Four SOL boys’ basketball teams were in action on Friday night. Three teams advanced, including 30th-seeded Wissahickon that pulled off the upset of the tournament with its win over third-seeded Great Valley.
#30 Wissahickon 55, #3 Great Valley 51
Wissahickon barely made it into the district playoffs this year. On Friday night, the Trojans not only beat a team that had only lost two games the entire season, they stunned them.
The Trojans, the No. 30 seed in the District One Class AAAA bracket, went into a packed house at Great Valley High School and defeated the Patriots (21-3) by four points in a first round playoff.
Senior Chase Wilson led the way for the Trojans (14-9) with 16 points and five assists in the upset victory.
“It’s huge,” the Trojans’ senior captain said. “I think it definitely puts a big statement out there to not sleep on us.
“Great Valley was ranked sixth in the state and third in the district, and while it’s just a number, it means big things. We know we still have to go out and play our other game.”
The mere fact that Wissahickon has another game is a surprise to most, but Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson has always believed in his guys.
“We came out and we knew the pressure was on them,” Coach Wilson said. “They’re a top seed. Nobody was expecting us to do anything. We said, ‘Let’s make them beat us.’ We put a guy on their top guy and I said not to give him any room and to get under their shirt and they did just that.”
Coach Wilson said that playing in a full house on the road in the playoffs can be tough but was impressed with his school’s turnout.
“To our credit, our kids brought a nice couple of loads of fans there, and we had a small section, but we had the lead from pretty much in the second quarter on, and it felt like it was our crowd making the noise,” he said. “They cut the lead from 11 to three in the fourth and their crowd got back into it, but our crowd was phenomenal the whole time.”
The Trojans played to a 6-6 tie after one quarter, but a small advantage in the second helped Wissahickon to go into the half up two, at 19-17.
In the third, Wissahickon outscored the Patriots by six and went on top by eight entering the fourth (35-27), when the Trojans got their lead to as high as 11 points.
Wissahickon senior Chris Carradorini, who scored 14 points, hit three triples in the third fourth alone. Senior Chris Vila added 13 points for the Trojans. All told, the Trojans buried nine three-pointers.
Great Valley, the Ches-Mont American Division champion, could never come all the way back, especially thanks to the paint play and rebounding of Brandon Pace and Jared Reed.
“I couldn’t thank Chris (Carradoroni) and Chris (Vila) enough for their shooting,” Chase Wilson said. “Every time I passed it to them, they were hitting open shots. I just kept setting them up and they kept knocking them down and that’s a big part of the game. I don’t think people realize, though, but probably the main reason why we won was Jared and Brandon on the rebounding. They demolished the boards and they owned the paint all night, that’s for sure.”
Pace finished with four points and 11 rebounds, while Reed added eight points and a number of boards.
“Chase didn’t shoot it as well as he usually does tonight, but he played well and Chris Carradoroni really stepped up,” Coach Wilson said. “Those three threes in the fourth quarter were daggers for (Great Valley). Jared Reed hit some key free throws down the stretch for us to win, everybody has to step up and they all did.”
Great Valley was led by Mikal Bridges’ 15 points. Ricky McQuay added 12, while Kyrie Ames chipped in with 11.
Less than 15 months ago, the Wissahickon football team did the unthinkable, as the Trojans went into No. 1 Downingtown East’s stadium and came out with a win as the No. 16 seed, the final seed in district football. On Friday night, the basketball team did its own version of playing the role of giant killer, coming out with one of the biggest upsets the area has seen in years.
Coach Wilson said people should’ve given his team more of a chance.
“It’s funny. I said, ‘Why not us?’ Every now and then, some team has to make an upset,” he said. “Why not us? We knew it came down to guard play and our guards went in there and they needed to play well and they did.”
In a second round playoff on Tuesday, Wissahickon will face the winner of the West Chester Rustin (14) – Radnor (19) game, which won’t be played until Sunday because of the weather.
Coach Wilson wants to use the extra days to his team’s advantage.
“It gives us a chance to go and watch them and see what they do and then to practice even more on Monday with the day off,” he said. “Hopefully we can get it together and qualify for states. That’s our goal.”
