Wissahickon advanced to Wednesday’s District One 5A semifinal game at Temple University as a result of its win over Great Valley. Central Bucks East saw its season come to an end. Wissahickon/Great Valley photos provided by Kim Supko. Check back for a gallery of photos.
Class 5A
#1-4 WISSAHICKON 55, #1-5 GREAT VALLEY 48
The Trojans are Temple bound, earning a date against top-seeded Penncrest in the District One 5A semifinals on Wednesday as a result of their win over the visiting Patriots. They have a little score to settle after falling to Penncrest 60-56 in overtime in the quarterfinals last year.
“We had opportunities to win it, and we didn’t,” coach Kyle Wilson said. “There were a lot of things on the agenda that we wanted to take care of.
“For guys like Anthony Lawence, Max (Rapoport), Zach Reiner, it’s really a nice win. We graduated a couple of really good seniors, we had a couple of guys transfer, so it was something special to the guys that have stuck around and said, ‘We’re going to make this happen.’ I’m so happy for these guys.”
The Trojans, who led 9-6 after one quarter, took a 26-24 lead into halftime. They outscored the Patriots 17-8 in the third quarter to go on top 41-34. The two teams exchanged baskets in the fourth quarter, and the Trojans won by seven.
“It was a grind-it-out game,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t pretty. Max (Rapoport) was almost invisible in the first half. Donovan Oliphant knocked down two huge threes in the first half.
“Carmen Ostroski made a couple of big plays, and in the third quarter, Max came to life. He knocked down a couple of big shots. He hit a nice three. It was just one of those things where we started to get into a little bit of a rhythm. We got a couple of points ahead – four points ahead, six points ahead, and you could see our guys starting to feel like, ‘We might not have a smooth game, but we can grind this out and get a win. We can make enough plays.’”
Rapoport led the Trojans with 15 points. He also had four rebounds and a team-high five steals. Ostroski added 10 points, and Reiner had nine points, five rebounds five assists and two steals. Oliphant had eight points, five rebounds and three steals, and Eddie Fortescue chipped in six points and four rebounds.
Great Valley’s Liam Ward led all scorers with 27 points. Nate Graeff added eight.
“Great Valley is a really good team,” Wilson said. “The kid Liam Ward – he was a handful tonight, but our mentality was – we can’t let (Nate) Graeff and Ward both kill us.
“We were able to limit the big kid, Nate Graeff, and we were able to do enough to hang on and get a solid win.”
Wilson credited the defensive efforts of Cole Hirsch and Donovan Oliphant.
“The Ward kid had 27, but he had eight in the last three minutes when they were firing up threes trying to get back in it when they were down 12,” Wilson said. “They were determined to get back to Temple as well.
“It was a great high school basketball game if you were a fan.”
The win took on special significance to Wilson.
“Usually for most the games, my dad’s there, my uncle Ralph, who was my jayvee coach, and a couple of my dad’s brothers, and they were so upset they couldn’t make tonight’s game,” the Trojans’ coach said. “My dad’s one brother, Larry Wilson, coaches track at Gwynedd Mercy, and he was being inducted into the coaching hall of fame in State College tonight,
“My dad’s brothers were all calling me today saying, ‘Good luck, get it done.’ It was such a surreal moment because I kept thinking, ‘I should be up there honoring my uncle,’ and I felt like a great way to honor him was for our guys to get a nice win so maybe on Wednesday they can come down and see the game at Temple. It was really exciting on so many levels.”
Wissahickon (18-6, 11-3 SOL) will face top-seeded Penncrest in a District One 5A semifinal game at Temple University on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. It is the Trojans’ first trip to the Temple and the district semifinal game since 2012 when Jordan Reed, Tanoh Kpassagnon, and Chase Wilson – son of coach Kyle Wilson – were key players on the team. Reed is playing professional basketball overseas, and Kpassagnon is playing football for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Great Valley 9-17-8-14 48
Wissahickon 6-18-17-14 55
Great Valley (48) – Liam Ward 10 2-3 27; Gavin Frankenheimer 1 0-0 3; Jake Prevost 2 1-3 5; Matt Porreca 2 1-1 5; Nate Graeff 2 4-4 8; TOTALS 10 8-11 48.
Wissahickon (55) – Max Rapoport 4 5-8 15; Carmen Ostroski 4 2-5 10; Zach Reiner 4 0-0 9; Donovan Oliphant 3 0-0 8; Eddie Fortescue 2 2-8 6; Anthony Lawrence 1 3-3 5; Cole Hirsch 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 12-24 55
3-point goals: Wissahickon – Max Rapoport 2, Donovan Oliphant 2, Zach Reiner; Great Valley – Liam Ward 5, Gavin Frankenheimer.
Class 6A Playback
#1-12 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 86, #1-20 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 70
The Cougars scored points in bunches in Saturday’s playback game, opening up a 21-13 lead after one quarter and taking a 34-29 lead into halftime. They blew the game open with a 20-11 third quarter and put 52 points on the board in the second half.
Kyle Cassidy led the Patriots with 22 points. Nick Roggio and Ben Markowitz also finished the game in double figures with 10 points each. Jesse Rivera had eight points, and Leo Masterson chipped in six.
Central Bucks East (5-7 SOL) closed out its season with a 13-12 record. Downingtown East will face Bensalem in a playback game on Tuesday.
Central Bucks East 13-16-11-30 70
Downingtown East 21-13-20-32 86
Central Bucks East (70) – Kyle Cassidy 22, Jesse Rivera 8, Nick Roggio 10, Collin Stein 12, Ben Markowitz 10, Leo Masterson 6, Chris Charlton 2.
Downingtown East (86) – Malik Slay 14, Corey Hernandez 7, Nate Robertson 7, Andres Mujica 5, David Oswick 1, Tariq Kalim 31, Zach Stata 1, Andrew King 17, Rowe 4.
3-point goals: CB East – Kyle Cassidy 3, Collin Stein 2, Jesse Rivera; Downingtown East – Corey Hernandez 7, Tariq Kalim 2, Malik Slay, Nate Robertson.
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