State
Recaps Day 2
by Marcus Wright (3/15/08)

(32-1) Marian Catholic 40 (21-9) Mt. Alvernia 34
In a very physical contest, the Fillies of Marian Catholic led for
almost the entire game and pulled off the 6 point state title victory.
Both teams played aggressively on defense, and hustled to the
floor for what seemed to be every loose ball opportunity.
Marian
put their stamp on the game in the first quarter, holding the Lions to
3 points in that frame (10-3). The Filllies added to their
lead
by the end of the half, making it a 22-10 game, mainly thanks to 15
points from their version of the twin towers - 6'4" senior forward
Rachel Connely (7 in first half) and 6' senior forward Libby Shober (8
in the first half).
With the refs really letting both teams go, Mt. Alvernia seemed unable
to get into any kind of flow in the first half, and went into the
locker room at halftime looking visibly frustrated.
That frustration led to a better effort in the third quarter, where
they outscored the Fillies 13-10 and crept back into the spirit of the
game. The Lions also caused a scare in the fourth quarter,
but
every time they made a push, Connely pushed back (scoring 12 in the
second half to finish with 19). Connely's 19 points and
Shober's
final tally of 10 was the difference, as Mt. Alvernia just didn't have
the size to match up with these two.
While Marian Catholic is a small school, it took a giant effort to
handle the bumps and bruises of the state championship game.
Thanks to their own giants Connely and Shober, and their
persistent determination, they were up to the task.
(25-4) Jeannette 76 (23-6) Strawberry
Mansion 72 (OT)
In a highly competitive contest, Jeannette pulled away from Strawberry
Mansion in the overtime period to claim the AA state title.
The
spotlight was of course on the nation's top football recruit, 2-sport
star Terrelle Pryor, but the key in this game was the outside shooting
and the inside performance of the other Jayhawks. Strawberry
Mansion actually did a good job defending Pryor; although he finished
the game with 23 points, he only shot 7-17 from the floor and worked
hard for every basket he made. But perhaps the Knight's
defensive
energy was too focused on Pryor, as Jeannette's Shaw Sunder (21 points)
knocked down three important threes in the game and Jordan Hall (16
points) and Moziah Harris (10 points) drove to the basket a few keys
times to contribute big for their team.
Mansion did not seem rattled by the hype around the Jeannette team, and
on several occasions looked like they could pull the game out.
Dwayne Davis played very well throughout the game, scoring 28
points, including a critical layup with nearly 2 minutes left that
trimmed Jeannette's lead to 57-56. Jeannette mustered a 60-58
lead with 31.4 seconds left when Terrelle Pryor was fouled and sent to
the free throw line. He missed both free throws, and this
allowed
Mansion one more chance to tie, which they did on a short shot just
outside the box by Darren Lawrence with 20 seconds to go.
Pryor
could not hit the last shot of the game to win it for Jeannette, and
the game went to overtime.
While the entire game was back and forth with 7 lead changes, the
overtime was all Jeannette. They pulled out to a 66-60 lead
and
never looked back, as Mansion just couldn't contend with the balanced
offensive output from Jeannette.
This ends a terrific high school career for Terrelle Pryor, and a
terrific year for him as well. After leading the Jeannette
football team to the state title 3 months ago, he and the Jayhawks
bring home another championship trophy, this time of the basketball
variety. Now it's on to the next step for him, which is
college
football, where his school choice is still up in the air. But
the
next step for the basketball team he leaves behind - finding out what
it will take to replace him and successfully defend the state
title.

(30-3) Mount St.
Joseph 53 (30-3) Mercyhurst Prep 43
The
Mount St. Joseph Magic remembered the sting of losing in the
District 1-AAA championship game 3 weeks ago, and didn’t want
to feel the pain of another
championship loss. Thanks
to a great, energetic pace led by senior guard Laura Johnson (16
points), the Magic
made sure that didn’t happen, as they captured the AAA state
title.
The
Mount used a balanced offensive effort in the first half,
aided by great shooting (11-22), to get out to a 27-21 halftime lead. Their defensive effort was
sufficient,
holding Mercyhurst to 37% shooting in the half (10-27).
Mercyhurst Prep stayed in the ballgame mainly due to
6’ forward Kirsten Olowinski, who had 10 first half points
(and
finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds).
The
Mount extended their lead to 9 at 32-23 with 4:50 to go
in the third quarter, and looked poised to run away with the game. Mercyhurst Prep came
raging back, thanks to 5
straight points by Olowinski. However,
the Magic pulled out to a 38-31 lead by the end of the quarter.
The
fourth quarter became quite the physical affair, and the
Magic were able to withstand the pressure to hold on for the victory. Key to the
Magic’s success was not only
Johnson (who hit multiple free throws in the fourth quarter to ice the
game),
but also senior forward Sarah McGorry (12 points, 10 rebounds) and
junior
forward Elle Hagedorn (12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals).
The
Magic celebrated with their mounds of fans in
attendance after the game, most of whom saw their team lose that
district championship weeks
ago. And that may
have made this victory
even sweeter, as the Magic may have been down, but as they showed in
Saturday’s
game, they were not out.

