High School hoops fans treated to a hoot'nannyBy Steve ShermanSports EditorAMBLER - High School hoops fans, if you weren’t at Wissahickon High School last night around 7:30, you missed a real treat.
Despite trailing Strath Haven by 20 points at halftime in a District One Class AAA semifinal, Holy Ghost Prep roared back to lock the sides at 59 points apiece and send the battle into overtime.
Only 6.2 seconds separated the Firebirds from victory in this one. Trailing throughout most of the extra session, the Ghost took a 1-point edge on Tyler Juchne’s seemingly misdirected 3-pointer that somehow bounced in off the glass, giving the Prep the lead with less than 30 seconds to go.
At the other end of the court, HGP senior John Glenn, who took control of the game with 13 points in the second half and OT, came down with the rebound after a Panthers miss.
Strath Haven wasted no time in sending Glenn to the charity stripe where he made 1-of-2 free throws to put his team up by a pair with mere seconds to go.
In the end, SH senior Calvin Newell, the player the Ghost could not stop all night, became the birds’ undoing, sinking a fade-away 3-pointer as time expired. For the game, Newell drained 40 points including a pair of free throws that sent the battle into overtime.
“There’s only so much you can do to contain a guy like that,” stated HGP senior John Glenn. “Even in the first half, he wasn’t missing any of his shots. And that just carried over to the second half.”
“He was unbelievable; he is faster than anyone on our team. He’s got everything you need to be to a Division I [recruit].”
A disappointing ending for Firebirds fans, sure. But how the Ghost came back in this one, well, you had to see it to believe it.
After outpacing second-seeded HGP, 18-9 in the first quarter, Strath Haven posted a 10-0 run to open the second period and extend the lead to 28-9. Part of the Panthers run included a pair of threes by--you guessed it--Newell.
Holy Ghost pretty much went bucket-for-bucket with No. 6 seed Strath Haven throughout the remainder of the first half but the damage had been done.
“I just told them to try to get the [Panthers] lead down to 10 points--to the point where it was more manageable,” said HGP skipper Tony Chapman. “Don’t try to chew it all up at once.”
The ‘birds did just that, chipping away at a seemingly insurmountable Haven edge by opening the second half with an 8-2 run that knocked six points off the opponent’s lead.
A jumper by Mike Byrne and a 3-pointer by Glenn closed the gap down to Chapman’s magic number 10. And Byrne’s 3-pointer at the buzzer trimmed the Panthers’ edge down to seven by the end of the third period.
The Ghost erased the Panthers’ edge with an 8-0 spurt to open the final frame. Glenn hit the first of two free throws to put HGP up 49-48. The ‘birds soon found themselves down by 3 points after a putback basket by Chazz Fisher and a much-too-easy layup by Newell off an inbounds pass.
Trailing, 57-53, after another 3-pointer by Newell, the Ghost bounced back again, this time on a jumper by Byrne and an inside bucket by Glenn following an HGP steal at mid-court.
When junior Owen Kirby notched a pair of free throws, the ‘birds had themselves a 59-57 edge with 1:20 to go.
In the end, the Ghost just got too far behind in the first half. To see how differently the ‘birds played in the first half, witness the points differential by each player.
HGP’s points leader for the game with 15, Glenn tallied a single field goal in the first period and was held off the board in the second.
After draining a single shot--a 3-pointer in the first period--before the intermission, Byrne poured 9 points into the bucket after the break. Phil Pastor was another player held off the board in the second period. He went on to tally 10 points for the game after netting just a single field goal in the initial period.
After notching just a single foul shot in the first half, senior Duffy Barrett went on to score 8 for the game. Even Kirby doubled his first-half points total of two in the first half.
The only HGP player whose first half total actually came close to mirroring his second half was junior Nate Lorence.
Nursing along a sore knee, Lorence didn’t enter the game until the second period. The big center tallied 7 first-half points including 5-of-6 from the foul line before adding 6 points after the break.
In the end, it was the Firebirds’ inability to contain Newell that narrowed their chances of victory in the district semifinal matchup.
“There’s only so much you can do against a player like him; we tried doubling him but he split off the double teams,” explained Glenn. “He gets to the basket; he has good body control.
“He’s just an incredible player.”
Holy Ghost gets another chance to extend its season at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 back at Wissahickon when the ‘birds take on 12th-seeded Harriton, which lost 52-41 to Phoenixville in the other semifinal. Meanwhile, Strath Haven will battle top-seeded Phoenixville for the District One AAA championship at Villanova University. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. at The Pavilion.
LINESCORES
1 2 3 4 5 Final
Strath Haven 18 19 11 11 9 68
Holy Ghost 9 8 24 18 8 67
(Feb. 25 at Wissahickon HS)
Strath Haven
Player Points
Calvin Newell 40
Avatar Jones 8
Chazz Fisher 7
Jack Roberts 6
Patrick Fisher 3
Dan Morris 2
Joseph Raymond 2
***
Holy Ghost Prep
Player Points
John Glenn 15
Nate Lorence 13
Mike Byrne 12
Phil Pastor 10
Duffy Barrett 8
Owen Kirby 6
Labels: boys basketball, Holy Ghost Prep
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Holy Ghost Prep (HGP) junior James Budzinski, of Yardley, led the way to the Firebirds’ win May 8 and 9 in the Bicentennial Athletic League (BAL) Track & Field championships. HGP dominated the field, outpacing runnerup Lower Moreland 193.5 to 88.
