skip navigation

PIAA 6A: Roman survives Pine-Richland in OT to get back to Hershey

03/24/2018, 9:45pm EDT
By Michael Bullock

Allen Betrand (above, in Feb.) and Roman Catholic are in the PIAA championship for the third time in four seasons. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
--

CHAMBERSBURG — In a defend-at-all-costs mode as time wound down in regulation, a resilient Roman Catholic squad made the defensive plays it needed to make to extend a contest that could have ended the Cahillites’ splendid season or propelled them another round deeper.

Then, given a chance to exhale and get plugged back in, lots of things suddenly went right.

“We went in attack mode,” Roman senior Allen Betrand said. “We were in attack mode the whole overtime. We wanted to get to the basket every time we could and make free throws.”

And by going on the attack in the extra session, Matt Griffin’s squad was able to construct an early lead that eventually led to an 81-73 victory over Pine-Richland in a terrific PIAA Class 6A semifinal-round encounter Saturday afternoon at the Chambersburg Field House.

Betrand and Hakim Hart each pocketed 25 points for the Philadelphia Catholic League champions (23-6), who will play for their third state championship in four seasons on Wednesday night (8 p.m.) at Hershey’s Giant Center. Awaiting Roman in Chocolatetown will be Abraham Lincoln, which defeated Roman in the District 12 title game. Lincoln edged Hazleton 76-74 in overtime in the other semi.

“We’re excited to get this game and we’ll be ready,” Griffin said.

Lynn Greer III and Louie Wild added 11 points apiece for Roman — Wild scored eight points in the extra session — while 6-5 Notre Dame football recruit Phil Jurkovec cranked out a double-double (17 points/13 rebounds) and Dan Petcash netted 16 points to lead Pine-Richland (23-7).

Jeff Ackermann’s Rams, who were hoping to play in a 6A title game for the second straight March, also received 12 points from Andrew Kristofic and 10 from Greg Shulkosky.

Yet after battling back from a five-point deficit (57-52) to tie the game at 60-all with 1:43 remaining in regulation when Greer canned a 3-ball from high on the left wing, Roman soon was on an elevator ride as Greer was assessed his fifth foul and Shulkosky bounced to the free-throw line.

When Shulkosky missed the front end of his 1-and-1 look, Roman promptly had the ball back. The Towson-bound Betrand, the de facto lead guard with Greer looking on from the bench, returned the orange to the WPIAL runners-up when he tossed it out of bounds under his own hoop.

“When he went out, I had to control the ball,” Betrand said. “At the end, with that turnover, I kept my head. I kept my head into it and we got a stop. We came back and won the game.”

With just over a minute to go, Pine-Richland immediately unveiled its spread formation.

Working the clock down, Ackermann’s Rams called time with 37.3 seconds remaining and again with just 13.9 to play. Although Ackermann called for an inbounds play that worked earlier, Roman snuffed that possibility, forcing Pine-Richland to improvise in those dramatic final seconds.

“With 13 seconds left, I said, ‘This is who we are, we need to get a stop on this possession,’” Griffin said. “I’m proud of my guys. We hung in there without fouling. In those situations, on those drives to the basket, we were able to get stops. It gave us a chance to reorganize the group.”

Petcash was able to get into the lane, but his pop was off the mark. Jurkovec was able to get a hand on the rebound, but his tip attempt didn’t even get to the rim. And even though the ball was back in the 6-4 Petcash’s mitts, he couldn’t get a shot up on the rim in time.

“We needed to win it there,” Ackermann admitted. “If we were going to win it, we had to do it there. I think I should have done a better job calling plays at the end.”

Roman had the defensive stop it needed, but now what?

“Huge,” Griffin said. “I give them all the credit in the world. I thought they were tremendously well coached and that was the most physical game we played all year. They just kept banging underneath. They’re strong. … I give them a lot of credit.”

“All we had to do was calm down,” Betrand added.

While a Shulkosky freebie gave Pine-Richland an early lead in OT, John Kelly answered by canning a pair of free throws for his only points of the game and pushing Roman back in front (62-61). Hart then took over the spotlight, swiping the ball out of Shulkosky’s hands and finishing at the other end.

