance.

“I’m dead tired right now,” said Mulbah, who struggled to speak afterwards due to a hoarse voice, “I’m not making excuses, but I came out here and battled for my team and I didn’t want to let my team down.”

Mulbah finished the game with 15 points to go along with five rebounds and eight assists, including the dish to sophomore Andrew Brodbeck who hit what proved to be the game-winning layup with 40 seconds remaining.

With senior guard and Albany commit Antonio Rizzuto struggling to find open shots all game, Mulbah, along with sophomores Brodbeck and Nate Wilson, were forced to step up in a big way.

Wilson finished with a team high 26 points, while Brodbeck added seven.

“The young guys, they want to play, they want the big moment and they like stepping up and playing in front of big crowds,” Mulbauh said, “That’s a credit to them they have heart and they love to get it done.”

Trailing by 16 early in the fourth quarter, the Bobcats (28-3) were in need of a spark.

Northeastern picked up the intensity on defense, switching to a press which caused four early Lions’ (26-4) turnovers.

Wilson benefited most from the switch, as the sophomore guard was able to record three straight steals and score seven straight points for the Bobcats.

“We thought Penncrest was going to end up holding the ball for the rest of the quarter so we decided to press and pressure them and make them turn it over,” said Wilson, who scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half,  “I’ve been struggling shooting the ball recently, so I’m happy a couple of shots started falling.”

Midway through the quarter, Mulbah was able to muster up one final push for the Bobcats, hitting a pull-up three to bring Northeastern within one, then finding a wide open Brodbeck for three to tie the game.

Tyler Norwood did all he could to keep Penncrest’s season alive, finishing with a game-high 28 points for the two-time District 1 5A champions. He nearly made it 31, though a potential game-tying effort from just beyond half court clanged off the iron.

Senior Justin Heidig and junior Isaiah Rice were tremendous defensively for the Lions, holding Rizzuto to just five points and 2-for-8 from the field.

“They had a great defensive gameplan to stop Tony (Rizzuto) and when he got open shots he didn’t knock them down,” Eyster said.

The Lions were able to build a lead due to the hot shooting of Norwood, who finished 7-for-11 from the field including four threes.

Junior forward Matt Arbogast was a force on the block finishing with 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds, while junior Malcolm Williams added 11 points for Penncrest.

“I think the 16-point lead let us have a false sense of security, where we thought that ‘okay this is going to be easy,’ and for a split-second we forgot how good they really are,” Lions’ head coach, Mike Doyle said. “We blinked and it was an eight-point game, they scored seven consecutive points and I think we didn’t respect them for about 45 seconds.”

Penncrest season ends as the most successful in school history. The team won 26 games, a school record, including a win in the state tournament for the first time in school history.

“First I told them that it’s going to hurt, she’s a cruel, cruel game and this is going to hurt for a while,” Doyle said, “I’m glad every guy’s crying in there because it means so much to them...they competed and they won an inordinate amount of games for a neighborhood high school team.”

Northeastern will face Abington Heights on Friday night, looking for a second straight state semifinals appearance.  

“We have a bunch of seniors and we didn’t want their seasons and their careers to end so we went out there and played our hearts out,” Wilson said. “It was a big confidence booster and it’s going to carry over into Friday.”


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