By Nate Oxman
With five minutes, three seconds remaining Strath Haven senior star Calvin Newell blindly saved the ball underneath his team’s basket before falling out of bounds.
The ball somehow found Newell’s teammate, Jack Roberts, whose short jump shot used every inch of the rim before dropping in.
Newell could have easily carried the ball with him out of bounds. An Upper Moreland defender could have easily been on the receiving end of the no-look save. Roberts’ shot could have easily taken a less friendly bounce. Something could have gone the Golden Bears’ way.
Instead the play, which resulted in the sixth-seeded Panthers hoisting their largest lead of the game at 52-21, typified a downright woeful night for the 11th-seeded visiting Bears in a 52-30 season-ending defeat in the first round of the District One Class AAA boys’ basketball playoffs.
Playing without two senior starters in point guard Greg Beyerle (disciplinary issue) and Dmitri Miller (illness), the Bears were unable to compete on the same level they did just a little over two weeks ago in a 63-47 blowout win over the Panthers in the same gym.
Without Miller to defend the 6-foot-8 Roberts (eight points, 10 rebounds, six blocks) on offense or occupy him on defense, the junior center who was plagued by foul trouble in that Jan. 31 meeting, was a perfect complement to Newell throughout.
Roberts’ long reach allowed him to block two shots early in the first quarter and force the Bears to mostly move the ball around the perimeter of the Panthers’ zone defense. Roberts’ presence also made the Bears hesitant to pull the trigger on mid-range jump shots when the ball did reach the middle of the zone.
“That was a concern of ours,” said Upper Moreland coach Brian Corrado of Roberts. “In the first game we got him in foul trouble and our goal was to attack him and look to draw and dish or draw and attack and finish and I think it got into our heads a little bit after the first couple that he blocked. He kind of altered our guys’ thought process a little bit.”
And then there was Newell, one of the district’s top scorers at an average of just under 30 points per game during the regular season. Deadly both as a shooter and a slasher, the Division I recruit missed his first attempt from the field but made six of his next nine shots and 10 of his next 15 en route to a game-high 21 points.
While Newell and Roberts settled into a nice rhythm right away on offense, the Bears struggled mightily to find their own, committing seven first-quarter turnovers and going 6:05 without scoring in the period after leading 5-2 in the early stages.
“That hurt us quite a bit,” said Corrado on the absence of Beyerle and Miller. “We had trouble scoring. We had hoped that our shooters could maybe knock down some shots.”
That 5-2 score was the Bears final lead of the night as the Panthers pumped out an 11-0 run in the quarter all via buckets by either Newell or Roberts.
The Bears woes continued in the second as they managed just one field goal and a total of five points to fall behind by 32-13 at the break.
The deficit ballooned to 39-15 on an offensive rebound and putback by Roberts off a Newell miss midway through the third quarter before the Bears were finally able to string together consecutive scores when Ronye Dennis knocked down a short jump-shot and Ben Pflaumer buried a baseline jumper.
But then Newell responded with a steal and a three-point play after a layup plus the foul that started a 7-0 Panthers’ spurt to end the third. The stretch was capped by another Newell layup just before the buzzer sounded to put the Panthers ahead 46-19. The lead continued to grow until Newell’s falling save to Roberts made it 52-21 at the 5:03 mark.
Even though Newell and the rest of the Panthers starters exited shortly after, the Bears refused to back down, ending the game with nine straight points.
Dennis led the Bears with five points. Pflaumer added four and junior Nick Giordano chipped four points and seven rebounds.
“The kids fought hard,” said Corrado. “They worked hard all week. We knew we were going to be down two guys so they battled. I think the experience of preparing up to this night was valuable for the underclassmen.”
The Bears finished the season at 8-15 overall. Beyerle, Miller, Carlos Lewis and Denney Gieseler all graduate, but eight of the 10 players who saw action Wednesday return next season.
“I give a shout-out to the seniors,” said Corrado. “It’s a shame they had to go out like this, but they’ve done a lot for this team and this program.”
Upper Moreland (30)—Morris 1 0-0 3; Giordano 1 1-2 4; Dennis 2 1-2 5; Burnick 2 0-0 4; Lewis 1 1-2 3; Pflaumer 2 0-1 4; Gieseler 0 0-0 0; Adams 1 0-0 2; Worley 1 1-2 3; Smith 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 4-9 30.
Strath Haven (52)—P. Fisher 1 3-4 5; Roberts 4 0-0 8; Morris 1 0-0 2; Jones 2 3-4 8; Newell 9 1-2 21; D’aurizio 1 0-0 2; C. Fisher 2 0-2 4; Wells 1 0-2 2; Raymond 0 0-0 0; Randall 0 0-0 0; Valentino 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 7-14 52.
Three-point goals: Morris, Giordano; Newell 2, Jones
Upper Moreland 8 5 6 11—30
Strath Haven 13 19 14 6—52
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