A win in the second round would automatically put Wissahickon in the state tournament, something which would help Wilson and Wilson to forget about last year’s disappointing first round exit.
Wissahickon 6 13 16 20—55
Great Valley 6 11 10 24—51
#7 Abington 61, #26 North Penn 44
An early 7-0 deficit was nothing for Coach Charles Grasty and his Abington squad to get too worried about. After all, the Ghosts had just completed a season in which they went undefeated in conference play.
With Abington knowing how to face adversity and win games against quality opponents, Friday night was nothing different, as the Ghosts hosted North Penn and won by 17 points in a District One Class AAAA first round play.
After going down by seven, the seventh-seeded Ghosts finished the half on a 35-12 run, dominating play all the way into the second half.
“North Penn jumped out and made a couple of shots and got some confidence, but our guys stepped up the pressure and intensity and effort, and we were able to jump out on them,” Grasty said.
Abington jumped on North Penn, the No. 26 seed, big time.
After the huge first half, Abington came out in the third and had one of its best quarters of the year, outscoring the Knights 18-2 to go on top by a commanding 32 points, 53-21.
“Our defense stepped up, and it led to transition points,” Grasty said. “We played defense very well and stepped it up and got some easy baskets in transition. We made a couple jump shots, and I thought we played all-around good ball in that quarter.”
With Abington able to clear its bench early, North Penn made the score more respectable in the fourth, outscoring the Ghosts 23-8.
The Knights (11-12) were led by Brian Coleman’s 13 points. Aaron Dean added eight in North Penn’s season finale.
Abington was led by Laz Mackrides’ 14 points. Anthony Lee added 12 and Amir Hinton finished with 10, while Jordan Neely added eight. Junior Matt Penecale finished with nine points and eight assists.
Abington shot 7-for-11 from the three-point range in the first half.
The Ghosts, who are now 20-3 overall, will face Haverford, the No. 23 seed who upset No. 10 Upper Darby by a score of 53-39 on Friday night.
“Our guys played the right way (tonight),” Grasty said. “We can be successful in the tournament if play that way, but Haverford is playing very well and we’re going to have a tough one.”
The two teams are set to square off Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Abington High School.
North Penn 10 9 2 23—44
Abington 15 20 18 8—61
#5 Pennsbury 81, #28 Academy Park 68
Going up against a team that has had to face Penn Wood and Chester in league play during the regular season, Pennsbury coach Bill Coleman knew that the No. 28 seed given to Academy Park was a bit misleading.
“They’re a better team than that,” Coleman said. “They play in a very good league and they’re not going to let you come in there and intimidate them. When you’re traveling to the schools they do, you know they’re pretty well-tested.”
Pennsbury’s preparation for the game obviously paid off, as the Falcons came out with a 13-point win over visiting Academy Park in a District One Class AAAA first round playoff on Friday night.
Mekhi Bryant’s 19 points led the way for the Falcons (19-4), who will now await the winner of Oxford (12) and Central Bucks South (21) for Tuesday’s second round matchup.
“Academy Park is a very well-balanced team and you have to pick and choose who you want to stop,” Coleman said. “We were able to pick wisely and hold them all night and it was very good to see. We knew that if we got a lead, they were going to punch back.”
Pennsbury, the No. 5 seed, actually got a lead early on, as the first quarter was the Falcons’ best, outscoring Academy Park 22-14 in the opening minutes.
“That was huge,” Coleman said. “A team like that is going to try to come in and land the first shot and we were able to grab a lead and kind of carry the momentum through the game. There were a couple times that we got the lead up to 13-14 and they’d make a run, but it was good to see our guys ready to play and execute the way we needed them to do in the first quarter. That’s something we were struggling with the middle part of the year, so it was good to see them do that today.”
Steve Ciotti added 16 points for the Falcons, while Cameron Jones added 13. Derrick Woods recorded 13, and Lewis Troh and Nigel Johnson added nine and eight, respectively.
The Falcons led by 10 at the half and never allowed Academy Park to get much closer than that in the second half.
Terran Hamm led Academy Park with 25 points in the losing effort.
Academy Park 14 13 17 24—68
Pennsbury 22 15 17 27—81
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