City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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HERSHEY — As the Giant Center scoreboard clock wound down toward those inevitable zeroes — perhaps not quickly enough for a head coach who’d been in so many scraps — Ken Bianchi subtly extended one finger upward as his hands rested in front of his navy blue blazer.

While that might have seemed quite the understated celebration, it certainly radiated plenty as Abington Heights’ skipper reached yet another pinnacle in a splendid career spent almost entirely in Pennsylvania’s northeast corner — a head coaching career that began 50-plus years ago.

For Bianchi, it’s a long way from lower Northumberland County and that single campaign (1967-68) he spent at Line Mountain before the Scranton native retraced his steps and headed back home.

As for that long-awaited pinnacle, it seems fitting that Bianchi’s 774th career coaching victory arrived Tuesday night at Giant Center, where an Abington Heights program appearing in its first PIAA state final bounced off with its initial crown following a 67-55 victory over Mars in the Class 5A title game.

“I just think it was the perfect storm,” said Bianchi, who talked about running into his former Line Mountain captain, Ken Klock, at an earlier state tournament game. “I’ve had some really good players play for me and we never got this far. Never got to the final game.”

George Tinsley also celebrated a milestone, as the hard-working 6-6 junior collected 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds — including career point No. 1,000 — for Bianchi’s otherwise remarkably balanced Comets (27-3). Jack Nealon, Jackson Danzig and Corey Perkins also cracked double digits for the District 2 champions, banking 13, 11 and 11 points, respectively.

“Obviously, it was on the to-do list after last year and those tough games,” said Tinsley, referring to an Abington Heights bunch that reached the state semifinals before falling to eventual champ Archbishop Wood. “We lost a lot of height and we knew we were going to have to come out and just work hard, just non-stop. Just grind and grind if we wanted to get back here and that’s what this team did.

“Everyone just stepped up big.”

This time around, the Comets’ state tournament run featured a romp over Gardn Spot, a one-point victory over Chester, a 20-point conquest of Northeastern and then an overtime defeat of Philadelphia Catholic League runner-up Bonner-Prendergast in overtime.

So, like last season when Abington Heights won twice in overtime just to get to the state semis, they were really, really tested just getting to Hershey. Nonetheless, yet another test awaited.

Abington Heights’ collective balance also played a lead role Tuesday night as the Comets withstood a 34-point, eight-rebound performance from Notre Dame recruit Robby Carmody. Carmody, who fouled out with 1:26 to play, registered 27 of the Fightin’ Planets’ 30 second-half points.

Michael Carmody and Cade Hetzler also left early via fouls — some 40 personals were assessed by the zebras — while the 6-6 Danzig was the first to depart once his allotment was maxed out.

Yet when Danzig joined Bianchi & Co. on the Abington Heights bench, Robby Carmody was headed for the foul line with 5:23 remaining and a chance to complete an and-one. One successful free throw later, Rob Carmody’s Planets (25-5) were trailing 48-43.

Bianchi also sent Drew Nealon into the remarkably physical fray, instructing the 6-1 junior to dog the high-scoring Carmody and chase the 6-4 senior wherever he opted to go to find the ball.

Up to that point, the Comets had been in a matchup zone with whomever checking Carmody if and when he strayed into a different area of the court and another player’s air space.

“You can’t stop him,” said Bianchi, who coached at Scranton Tech and West Scranton before landing at Abington Heights more than two decades ago. “We just wanted to contain him a little bit. We played a matchup zone, but we kind of had some tendencies of a box-and-one.

“I didn’t want to tire out one guy.”

When Danzig departed with five-plus minutes to play, that’s when the 6-6 Tinsley decided to ramp up his high-octane engine to an even-higher level. While the Abington Heights junior banked his squad’s next 10 points, Robby Carmody was running off six more for Mars.

“I knew when [Danzig] came out I had to step up big in a leadership role and get my whole team behind it,” said Tinsley, who has an offer from D-I Binghamton and interest from a number of Patriot League programs as well as NCAA Tournament darling UMBC. “Just put them to get this win.

“They stepped up big-time. They were making shots and they were able to find me,” added Tinsley, who scored 19 second-half points despite playing with a hip pointer. “Just easy layups.”

Yet when Tinsley made both ends of a two-shot look with 3:25 remaining — that’s when the junior reached 1K — Abington Heights’ lead stood at 55-49. Mars briefly drew closer on a Michael Carmody free throw a few seconds later, but the Planets never drew closer.

“It’s amazing. There’s no words to describe it,” Tinsley said of reaching 1,000 career points and capturing a state title on the same night. “I didn’t even know how many I needed, because I didn’t want to worry about it. When I was on the bench, I just let it sink in and it felt awesome.”

And when Robby Carmody checked out with 1:26 to go, Nealon promptly drained a pair of freebies, increasing the Abington Heights cushion to 10 points (63-53).

Carmody finished his career at No. 7 on the WPIAL’s scoring list.

“We knew he was going to get his points, obviously,” said Tinsley, one of four underclassmen to start the game for the Comets. “He’s gotten them all season. We just knew we had to settle down and play our offensive game and open up a lot of easy shots for us.

“We took over from there.”

“They were averaging 70something per game,” Bianchi added. “If you told me we could hold them to 55, I’d give [Carmody] those points. Have those points, but not let those other guys [go off].

“But those other guys hit shots in the first half.”

Eventually, once the buzzer finally sounded, Bianchi began his subtle celebration while chaos erupted all around the 70something head coach and throughout the corner of Giant Center that contained most of Abington Heights’ white-clad partisans. And the noise was nothing short of cacophonous.

Although Mars led by one (25-24) at the break — the Planets’ Andrew Recchia canned all nine of his points in the opening half on a trio of 3-balls — Abington Heights opened the third quarter with back-to-back-to-back 3-balls from Danzig and a pair from Jack Nealon, building a 33-25 lead.

Carmody’s efforts actually had the Planets within one (39-38) with 1:57 left in the third — when he completed a conventional three-point play — but the WPIAL champions never stepped back in front.

Danzig’s baseline pull-up jumper and Tinsley’s finish at the tin — off a bounce pass from the Scranton-bound Danzig, Abington Heights’ lone senior starter — had the Comets sitting on a five-point lead (43-38) when the third quarter came to a close. Only once did Mars draw closer.

Eventually, Abington Heights would deliver to its head coach his first state championship in his first journey to a state championship game. The Comets even draped the celebratory net they cut down over the shoulders of junior sharpshooter Trey Koehler, who was injured and could not play.

“I’ve been blessed,” said Bianchi, whose first victory came against Southern Columbia.

“It was like the perfect storm hit this year.”