To view game action photos, visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
VILLANOVA – The ending was as dramatic as it was unexpected.Norristown, trailing for the better part of four quarters, capped a remarkable comeback when – with 1.7 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock – Tom Smith turned Khalif Wyatt’s nifty dish into a bucket that knotted the score 52-52 in Saturday’s Prime Time Shootout at Villanova University.
The Eagles were ecstatic, and so, apparently, were the Falcons.
“When overtime came, Eddie D ran over and said, ‘This is great,’” said Falcon coach Frank Sciolla, whose team led by as many as 15 in the second half. “I said, ‘You better believe it.’ I said if I could have been told before the game, I would have paid for this.”
Sciolla insists he was even happier when the Eagles – thanks to a James Ramsey steal and Wyatt bucket – took a two-point lead in the opening seconds of OT.
“My assistants thought I went completely insane,” the Falcons’ coach said. “We’re down two, and we run the entry for Pep (Dalton Pepper), and we turn it over again.
“They’re freaking out, and I said, ‘This is awesome. We’re down two, we’ve got to get a stop – when do we get this?’ We know we’ll get a stop.”
His declaration turned out to be prophetic.
Dante Devine forced an Eagle backcourt violation, and after a Falcon miss, Tom Marcinkowski converted the putback. Another defensive stop set the stage for a pair of Eddie DiRugeris foul shots that put the Falcons on top 56-54. A three-point play by Pepper all but sealed the deal as the Falcons went on to earn a 61-54 overtime win over the Eagles.
Make no mistake about it - Sciolla is never happy to see a lead slip away or to watch his team turn the ball over, but in a season that has seen the Falcons roll to one lopsided win after another, a tightly-contested game was exactly what the doctor ordered. So was a game that forced players not named Dalton Pepper to step to the fore.
“I’m tired of hearing how we’re Dalton Pepper and the fab four because Dalton Pepper played hard tonight, but you’ve seen Dalton have better games,” Sciolla said. “So now you’re asking (Jesse) Krasna, DiRugeris, Marcinkowski and Devine against a state tournament tested team to play well down the stretch – and Pep did too. “Pep played great on ‘D,’ but I think the last two weeks have been great for the other guys proving we’re not a one-man road show.”
DiRugeris – who scored 10 points and set the tone early at both ends of the court – copped team MVP honors for the Falcons, but that was the least of his concerns.
“We’re glad we got revenge,” the Falcons’ fiery guard said. “We haven’t really been in that many close games this year. We have to get used to it for the playoffs.”
Saturday’s game certainly had the look and feel of a playoff game as two of the district’s top squads squared off against each other under the bright lights at Villanova.
“This is a perfect basketball environment against a great team,” said Wyatt, who led the Eagles with 17 points and was named team MVP. “If you’re a basketball player – that’s what you want to do. You want to play in games like this.
“We know Pennsbury is a great team. Coming back and going to overtime, we have the confidence we can play with anybody in the state.”
For the better part of three quarters, it looked like the Falcons were on their way to another ho-hum win.
The Eagles had other ideas.
Although things looked decidedly bleak when – with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter – Sheldon Mayer was whistled for a foul that not only sent the junior point guard to the bench with four fouls but also was the Eagles’ seventh foul.
Pepper buried both foul shots to give the Falcons a 39-25 lead, and just when it seemed as though they were down for the count, the Eagles inexplicably came to life.
“When we get behind, we get a sense of urgency,” Wyatt said.
Ramsey, who came up with a steal, scored for the Eagles, and when Wyatt completed a three-point less than a minute later, the Falcons’ lead had been trimmed to 40-30. After a Falcon turnover, Wyatt connected on a pair from the foul line to make it an eight-point game.
“We just picked the defensive intensity up,” Norristown coach Mike Evans said. “We thrive on defensive intensity. We got a little lax. We have to get that fire.”
Smith (12 points) began to make his presence felt in the fourth quarter. His three-point play after an offensive rebound on the heels of a tough bucket on the low post made it a 42-40 game, and the two teams were deadlocked after Wyatt turned a loose ball rebound into a bucket.
“I think our help defense kind of broke down,” DiRugeris said. “They started to break our press and got a lot of easy transition baskets, and they built on it.”
“Once we led by 14, we packed it in a little bit,” Pepper added. “They were getting open looks, and that’s when they made their run.”
Pepper, who scored a game-high 22 points, answered with a basket, and after a Norristown miss, DiRugeris found Krasna for a fast break bucket and a 46-42 Falcon lead.
Wyatt hit nothing but net on a three-pointer, but the Falcons maintained a three-point edge after Krasna (10 points) sank a pair from the foul line. Wyatt banked one home for the Eagles, and Devine came back with a basket for the Falcons.
A Mayer three-pointer knotted the score, but Pepper scored on a drive with 25 seconds remaining, setting the stage for Wyatt finding Smith for the tying field goal.
“I trusted him and he made the play,” Wyatt said. “That’s big.
“Right now, he’s confident, and the more confident he gets, the easier it makes it for me.”
After falling behind by two early, the Falcons controlled play in OT to earn the big win.
“It’s huge,” Krasna said. “This is the type of team we’re going to have to beat in the state and district playoffs. We proved we can beat them, and it showed what we need to work on, and it also showed our strengths.
“We obviously wanted to win the game in regulation, but we did need this type of game where we’re up against the wall. We stayed together and played great defense and got the ball where it needed to be.”
EXTRA SHOTS: Lost in the shuffle of the Eagles’ dramatic comeback were some ‘little things’ that really weren’t so little. Twice – once in the second quarter and once in the third – Krasna, who is 5-11, converted offensive rebounds into baskets. “They’re huge,” Sciolla said…The Eagles missed more than a few easy shots early in the game that proved costly in the end. “We missed a lot of layups,” Wyatt said. “Against a good team like Pennsbury, you have to take everything they give you. You miss one – it makes the job harder.”
PENNSBURY 59, NORRISTOWN 54 (OT)
Norristown (54) – Sheldon Mayer 1 0-0 3, Khalif Wyatt 6 3-4 17, Lorenzo Christmas 4 5-6 14, Jarrell Gardner 2 0-2 4, James Ramsey 2 0-0 4, Tom Smith 5 2-3 12, Chris Davis 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 10-15 54.
Pennsbury (59) – Jesse Krasna 3 4-4 10, Eddie DiRugeris 3 4-4 10, Dalton Pepper 7 6-7 22, Marcus Healey 2 0-0 5, Tom Marcinkowski 2 2-2 6, Goran Dulac 1 2-4 4, Dante Devine 2 0-0 4, Jon Ryan Wolff 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 18-21 61.
Norristown 7 12 13 20 2-54
Pennsbury 13 13 15 11 9-61
Three-point goals: Norristown – Khalif Wyatt 2, Lorenzo Christmas, Sheldon Mayer. Pennsbury – Dalton Pepper 2, Marcus Healey.
- Log in to post comments
0
