PIAA BOYS BASKETBALL: Lackawanna Division II rivals shooting for semifinals
Riverside, Holy Cross and Old Forge battled each other all season in pursuit of the Lackawanna League Division II title.
Their competitive head-to-head clashes have served them well as they navigate the PIAA boys basketball playoffs.
On Saturday, division champion Holy Cross and District 2 Class 3A champion Riverside are playing in a tripleheader at Bethlehem Liberty High School, while Old Forge is in action at Whitehall High School as the tournament reaches the quarterfinal round.
Scranton Prep starts the busy day in Bethlehem with a Class 4A girls game against Neumann-Goretti at 1 p.m., followed by Riverside (25-2) against West Catholic (11-14) at 2:30 p.m., and then Holy Cross (24-4) against up Lancaster Mennonite (22-3) at 4:30 p.m..
Old Forge (21-5) plays Linville Hill (20-6) at 1 p.m. at Whitehall in Class 2A. It is the Blue Devils’ third trip to the state quarterfinals in the last five seasons.
Riverside and Holy Cross split four meetings this season and look to advance to a fifth meeting in the PIAA semifinals with victories Saturday.
Class 2A
Old Forge faced a daunting schedule this season.
Four of the Blue Devils five losses are two each to Riverside by an average of 8.5 points, and to Holy Cross by an average of 6.5 points. They also have a 62-47 win over Northwest Area, which is playing in the Class 2A quarterfinals against Northgate, the seventh-place team from District 7, on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Old Forge is averaging 60.8 points per game in the postseason, and every starter has had a double-digit scoring game.
Logan Fanning is averaging 15.5 points per game in the playoffs. He made 7 of 8 shots from the field, with the lone miss being blocked, in a win over Delco Christian.
Cameron Parker has scored 39 points in Old Forge’s two state games, Cam Krushnowski is averaging 10.3 points per game, and Ryan DeMarco has 31 points in the postseason.
Overall, DJ Fox and Fanning are both making better than 65% of their two-point field goal attempts in the post. The Blue Devils are shooting 36.4% on 3-pointers with 160 makes for the season.
Linville Hill, a Class 1A team playing up because of the PIAA competitive balance formula, reached the quarterfinals by knocking out Constitution, a four-time state champion, 66-52.
Stephen Smucker scored 23 points and had 15 rebounds to lead the Warriors. Smucker is a 1,000-point scorer and was a Class 1A all-state player last season.
Linville Hill defeated Lancaster Mennonite, 50-48, and had a 63-61 win over Berks Catholic, which eliminated Scranton Prep in the PIAA Class 4A second round.
Class 3A
Riverside and Holy Cross took different paths to the quarterfinals.
Riverside dominated in their two state playoff wins, jumping out to a 21-9 lead over Southern Columbia, and a 20-6 advantage against Overbrook on the way to convincing victories by an average of 22.5 points.
Freshman Nico Antoniacci leads Riverside with 51 points in the state playoffs. The Vikings had a balanced attack in the two wins. Gerry Rose has 32 points, Connor McNally has 24 points and Braydon Rose has 21 points. Richie Kostoff has collected 15 rebounds.
“We have been working hard in practice,” Antoniacci said after the second-round win over Overbrook. “We are not satisfied with where we are and the job is not finished.”
West Catholic advanced with wins over Antietam and Warrior Run. Saaid Lee scored 18 points, Jayvon Bird scored 12 and Kingston Wheatley added 11 in the second-round win over Warrior Run.
During the regular season, West Catholic defeated Audenried Charter, 73-50 and 65-46. The Burrs also played tight games against Devon Prep, losing 64-56 and 63-55. Devon Prep won last season’s PIAA Class 3A championship and beat Riverside in the second round.
Holy Cross played a pair of nailbiters in its first Class 3A state tournament. The Crusaders reached the Class 2A final last season but moved up a classification because of the PIAA competitive balance rule.
In the first round, Holy Cross edged Troy, 72-68, in overtime, and held off Audenried Charter, 58-55, in a second-round game.
Michael Hughes is having his second-straight productive PIAA tournament. He has scored 41 points and has five 3-pointers in two games. Matt Lyons had two 17-point games for the Crusaders.
Lancaster Mennonite is also playing up in Class 3A because of the PIAA competitive balance rule.
Two years ago, Lancaster Mennonite defeated Holy Cross in the semifinals in the final game for coach Al Callejas Sr., who retired following the loss. The Blazers won the state title that year.
Cody Fisher led Lancaster Mennonite, which is a Class 1A program based on enrollment, with 26 points in a state second-round win over Catasauqua. He knocked down a fade-away jumper with 5 seconds remaining for the game-winning points.
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