RIDGWAY, Pa. – Facing an early 13-point deficit, Ridgway showed no panic against Cambridge Springs.
The Elkers fought all the way back, with Dom Allegretto making the go-ahead bucket on a drive to the basket with 32 seconds left in a 47-44 win over the Blue Devils, District 10’s fourth-place team, in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.
“It doesn’t matter what you went through to get there it’s survive and advance,” said Ridgway coach Tony Allegretto. “I don’t think we played real smart at times, I don’t think we played real well at times, but we played well enough to win.”
Allegretto’s bucket gave Ridgway (21-5) a 45-44 lead, and, after a Cambridge Springs turnover, Allegretto was fouled and sent to the line, where he calmly knocked down both free throws with 9.9 seconds to go.
Cambridge Springs (13-13) had a chance to tie the game, but Hunter Spaid’s potential game-tying three from the top of the key was well-defended and came up short.
It was part of a wild final minute that saw Jack Benninger hit a corner triple with exactly one minute to play to put Ridgway up 43-42, with the Blue Devils’ Nathan Held answering on a strong drive to the basket to put his team up one with 45 seconds left.
Benninger and Dom Allegretto talked about the win afterward:
“I’m not saying I want to lose by 30, but that would have been a lot easier to walk away from tonight,” said Cambridge Springs coach Becky Leandro. “When you lose this close, you look at a lot of what-ifs. And what-ifs can eat at you. But I thought the kids played a heck of a game.”
It was all Cambridge Springs early, as Held and Parker Schmidt scored 13 of their first 15 points as the Blue Devils took a 15-2 lead with 20 seconds to go in the first quarter on a Josh Reisanuer jumper. Ridgway managed just an Aaron Sorg jumper midway through the first quarter until Allegretto drove to the hoop and got a layup to go to make it 15-4 at the end of one.
An Ethan Counasse triple put Cambridge Springs up 29-19 with 1:35 to go before halftime, but Ridgway’s Dan Park was able to get a bucket and Allegretto knocked down one of two free throws with four seconds left in the half to cut the deficit to seven, 27-20.
“I had to call off the press and we couldn’t really go after them early because Dom picked up two fouls,” coach Allegretto said. “That puts us in a bind because we have our point guard and one of our two senior leaders in foul trouble. And they were burying three-pointers and we were just trying to hang on. We’re thinking let’s just keep it within 15 and I felt at some point we were going to unleash.”
It got tight real quick in the second have on a Sorg three and a Benninger layup to make it 27-25 right out of the gate in the third quarter as the Elkers notched up the defensive pressure coach Allegretto was alluding to.
Ridgway finally caught the Blue Devils, tying the game at 34-all on Sorg’s jumper just in front of the third-quarter buzzer, setting up the back-and-forth fourth quarter.
Allegretto led the Elkers with 17 points, while Benninger had 13 and Sorg seven.
Schmidt had a game-high 21 points for Cambridge Springs, while Held had 11 and Counasse six.
“I thought we rebounded well and I thought our defense was executed perfectly,” Leandro said. “We got the key rebounds we needed, we got the key foul shots we needed…just not taking care of that basketball. The resiliency of these 17 boys is incredible. Lots of adversity this year, not just on the court, but in other things and they bounced back every single time and came back every single time. They trust each other and trusted me and gave me everything they could.”
Ridgway, meanwhile, marches on to the Round of 16, where they will meet Greensburg Central Catholic, the WPIAL third-place team. GCC knocked off D6 champ Conemaugh Township, 62-60 on Tyree Turner’s game-winning layup at the buzzer.
That game will be on Saturday and a site and time to be determined.
“This team has come together at the end of the season at the right time and they believe they’ll win every game,” coach Allegretto said. “And that’s what they’re doing.”
KARNS CITY 46, PENNS MANOR 45
CLYMER, Pa. – Taite Beihley’s old-school 3-point play with about four seconds left helped visiting Karns City, the third-place team out of District 9, stun District 6 runner-up Penns Manor, 46-45.
