Wissahickon fell to top-seeded Penncrest in Wednesday’s District One 5A semifinal. Photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for a photo gallery.
DISTRICT ONE CLASS 5A SEMIFINAL
#1 PENNCREST 45, #4 WISSAHICKON 40
By Ed Morrone
PHILADELPHIA — Wissahickon had waited a year for another shot at Penncrest. Last year in the district quarterfinals, Penncrest squeaked by the Trojans in a 60-56 overtime thriller to keep Wissahickon from advancing to the semis at Temple University.
This time, Wissahickon had already made it to Temple, so all that was left to do was collect revenge.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, déjà vu on the scoreboard reared its ugly head.
Wissahickon fell into a 6-0 hole out of the chute, and at one point trailed 31-21 in the third quarter. But the Trojans, who have been in every game on their schedule this season and even came oh-so-close to shocking unbeaten PW back in December, fought back as they always do. They trailed the entire game on Wednesday night, but sliced and diced into top-seeded Penncrest’s lead during a frantic fourth quarter, getting to within 41-40 in the waning moments.
After Penncrest sank two free throws with 25.3 seconds left, senior Max Rapoport had a good look at a left corner three that clanged off the rim. The ball deflected off Penncrest out of bounds with 13.2 to go, still belonging to Wissahickon. Following a timeout and trailing 43-40, junior guard Eddie Fortescue ran into a wall of Lions defenders and turned it over out of bounds with less than two seconds to play without getting a shot off. Penncrest senior Tyler Norwood, the school’s all-time leading scorer, calmly drained two foul shots to ice the game and give the defending 5A champions a nail-biting 45-40 victory.
“It was a little forced,” Rapoport said of Wissahickon’s last shot attempt of the game. “Sometimes they’re on, sometimes they’re off. My teammates trusted me to take the shot, but things just didn’t go our way.”
Unfortunately for the Trojans, they couldn’t find much of an offensive rhythm all night against Penncrest’s stingy defense. The team shot just 15-for-44 (34 percent) from the field for the game and converted on six of its 20 three-point tries.
Wissahickon turned it over eight times in the first half and scored just 17 points, but found themselves down only four at halftime. The team kept fighting, but was also at a disadvantage having to play from behind the entire game (Penncrest led from the opening tip until the final horn).
“It’s always hard playing from behind the whole game,” Rapoport said. “They’re a good defensive team. Everything we got, we had to work for. We played our hearts out. I’m proud of the way we played, but we’ve still got work to do.”
Penncrest used a 10-4 spurt to open the third quarter to stretch its lead to 10. As soon as that happened and the Lions’ student section began chanting “It’s too easy!” - Wissahickon woke up.
Fortescue scored on a putback and then on a three-pointer on the next possession to trim the deficit to 31-26. Norwood (18 points) scored in the final seconds of the quarter, sending the Trojans into the final quarter down seven.
“As soon as we fell behind by 10, it was just like, ‘OK, now it’s our turn to make some plays,’” Wissahickon head coach Kyle Wilson said. “Our kids did what they always do and continued to fight to make it close again. We played the number one seed to the wire, we just couldn’t get the looks we needed to in order to finish.”
Sophomore reserve Carmen Ostroski scored six straight Wissahickon points to keep his team in the game, but Penncrest still held the Trojans at arm’s length after two Matt Arbogast buckets gave the Lions a 41-35 lead.
Then, Wissahickon senior forward and captain Zach Reiner converted two free throws to make it 41-37, and after a stop on defense, Reiner drilled a three from the top of the key to cut it to 41-40. Alas, Wissahickon just could not get over that final hump, despite having two possessions in the closing seconds to possibly send the game to overtime.
This made two dogfights in two years with Penncrest in the postseason, both of which were instant classics. Unfortunately for the Trojans, they came up just short both times.
“They’ve been great battles,” Wilson said. “They’ve been pretty evenly matched. They are a good team with a superstar player, while we’re a little more balanced. I’m not disappointed. I loved how we fought, and to see what we graduated last year to where we were tonight, playing at Temple, I can’t be disappointed at all.”
Reiner led Wissahickon (18-7) with 11 points, while Rapoport added nine and Donovan Oliphant and Ostroski chipped in six apiece. Penncrest (24-3) advanced to Saturday afternoon’s 5A title game against No. 2 Bishop Shanahan, while Wissahickon will travel to Chester on Friday to play the third-place game. After that, it’s on to states, representing an opportunity to hit the reset button and try to go on a run.
At the very least, the Trojans are guaranteed two more games for their six seniors.
“This is something to build off of,” Wilson said. “I told them in the locker room that this is the number one team in the district, the defending champs, and we’re not far off. Come next Friday, it’s a new tournament. I like our chances.”
Wissahickon 7-10-9-14 40
Penncrest 12-9-12-12 45
Wissahickon (40) — Zach Reiner 11, Max Rapoport 9, Carmen Ostroski 6, Donovan Oliphant 6, Eddie Fortescue 5, Anthony Lawrence 3
Penncrest (45) — Tyler Norwood 18, Malcolm Williams 9, Matt Arbogast 7, Justin Heidig 5, Giavanni Antonelli 4, Chris Mills 2
- Log in to post comments
