Bishop Carroll sends WPIAL school home in defeat
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By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
KITTANNING -- During a timeout with a three-point lead with 10.8 seconds to play in overtime, Bishop Carroll coach Cosie Aliquo told his team to not let Neighborhood Academy get a 3-point shot off.
Aliquo was perfectly content giving up a drive to the hoop and told his team as such.
Never did the Huskies envision it would happen, but a mental lapse by the Bulldogs allowed for that exact circumstance to play out.
Neighborhood had no time left to do anything as Carroll didn't even need to touch the ball after it went through the hoop and time ran out to give Bishop Carroll a thrilling 71-70 overtime victory over Neighborhood Academy on Tuesday night in PIAA Class 1A second round action at Armstrong High School.
"I told our guys no three's -- let them have the layup because they (Neighborhood Academy) didn't have any timeouts," Aliquo said. "So, they couldn't stop the clock. As soon as I saw him drive, I looked up at the clock and saw like three seconds. I said we're not even inbounding … it's over."
With the contest tied 61-61 after regulation, the Huskies began the extra session with a Luke Repko 3-pointer, and a Parker Alexander layup off a feed from Jace Casses on a backdoor cut to go up 66-61 with 2:19 to go.
Junior Inwibuko made a free throw before both teams turned the ball over.
Carroll, the District 6 champion, took advantage of a Gus Becquet steal-and-kick ahead to Repko for a layup to go up 68-62.
Repko, who led all scorers with 34 points, made the second of two foul shots to push the lead to seven with 1:15 remaining.
Neighborhood's Kedron Gilmore made two free throws, and Repko again only made the second of his two foul shots, to make the score 70-64 with 46.7 on the clock.
Dre'Air Mack, who had just two points up to that moment, bagged a huge trey for the Bulldogs to cut the margin to three with 33 seconds left.
A 10-second violation on the Huskies gave the ball back over to Neighborhood where Courtney Wallace, who notched 20 points, made the second freebie after being fouled with 20.1 to go.
Repko was sent to the line with 10.8 on the board and he made just the second to put his team up 71-68.
Aliquo immediately called a timeout following the make to talk strategy with his team.
"In the timeout, we talked about guarding the the three-point line and don't foul them (Neighborhood Academy) if they are going up for a shot," Repko said. "And, if they are going to drive then let them go. And, if there is five seconds or less on the clock than don't touch the ball because the clock is going to run."
Out of the stoppage, Gilmore drove right down the wide open lane as BC was taking away the 3-point opportunity and giving up the drive as Aliquo had instructed.
As soon as the ball went through the net with 5 seconds left, Gilmore caught the ball -- realizing what he'd done -- and then dropped it dejectedly to the ground.
"Our kids fought and did everything they could," Neighborhood Academy coach Jordan Marks said. "A mental mistake at the end there which is my fault. I'll take the blame for that."
The final few seconds ticked off as the ball remained untouched to send the 17-10 Huskies into a quarterfinal matchup with Union, a 64-62 winner over Elk County Catholic, on Friday at a site and time to be determined.
"What they (Bishop Carroll) go through in practice, it's not easy -- it's demanding," Aliquo said. "This is why. If I'm easy on them then I don't think we're here."
Neighborhood Academy (19-7) forced three turnovers to open the contest and led 5-0 very quickly. Bishop Carroll settled in and began locking on the target from 3-point range. The Huskies tallied six field goals in the opening quarter with five of them coming from long range. Trailing 9-5 following a layup by the Bulldogs' Syncere Nicholson, BC would reel off four straight from downtown as part of a 12-2 run.
Alexander connected on his second triple of the quarter to kickstart the spurt. Repko buried three consecutive attempts to give the Huskies a 17-11 edge with 42 seconds remaining in the first. Gilmore would give his team a brief 21-20 edge in the second quarter on a baseline floater but Casses would help BC go on a 10-2 run with seven points to take a 30-23 lead.
Casses, who finished with 20 points, would score 14 of Bishop Carroll's 19 in the second stanza as it held a 36-31 advantage at the half.
"We talked about closing out because of how good of shooters they (Bishop Carroll) have," Marks said. "Some miscommunication on switches -- we pride ourselves on our defense. So, (giving up) 36 points at the half was way too many."
In the opening half, the Huskies made 12 field goals with nine coming from beyond the arc.
"We were shooting the ball well, but there were times that we were turning it over," Aliquo said. "I was hoping we would shoot it instead of turn it over because we were shooting pretty good."
The second half would prove to be completely different as Neighborhood Academy took away many of the deep looks.
Fortunately, the Huskies had plenty of success driving to the hoop, on screen and curls to the hoop as well as backdoor cuts to keep the Bulldogs off balance.
"In the first half, we definitely hit our three's," Repko said. "In the (halftime) locker room, we talked about backdoor cuts and how we knew we couldn't stay hot forever. So, we knew we needed to work on defense too."
The third was a wash as the two teams traded baskets mostly throughout with NA getting as close as four on three occasions, including the last at 46-42 with over a minute to play.
A Repko driving layup and Casses trifecta sent Carroll into the fourth with a 51-42 lead. The Huskies got up by 11 twice early one with the second being at 55-44 with 5:24 to go. An 8-1 run by the Bulldogs was capped off by a Inwibuko layup that made the score 56-52 with 2:56 to go.
Following a Casses free throw, Neighborhood Academy would crank up the defensive full cour pressure and turn BC over allowing it to take the 58-57 lead with six straight points.
"We were up like 10 with a couple minutes to go, and we started turning it over," Aliquo said.
The two teams traded two points before Repko knocked down a pair to give Carroll a 61-60 edge with 1:18 left.
Inwibuko was fouled with 38.9 showing but could only make the second of two shots.
Following a timeout, Repko kept the ball up top and dribbled until it was time to make his move -- a drive into lane, spin back to the right side where the ball got knocked out of bounds with 4.1 to go.
After another BC timeout, Repko was forced into a fadeaway that fell way short to send the game into overtime tied at 61-61.
"It feels good being back in the state playoffs," Repko said. "We knew that if we could keep our tempo up in the playoffs that we could beat other teams and get far."
NEIGHBORHOOD ACADEMY (70): Wallace 9 2-3 20, Inwibuko 5 5-8 15, Nicholson 6 1-3 14, Gilmore 6 2-2 14, Mack 2 0-0 5, Brown 1 0-0 2, Evans 0 0-0 0. Totals: 29 10-16 70.
BISHOP CARROLL (71): Casses 5 6-7 20, Oravec 3 0-0 6, Tremel 0 0-0 0, Repko 11 8-12 34, Alexander 4 0-0 11, Becquet 0 0-0 0, Sekerak 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 14-19 71.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Neighborhood Academy 13 18 11 19 9 -- 70
Bishop Carroll 17 19 15 10 10 -- 71
3-point field goals: Neighborhood Academy 2 (Nicholson, Mack); Bishop Carroll 11 (Casses 4, Repko 4, Alexander 3).
Records: Neighborhood Academy (19-7); Bishop Carroll (17-10).
Officials: Ed Baumcrack, Bud Biffano, Chip Mason.