“He took a handoff and went to the basket hard,” Karns City head coach Zach Kepple said. “He made the basket, got fouled, and hit the free throw. There is no other guy you want there.“
Penns Manor had a chance to win the game at the horn, according to Kepple, but a floater from around the foul line wouldn’t go.
The cardiac Gremlins (they had to beat Keystone in overtime just to get the PIAA playoffs) trailed by five, 45-40, with under a minute to play when Luke Cramer hit a 3-pointer
“We set a down screen for him,” Kepple said. “It was a play we had run earlier without much success. But he was wide open and knocked it down. That shot takes a lot of guts, too. It was a clutch situation, and he rose up and took full advantage of it.”
After Penns Manor missed a one-and-one, Beighley took over and won the game.
“Taite is a guy when the game is on the line he flips into a different mode, a different speed,” Kepple said. “He went into that mode the last few minutes.”
Kepple created his team’s defense for the late comeback.
“We got some steal in the last couple of minutes that allowed us to get back into the game,” Kepple said. “The kids never gave up. Give them all the credit. It was a tense situation. With 1:30 to play Cole Sherwin fouled out and Luke Garing had to come off the court with an ankle injury. That is two starters we were missing, but nobody hung their head. They knew they were in it and knew they had an opportunity. They stayed engaged the entire time. A lot of people would have held their head in that situation, but our guys didn’t.”
Karns City trailed 35-29 at halftime, but Kepple said his team wasn’t playing badly at the time.
“The big thing we talked about was we didn’t play a bad half of basketball,” Kepple said. “We played pretty good basketball. What we didn’t do was limit them to one shot on offense. They were killing us on the glass, which usually doesn’t happen to us. We made it a priority in the second half to box out and limit them to one chance. We did a much better job of that in the second half. No. 21 (Grant Grimaldi) and No. 35 (Noah Kohen) had big first halves for them. A lot of that was second-chance points (Grimaldi scored eight points and Kohen 12 in the opening half). In the second half, they combined for eight points. We also switched defense and went to a full-court trap at times. We changed up some things a little bit.”
Karns City was within four, 39-35, by the fourth quarter but wasn’t able to get over the hump until the end of the game.
“I just told them to stay invested in what we were doing and we would claw our way back in the game,” Kepple said. “The kids did that.”
Beighley led Karns City with 18 points with Cramer adding 12, Sherwin eight, and Micah Rupp six.
“Micah had another big defensive night,” Kepple said. “He had to have had at least five blocked shots and a handful of steals.”
Karns City moves into the second round to be played Saturday against the winner of the game between District 4 champion Wyalusing and District 2 runner-up Old Forge. That game was slated for Wednesday night at Wyalusing but was postponed to Thursday due to weather.
“It’s a great situation,” Kepple said of getting to the second round. “We were in the same situation last year, and we have some guys with experience playing in these types of games. But we also had to replace a lo of offense from last year, and these guys have shown they can do it. This is tremendous for this group because we only lose two seniors.”
KENNEDY CATHOLIC 77, WINCHESTER THURSTON 44
HERMITAGE, Pa. – District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic raced out to a 26-8 lead in the first quarter and was in cruise control throughout in a 77-44 win over Winchester Thurston, the WPIAL’s No. 6 seed, in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.
Elijah Harden and Malik Lampkins-Rudolph were on fire, as Harden drained four triples (all in the first half) on his way to a game-high 24 points, while Lampkins-Rudolph finished with 21 points (14 in the first half).
The Golden Eagles (22-4) were able to pull away early despite the best efforts of the Bears’ (11-9) Jackson Juzang, who scored a team-high 20 points. Juzang and Lance Nicholls (18 points) combined to score 38 of the team’s 44 points.
Kennedy Catholic extended its lead to 26, 59-33 after the third quarter, as Remington Hart was also in double figures with 11 points.
