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By Nate Oxman
Central Bucks South senior forward Alex Dedeian couldn’t have picked a better time to put together a career game.
With star forward and fellow senior Will Barrett struggling offensively in the early stages and then battling foul trouble later on, the 6-foot-5 Dedeian stepped right in.Whether it was diving headfirst onto the floor for loose balls, hustling for offensive rebounds, defending William Penn’s powerful post players or hitting clutch shots, Dedeian did it all en route to a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds.
“This is my last game of my senior year, so I was trying to make it the best game I had all year,” said Dedeian on his thoughts after his team trailed early on. “I told Will that I was going to try to pick him up.”
But in the end Dedeian, who was part of a courageous comeback effort by the Titans’ bench players, couldn’t help CB South overcome four starters fouling out and eventually bowed to William Penn 87-83 in triple overtime Wednesday night at Coatesville Area High School.
“They stepped it up,” said Titans’ coach Jason Campbell. “It was a full team effort tonight.
“I have to say that I’m proud of my guys. You have a couple of your top players that are sitting on the bench with foul trouble, and for our bench to come in there … who would have thought that those five would have been out on the floor and leading us out?
“But that’s what it takes to be a true team, and when you’re at this level right now at states, you need that kind of contribution from your bench. And our guys know that.”
William Penn - which suffered its only loss of the season to Central Dauphin East in the District Three title contest - came into Wednesday night’s game with a gaudy 29-1 record.
The Bearcats stretched a 29-23 halftime lead to 37-28 before senior forward Mike Doty pulled down an offensive rebound and dished to Dedeian for two.
It was exactly the type of energizing play the Titans needed to kick-start a comeback. But on the ensuing Bearcats’ possession, Doty committed his fourth foul and was sent to the bench with four minutes, 43 seconds to play in the third period. Nine seconds later, Barrett was whistled for his third personal and took a seat too.
With those two key contributors on the bench, the Bearcats built their largest lead of the game at 44-31 on two of sophomore Kelvin Parker’s game-high 23 points.
But the Titans answered with a 10-2 run that included a great drive and dish from Mike Pincus to Matt Kavalek, another senior who came off the bench to make a big contribution, and a hard-working hoop by Dedeian after grabbing his own rebound and laying the ball back in to trim the deficit to 44-36.
Kavalek canned a three-point bucket to end the third and then converted a great pass from the opposite post by Nick Joerger to make it 46-41 with 7:16 to play before six quick Bearcat points pushed the lead back to 11 with 6:15 remaining.
But then there was Dedeian, right on cue, corralling a rebound off of a Greg Johnston missed free throw and going back up strong for two, taking a great feed from Barrett while cutting through the lane for two more and then coolly knocking down two free throws at the 4:53 mark to slash the margin back down to five at 53-48, just after Barrett fouled out.
“It’s a tough thing to see them foul out,” said Dedeian. “But once they’re on the bench they just cheered us on, and that kind of kept me going and playing as hard as I could.”
Two free throws from Kavalek, who finished with nine points, made it a one possession game at 53-50 one minute later, but the Bearcats lead ballooned right back up to six with 1:30 remaining.
That’s when Johnston (17 points), yet another senior who shined off the bench, converted a pair at the line, then dove on the court, came up with a clutch steal on the ensuing possession and flipped the ball blindly ahead while seated on the floor.
The hustle play led to two free throws from Pincus, who on the next Titans’ possession buried two more to tie the game at 60-60 with 27 seconds to go.
After a runner from Jevaughn Murphy that seemed to touch every inch of the rim but somehow stayed out and a putback by Mlachi Leonard followed the exact same path, the game went into overtime where Johnston went to the line with 28.9 left and his team trailing 66-65.
After missing the front end to snap a streak of 12 straight free-throws made by the Titans, Johnston converted the next to move the game to a second extra session.
The Bearcats, who scored all eight of their points in the second overtime from the foul line, led 74-72 before Ian Gordon scored on an inbounds play to force the third overtime.
Pincus (11 points) put the Titans ahead 77-74 with a three-point play to start the period, before a six-point swing - during which C.B. South missed four straight free throws – put the Bearcats in front for good at 80-77.
William Penn, which went just 31-for-54 from the foul line as a team, then hit 7-of-8 in the final 40 seconds to seal the win.
The Titans, who graduate seven seniors, finished the season at 22-7.
WILLIAM PENN (87), CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH (83) (3 OT)
William Penn (87)—Leonard 0 8-10 8; Lambert 1 6-7 8; Generett 6 6-18 18; Parker 7 7-10 23; Matthews 6 0-0 14; Murphy 5 2-5 12; Johnson 1 1-2 3; Newby 0 0-0 0; Montouth 0 1-2 1. Totals 26 31-54 87.
Central Bucks South (83)—Pincus 3 5-5 11; Doty 4 0-0 10; Barrett 3 2-5 9; Clark 1 1-2 4; Gordon 2 1-2 5; Dedeian 7 4-6 18; Johnston 3 11-20 17; Joerger 0 0-2 0; Kavalek 3 2-2 9. Totals 26 26-44 83.
Three-point goals: Matthews 2, Parker 2; Doty 2, Barrett, Kavalek, Clark.
William Penn 17 10 19 14 6 8 13—87
Central Bucks South 11 12 16 21 6 8 9—83
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