Then, reading a passing lane properly, Hart pilfered a Pine-Richland pass and his dish to the right corner preceded Seth Lundy’s timely trey. Just like that, Roman was leading 67-61.

“Getting out to a lead for us is huge,” Griffin said. “To get a lead in a situation where there’s limited possessions and no shot clock, it’s crucial. … Seth Lundy hit a big shot and Hakim opened it up with a couple steals. That’s when we’re best is when we’re in transition.”

“We weren’t aggressive and they were,” Ackermann lamented. “They were the much more aggressive team in overtime and that showed.”

Wild would tack on his eight overtime points — he was 6-for-6 at the stripe during that stretch — and Betrand was able to get to the hoop twice for finishes as Roman opened things up.

Roman bagged 15 of its 17 free throws, including 10-for-12 in OT.

Next stop: Hershey.

“”Our whole mentality was [playing like] underdogs,” admitted the 6-4 Betrand, who added six rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot to a spiffy stat line. “The whole season we’ve been playing like the underdogs. That’s how we won. That’s how we’re winning now.”

Last-second Zimmerman runner propels Richland to dramatic victory

Knowing they didn’t have much time to make something happen, Richland put Tyler Zimmerman in motion on the final play and the athletic 6-2 senior delivered in a memorable way.

Historic, too.

Zimmerman’s running 35-footer at the final buzzer propelled Richland to a 54-52 victory over Lancaster Mennonite in a thrilling Class 3A semifinal that triggered a loud post-game celebration on Saturday afternoon at the Chambersburg Field House.

Fire trucks also were to be waiting when Greg Burke’s Rams (25-4), headed for their first state championship game, finally reached their suburban Johnstown home.

Zimmerman, who enjoyed a big fourth quarter for the District 6 runners-up, finished with 20 points. Collin Instone, a burly 6-3, 250-pound senior added 13 more for a Richland club that will take on four-time state champ Neumann-Goretti in Wednesday’s 3A final at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Roman Ali pocketed 18 points and Elijah Terry finished with 13 for Lancaster Mennonite (20-10), which took a 52-51 lead with 3.8 seconds remaining on Ali’s putback of a Carter Hurst miss.

One critical timeout later — and forced to take the ball out underneath Mennonite’s hoop — Richland ran Zimmerman toward midcourt and off a double screen as Joe Hauser lofted an inbounds pass. Several dribbles later, and already past the stripe, Zimmerman elevated some 35 feet out.

Zimmerman even took another millisecond to author a second pump before he uncorked a shot toward the cylinder that fell through cleanly and putt the revved-up Richland partisans at a full boil.

“We had to keep our heads in it and stuff and I had the hot hand leading up that,” Zimmerman recalled. “When we were in the [timeout], I said, ‘Coach, give me the ball somehow. Maybe God will bless me and it will go in.’ Joe threw me a great pass and it got me running up [the court] toward the basket.

“I took a couple dribbles and just let it fly. God blessed me and it went in.”

“What I noticed is when Zimmy shot the ball, he went up in the air and double pumped,” Burke admitted. “And on that double pump, I know he was focusing more on that rim because he jumps so high and has that extra time in the air to focus on that rim.

“When he’s able to double pump like that, uncontested, it’s going to be close,” Burke continued.

“It was closer than close, it was in.”

Especially since the Rams, who hadn’t been in the state semifinals since falling to Midland in 1975, were heading for state final No.1. No wonder everyone was wound up.

“It’s crazy,” Zimmerman added. “After we lost the [District 6], we were a little down. And then we started winning a couple of these games and we got back up again. The school hasn’t been here forever, so I think we made history today and that’s great.”

For Mennonite, which finished fourth in the District 3 tournament yet knocked off Ligonier Valley, Westinghouse and Greenville to reach the state semis for the first time since 2002, it was a tough ending to a splendid postseason run that covered plenty of bus miles.

“It says we won a bunch of games at the state level,” said veteran Lancaster Mennonite head coach Geoff Groff, who pocketed his 400th career victory earlier in the state tournament.

“It’s a group of guys that didn’t define themselves by people’s expectations.”


HS Coverage:

Recruiting News:

Tag(s): Home  Old HS  Michael Bullock  Boys HS  Roman Catholic