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LOWER BURRELL -- Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic's boys basketball team hasn't been shy about its goals for this season, and despite a setback in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals against Westmont Hilltop, the Marauders are still focused on their highest goal.
But Saturday afternoon against WPIAL runner-up Burrell in the first round of the PIAA playoffs, memories of that Hilltoppers game started to creep back into coach Ryan Lestochi's mind.
Bishop Guilfoyle was getting better shots at the rim, but the Bucs were hitting everything they took from all over the court and jumped ahead by 10 after a quarter before the Marauders slowly chipped away, stuck to what they were doing and eventually came away with a 62-51 victory.
"We started 3-of-17, and we had a lot of bunnies that were right there," Lestochi said. "I was starting to get flashbacks of the Westmont game again. But our game plan was, so what if we miss? Continue to attack the rim, and the lid finally came off."
The win earned Bishop Guilfoyle a second-round game against District 10 champion Girard on Wednesday at Clarion University. The game will begin at 5:30 p.m. as the first part of a doubleheader with the BG girls. The Lady Marauders will play DuBois Central Catholic at 7 p.m.
"We're embracing this," said BG junior Jude Haigh, who led the Marauders on Saturday with 20 points. "The goal is to make the state championship and win it. We're putting our heads down and grinding it out, and I believe we can go far."
Haigh made two early 3-pointers to give BG a short-lived 6-5 lead before Burrell went on a 13-0 run. The Bucs made four of their 10 3-pointers in the game in the first quarter.
"We have really embraced this challenge of coming on the road in a tough environment where it felt like everything was against us," Lestochi said. "We try and tell them all week that this is when you find out who you really are. When you win games by 20 and 30 and don't get tested, everyone can be happy. But what about when it's not going right? Are you going to stay together? We did that."
The Marauders began to chip away at the lead with the help of three baskets from Taurean Consiglio, who finished with 11 points, and Burrell, which lost Dylan McKallip to a cut over his eye early in the game, began to lose more players due to foul trouble. Point guard Tucker Bitar, who finished with 13 points, had three fouls in the first quarter.
"Our point guard, Tucker, he just has to play smarter than that," Burrell coach Michael Fantuzzo said. "He had some frustration fouls, and with him on the bench, it changes what we like to do and what we're able to do."
Esau King-Buchak kept the Bucs ahead with a 3-pointer and a basket inside while also holding his own in the paint against the much taller Trevor Rehm, who checked out of the game briefly.
"Struggling in the first half really motivated me to work harder and harder," Rehm said. "I wanted to help my team out and help our team get a lead and come back and win."
Rehm was a huge part of the comeback. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half and tied Haigh for the team lead with 10 rebounds.
"Trevor was great," Lestochi said. "He seemed a little tentative in the first, like he wasn't sure what the contact was going to be like, but once he figured it out, he was constantly at the rim and was a lot to deal with."
Rehm's basket just before the end of the third quarter tied the game at 39. Burrell went back ahead and was leading by one with the ball when Tyson Lestochi stole the ball, went the length of the court and laid it in for BG's first lead since it was 6-5 in the first quarter.
"Once we got that and put it away, you could feel our energy pick up," Coach Lestochi said. "We were getting a little tired there, but that kind of boosted our team's energy. We didn't sub out the rest of the way and just grinded it out."
Haigh put some distance between the teams with back-to-back 3-pointers on BG's next two possessions.
"It felt so great," Rehm said. "The fans were cheering us on, the bench was getting us hype. It was a really great experience."
Joey Discello made Burrell's final 3-pointer of the night to cut BG's lead to 54-49 with two minutes left, but Rehm responded with a resounding dunk in traffic and then a block on Burrell's next possession.
Haigh closed the game by going 6-for-6 at the foul line.
"We came out to a slow start, and our short jumpers and layups weren't falling for us," Haigh said. "We had to pick up the pressure on defense. We stuck together throughout the game, and when we do that, we can get a great team win like we had today."
McKallip, who returned after his cut was bandaged the the bleeding stopped, fouled out along with Bitar in the fourth quarter. Macky Bennis led the Bucs with 15 points. Burrell finished the season 16-10.
"Let's not beat around the bush, they are a freaking great team," Fantuzzo said. "They have a lot of size. They have a really good shooting team. We just wanted to go in there and battle and try to play them as physical as we could and try to at least control the rebounds the best we could."
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (62): Lestochi 3 1-2 7, Haigh 5 6-6 20, Tr. Rehm 6 3-6 15, Gates 0 1-2 1, Consiglio 5 0-0 11, C. Kissell 1 0-0 2, T. Ruggery 0 0-0 0, J. Kissell 3 0-1 6, Foor 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 23 11-17 62.
BURRELL (51): McKallip 0 0-0 0, Bitar 4 4-9 13, Discello 2 0-0 6, E. King-Buchak 3 3-4 11, Bennis 5 2-4 15, Christie 2 0-0 6, M. Buchak 0 0-0 0, Conte 0 0-0 0, Croushore 0 0-0 0, Cosentino 0 0-0 0, Wass 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 16 9-17 51.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bishop Guilfoyle 8 14 17 23 -- 62
Burrell 18 9 12 12 -- 51
3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 5 (Haigh 4, Consiglio); Burrell 10 (Bennis 3, Christie 2, King-Buchak 2, Discello 2, Bitar).
Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (24-4); Burrell (16-10).
Officials: Rob Lombardo, Greg Kretz, Jim Reeder.