(33-1) Chester 81 (32-2)
Norristown 77
Before
the game, everyone said it was supposed to be a
great, close contest. During
the game,
those in attendance may have thought that it was going to finish as a
blowout. After the
game, everyone who
saw it agreed that it was a spectacular way to end the state
championship
weekend. Despite an
incredible comeback
effort by the Norristown Eagles, the Chester Clippers hung on and
reigned
supreme in the AAAA state final.
Chester
looked like a much sharper team in the first three quarters than they
had in their
recent postseason games. They
implemented a full court press early, and this worked in rattling Norristown, especially in
regards to their field
goal shooting (6-33 in the first half).
The defense led to great offense for the Clippers,
who moved as fast as
they’ve looked all postseason with the ball.
Senior guard Karon Burton led the charge with 12
points in the half (24 total along with 7 assists), and
Nasir Robinson added 8 points and 7 rebounds (14 points total and 15
rebounds).
After opening up the game with a 17-2 lead, Chester
went into halftime up 35-20.
The Clippers expanded
their lead to 53-33 with 3:11 left in the third.
This is where Norristown
began to make their push. The
charge was
led by junior guard Khalif Wyatt,
who
scored 21 points in the second half (28 total), and senior center
Maurice Briggs, who scored 12 in the half (and finished with
18 points and 15 rebounds).
Norristown
continued to creep back into
the game, getting it to 71-64 with 3 minutes left in the fourth. The Norristown fans got
wilder as the comeback continued, and Chester
fans could feel the air being let out of their balloon. This
may have been especially true when Wyatt made a
three off the backboard to cut Chester’s
lead to 75-73 with 1:15 left. Norristown junior forward James
Ramsey (10 points) connected on a three point play
to trim Chester's lead to 77-76 with 27.5 seconds to go.
Burton
was able to right the ship back to
Chester’s
favor
by making two free throws to make it 79-76.
Norristown senior forward Vonte Shippen then got fouled
and connected with 1 of 2 free throws for
the Eagles, but this was followed Chester
senior guard Kevin
Green-Germany hitting two free throws for the Clippers on the other
end. This made it
81-77, and time ran out on Norristown’s
comeback hopes.
Chester
rebounds from last year’s championship loss to Schenley and
continue their
historic varsity basketball run. All
throughout the postseason, the Clippers maintained the notion that
anything less than a state championship would be a disappointment.
Although Norristown put up a big obstacle to that goal, the
Clippers survived and were able to hoist the trophy that marked that
accomplishment.
MW's Analysis:
Another great day of high school
basketball to close out the season. This day was even better
than the
first. The Marian Catholic/Mount Alvernia game was so physical that I
compared
it to a football game several times to my media peers. The
ladies hit the
floor a lot of times. The referees seemed to just let them
play, but at
times I was concerned someone was going to get hurt. Luckily,
everyone
seemed okay after the game was over.
There was not as much hype surrounding Terrelle Pryor as I thought
there would
be. I was expecting
a paparazzi-like
circus around him, but it wasn’t too bad at all. This was my first time
seeing him in person, and
he is built like a house! He
didn’t have
the best of games, shooting only 7-17 from the floor and 9-19 from the
free
throw line. He
still finished with 23
points, and showed terrific athleticism throughout the game. The free throws in
particular came up short
many times, and I think that this may be a sign that the guy just flat
out
needs a break – from sports, the media, and everything. He has to be mentally
drained at this
point. Once he
makes his college
decision for football (which he suggested will be next week), that
should be a
big weight off of his shoulders.
I
also have to commend Strawberry Mansion
for playing terrific in the game against Jeannette, and I think that
this game
was the best one of the weekend.
It
was really cool to see Mount St. Joseph
celebrate after the game with their fans and I have to commend the
students on
traveling well. They
were at the
Palestra in bundles when Varsity 365 covered the Magic against Villa
Maria in
the District 1-AAA championship. They
were at the Palestra when we covered the rematch which the Magic won,
and they
were definitely at Penn State
Saturday, loud as
ever. Laura Johnson
is a terrific player
and great floor general. I
really
enjoyed watching the Mount these past few weeks.
Chester looked beyond
impressive the first three quarters against Norristown.
Norristown’s
comeback was something special, and goes a long way in showing how good
their
coaching staff is. The coaches have
instilled the will to never give up into the players, and it showed as
the
Eagles kept chipping away at the lead.
Khalif Wyatt played out of his mind in the second half, hitting shot
after shot. I have been truly impressed with
Karon Burton in all the Chester games I’ve covered.
He is a ball of energy and definitely one of the most exciting players
I
got to cover this year. Chester
and Norristown were both fun teams to follow
this year, that’s for sure. On a final note, I just
found out that Chester coach Fred Pickett is retiring. He
gets to go out on top. I met him a few times this year and he
seems like an amazing man. I wish him the best with his
future, and I wanted him to know that he has obviously touched the
lives of the kids he's coached, but he has also touched many just from
his overall sense of class. Take care, Fred.
|