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ALLENTOWN – They were a team defined by the immense size of their heart, and when the end came for a Pennsbury Falcon squad that had defied the odds, there was no anger, no bitterness. Only sadness that something quite extraordinary had ended.
Both players and coaches spoke in hushed tones in the hallway outside their locker room after Wednesday night’s hard-fought 46-44 loss to Scranton in a second round PIAA Class AAAA game at Parkland High School.“I always wanted to wear orange and black, and I got to for the past two years,” senior co-captain Zak Kumor said. “It stinks that I’m not going to be able to wear it any more.
“I love this team and everybody on it, and I was proud to be a part of this team.”
Kumor, the Falcons’ 6-1 center, will no longer be waging nightly battles against players with a five, six or even an eight-inch height advantage. Point guard Jesse Krasna will no longer have to battle his way through a pair of defenders at every turn.
Still, there’s nothing either of the senior co-captains who helped orchestrate this year’s Cinderella story would rather be doing.
“This is definitely disappointing,” Krasna said. “If we had won this game, we would have played at either Villanova or at Council Rock South where we always play really well.
“I think getting to the Elite Eight would have been a real great accomplishment, and a chance to play Penn Wood again would have been awesome.”
The 2009-10 Pennsbury basketball team won’t go down as the program’s best. There won’t be any championship banners recognizing this squad in the Falcons’ Nest, but this group of players should be remembered for achieving what no one anywhere gave them a chance to achieve.
On Wednesday night, the Falcons were one of just 16 Quad-A teams still playing.
“It was just heart and unselfishness,” Krasna said. “Everybody on the team really accepted their roles, and nobody really cared about who was scoring the points. Everyone just wanted to win, and people were willing to do the little things.“Guys like Zach Sibel, Zak Kumor and Jay Jabat – you would just watch them and don’t understand how they were holding their own against guys that were so much bigger, faster and stronger.”
The Falcons were once again the decided underdogs when they took the court against the District 2 champion Knights, whose lineup included highly touted sophomore Terry Turner. The super soph led Scranton with 19 points.
His biggest bucket came with 40 seconds remaining and the Knights – clinging to a two-point lead – spreading the floor. Turner didn’t have a layup, but he made his foul line jumper look as easy as a layup, hitting nothing but net to put the Knights on top 44-40.
The Falcons would get no closer than two points the rest of the way, and a remarkable season had ended.
An exceptional career also had ended as coach Frank Sciolla bids farewell to standout point guard Jesse Krasna, who led all scorers with 20 points.
“In all the time when I think about next year and where I’ll be – a lot of times you’ll think about the kids,” the Falcons’ coach said. “I will think a lot about him – the way he approached things, his class. He’s one of the best point guards to come through our area, and he had one of the most amazing seasons.
“Tonight he played 32 minutes, and he was pressed the entire game. Everyone knows he’s the ball handler, and he just answered the bell every single time for us.”Krasna was one in lineup of blue collar players who entertained Falcon fans this season, although Wednesday’s finale was played in front of a partisan Scranton crowd.
“Surprisingly, we came up here with very little fanfare,” Sciolla said. “But in my time here, I’m not sure if there was a team you’d more want to root for because – yes, maybe you had the absence of what people would consider a marquee star, but what you had was a team that personified what the Pennsbury School District used to be about and that area used to be about in terms of working class values.”
The Falcons certainly gave fans who made the trek to Parkland their money’s worth.
Early on, they jumped out to an 8-0 lead, thanks to five points from Krasna – who buried a three on his team’s opening possession – and a three-pointer from sophomore Kieran Bolger.
For a while, it looked like the Falcons’ magic carpet ride through the post-season might continue, but six Falcon turnovers in the final four minutes of the quarter allowed the Knights to go on top 12-10.
“We had a stone cold layup, and we dropped it and walked,” coach Frank Sciolla said. “Then we busted their pressure and dribbled it off our foot, so at that point, the tempo is a little bit controlled, and they amped up the pressure.
“They really come at you. They send three or four guys at you if you’re not confident, which is a good move against us because a lot of times we’re operating with one primary ball handler. They jumped us a little bit.”
The Knights stretched their lead to 26-17, but Krasna scored on a drive to close out the half, sending the Falcons into the intermission on the short end of a 26-19 score.
True to form, the Falcons battled back.
Kumor opened the third quarter by burying a baseline three, and after a Scranton turnover, Zach Sibel hit nothing but net on a three from the top of the circle to make it a 26-25 game. Again, Scranton had an answer, opening up a 36-28 lead only to watch the Falcons pull to within two (38-36) after Bolger sank a three at the buzzer.
“At halftime, we changed who we had in the middle,” Sciolla said. “Jay Jabat was able to get the ball to the basket.
“Another big element was rebounding, and that’s kind of been a weakness for us. That being said, we battled back. We had several situations where we were within one possession.”The Knights went on top 42-37 early in the fourth quarter after a Joe McCarthy bucket, but after Krasna scored midway through the quarter, it was a 42-40 game.
Neither team scored until Turner’s big bucket with 40 seconds remaining. Twice Krasna scored to make it a two-point game, but that’s as close as the Falcons would get, and a remarkable season had ended when Krasna’s desperation shot from just beyond midcourt clanged harmlessly off the rim at the buzzer.
For the seniors, all the remained were the memories of their days wearing the orange and black.
“There’s nothing like it,” Krasna said. “Everybody hates us because of how lucky we are to have such good coaches who really care and spend so much time. It’s their lives. They would take a bullet for us.
“I know looking back on this (season) we’ll laugh – we have so many good memories, and we’ll be proud of our accomplishments, but right now, it definitely hurts.”
The Falcons closed out the season with an 18-11 record.
“These kids were so easy to cheer for because they were constantly battling uphill,” Sciolla said. “Their schedule did not get dialed down (this year). They had the same schedule (Dalton) Pepper had and (Lavoy) Allen had, but they handled it.
“They made that huge run (to close out the season), and it’s as happy as we’ve ever been with any team because of that.”
SCRANTON 46, PENNSBURY 44
Pennsbury 10 9 17 8-44
Scranton 12 14 12 8-46
Pennsbury (44) – Jesse Krasna 8 3-4 20; Kieran Bolger 2 2-2 8; Zak Kumor 1 0-0 3; Zach Sibel 1 2-4 5; Jay Jabat 2 0-2 4; Ryan Charity 1 1-2 4; Mike Ciotti 0 0-0 0; Andrew Long 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 8-14 44.
Scranton (46) – Tim fisch 4 2-3 13; Terry Turner 8 2-4 19; Nate Lewis 1 0-0 2; Bilal Floyd 0 0-0 0; Ian Redetzky 1 1-4 3; Malik Draper 1 0-0 3; Tim Buckley 0 0-0 0; Joe McCarthy 2 0-0 4; Hasin Dixon 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 18 5-11 46.
3-point goals: Pennsbury – Bolger 2, Krasna, Kumor, Charity, Sibel. Scranton – Fisch 3, Turner, Draper.
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