PIAA BOYS BASKETBALL: Northwest falls in Class 2A semifinals
POTTSVILLE — There was a point late in the second quarter of Saturday’s PIAA Class 2A boys basketball semifinal where Northwest Area was down nine, but had the ball and some momentum. Unfortunately, a 3-pointer that could have cut the deficit to six rattled in and out.
Linville Hill responded moments later with a six-point burst off a blocked shot and two steals that pushed its lead into double digits, where it remained for almost the rest of the way as the Warriors knocked off the Rangers, 68-43, at Martz Hall.
“We had a lot of shots, especially in the first half, that toilet-bowled in and out,” Northwest coach Sean Miller said. “Make one or two or three of those and it’s a different game. But it seemed like every time we would get within 10 or 12, we couldn’t get any closer.”
Giovanni Sejuste led the District 3 runner-up with 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks. Derian Peterseim hit five 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Drew Tibbins added 15 points and five assists and Stephen Smucker chipped in 12 points as Linville Hill (28-3) advanced to the Class 2A final at the Giant Center in Hershey on Friday at 2 p.m. against Sewickley Academy. The No. 3 seed out of District 7 beat Greensburg Central Catholic, the District 7 No. 5 seed, 52-48, in the other semifinal.
Ryan Miner scored 12 points and Josh Miner followed with 10 for Northwest (26-4), which had its 18-game winning streak and magical postseason run end.
“They have a good athletic team,” Rangers senior Brady Shea said. “They have five guys who are shooters, they’re big and well-coached. We just had trouble getting in transition. They were switching on every screen so it was hard to find our shooters and get open.”
That six-point spurt at the end of the second quarter gave Linville Hill coach Mike Schatzmann his goal of leading by at least 10 points at halftime.
“This game is all about runs,” Schatzmann said. “We got a couple there — right before halftime. Then middle of the third quarter, we made another small run that kind of opened it up.
“Our main thing was to shut the 3s off because that team is a 3-point shooting team. They’re the type of team you can’t let in a ball game. I told our guys at halftime, ‘They’ve got shooters.’ We had to make sure we kept pressure on them and do the right things on defense.”
Northwest got the deficit to single digits once in the second half. That came in the opening minute of the third quarter when a Ryan Miner 3-pointer pulled the Rangers within 31-22.
But Linville Hill answered by scoring nine of the next 11 points. Peterseim hit a 3-pointer, then one of two foul shots. After Josh Miner scored off a rebound, Jerome Stoltzfus hit a 3-pointer and Tibbins sank two free throws to make it 40-24 with 4:39 left in the third.
Northwest got back within 42-31 on a Ryan Miner 3-pointer with 55.7 seconds left, but the Warriors closed the quarter with two Tibbins free throws and a steal-and-layup by Sejuste to take a 46-31 lead. Tibbins then opened the final quarter with a layup, fed Sejuste for a basket off an inbounds play and completed a three-point play to make it 53-33 with 5:50 left and prompt the Linville Hill student section to start chanting, “We smell chocolate!”
Tibbins had 13 of his points in the second half for the Warriors.
Linville Hill’s largest lead was 68-39 with 2:15 left after two foul shots by Josh Stoltzfus.
“We have a good point guard, two good shooters, Giovanni who plays above the rim and Stephen Smucker that’s an inside banger,” Schatzmann said. “We’ve got the whole package if we can put it together and tonight we did.”
With Sejuste and Smucker (six rebounds) controlling the boards, Linville Hill got out in transition throughout the game for several easy baskets.
“We worked on it the last four days. We have to get back on defense. Long shots, long rebounds,” Miller said. “With 32 (Smucker) and 0 (Sejuste) controlling the boards, their other guys could leak out and run. There were times we were able to get back on D and there were other times we weren’t, especially after a missed shot.”
While the loss stings, Miller said it wasn’t going to erase the memories of the bus rides, practices and success this season. He said he would need a thesaurus to come up with all the adjectives to describe his feelings about the playoff run by the District 4 champs.
“It’s a credit to the guys in the locker room,” Miller said. “They made it special.”
Shea concurred.
“Our seniors have been playing together since third-grade biddy basketball,” he said. “We all love each other so much and play hard for each other. No one expected us to have this run we did in the playoffs. We just came up one round short.”
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