The Golden Eagles advance to play District 9 runner-up Redbank Valley, a 58-31 winner over D6 third-place finisher West Shamokin. That game will be on Saturday and a site and time to be determined.
REDBANK VALLEY 58, WEST SHAMOKIN 31
CLARION, Pa. – Using first-half runs of 11-0 and 10-0 and a 12-0 second-half run, District 9 runner-up Redbank Valley rolled to a 58-31 win over District 6 third-place finisher West Shamokin at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.
The Bulldogs (23-4) used an 11-0 run early in the game to take a 13-2 lead then used a 10-0 run late in the half to go up 28-12 at the break.
“Our defense was really big,” senior guard Marquese Gardlock said. “The last couple of games, we went man. (Tonight) we went back to our full-court zone. I think it helped us a lot.”
The Wolves (17-9) hung around in the second half and trailed by 12, 32-20, in the third quarter before Redbank Valley used the 12-0 run to put the game away.
“We wanted to get in transition and push the ball,” Redbank Valley head coach Emmanuel Marshall said. “We got out of sync against Ridgway the other night (in the D9 title game) and tonight we were able to get back to what we like to do.”
Marquese Gardlock had a big game for Redbank Valley scoring a season-high 24 points.
“The offense started clicking in the first quarter, really,” Gardlock said. “Once we went into halftime, coach just said keep doing what we were doing. We were just trying to have fun.”
Bryson Bain added nine points for the Bulldogs with Aiden Ortz adding eight.
“I think it is really important (to have depth scoring),” Gardlock said.
Bo Swartz had 12 points for West Shamokin.
Redbank Valley will play District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic, a 77-44 winner over WPIAL No. 6 Winchester Thurston, in the second round Saturday at a site and time to be announced.
“It means a lot,” Gardlock said of moving on. “It just means we have to get the next one, the next one, and the next one.”
Watch Gardlock’s full postgame interview with Jared Bakaysa
CARLYNTON 48, ROCKY GROVE 38
OIL CITY, Pa. – Carlynton, the fourth-place team from the WPIAL, went on a 17-5 second-quarter run to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in a 48-38 win over D10 runner-up Rocky Grove in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.
Rocky Grove (19-7) led by five, 16-11 at the end of the first quarter, but Carlynton (21-3) got hot from distance in the second quarter. They knocked down eight threes in the game, led by four from Chase Jones, who finished with a team-high 12 points.
Rocky Grove senior Isaac Clayton had a valiant effort in defeat for the Orioles. The 1,000-point career scorer poured in a game-high 21 points, including three triples and a 6-of-7 effort from the free-throw line.
D’Andre Whitman added seven points for Rocky Grove and Brett Stevenson five.
Carlynton’s Simon Schriver was also in double figures with 11 points.
With the win, Carlynton advances to play defending state champion and unbeaten OLSH in the Round of 16. The Chargers beat United, District 6’s fourth-place team, 75-50. That game will be on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
FORT CHERRY 61, WEST MIDDLESEX 53
MCDONALD, Pa. – West Middlesex’s Richie Preston scored 24 points, but it wasn’t enough as West Middlesex’s, D10’s third-place team, fell to WPIAL runner-up Fort Cherry, 61-53.
Fort Cherry’s (23-3) Owen Norman matched Preston with 24 points, as Fort Cherry jumped out to a 19-11 advantage after the first quarter and led throughout.
But West Middlesex (14-12) hung around, trailing 34-29 at halftime and by just three going into the fourth quarter. A bucket from Preston got them within one, 49-48 with 4:58 to go, but the Rangers responded with a 12-0 run to put the game away.
Maddox Truschel and Dylan Rogers were also in double figures for the Rangers, finishing with 15 and 13 points.
Tanner Shick and Blaze Knight scored 12 points apiece for the Big Reds.
With the win, Fort Cherry advances to play District 6 champion Portage, a 68-46 winner over WPIAL No. 5 Sto-Rox. That game will be on Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
