PIAA State Tournament Boys AAAA Quarterfinals

After quarterfinal win over Ridley, Pennsbury is Chester's next challenger as Clippers head to 24th state semifinal; Norristown will try to make all-District 1 AAAA state final
By Gorden Blain
VILLANOVA -- In terms of pedigree and playoff tradition, Pennsbury challenging Chester in the PIAA State AAAA semifinals is a mismatch.

After Pennsbury defeated gritty tough Ridley 45-40 in a PIAA State AAAA quarterfinal Saturday afternoon at Villanova University‘s Pavilion, Falcons coach Frank Sciolla acknowledged as much.

He also made it clear that Chester would be mistaken to take the Falcons lightly.

“What more would you want?“ asked Sciolla. “We’re not going to be deer in headlights. We’re rolling in some pretty good weapons. We take care of the ball. We won’t roll over on defense. We do respect them. They are the Roman Empire of the state in terms of high school basketball.”

District 1 champion Chester (31-1) and Pennsbury (30-2), the third-place team from District 1, lock up Wednesday night at the University of Pennsylvania’s Palestra in a state semifinal tussle to land a trip to the PIAA State championship game Saturday night at Penn State’s Jordan Center.

Chester, which lost the state final in 2007 to Schenley, advanced to its fourth straight state semifinal and an unmatched 24th state semifinal by defeating pesky Del-Val League rival Penn Wood 68-60 in the first of three AAAA state quarterfinals played at Villanova on Saturday.

Pennsbury is playing in its first-ever state semifinal.

“It’s unchartered ground,” said Sciolla. “It’s not a year we would have thought this would happen. They’ve been in a big environment. The problem is the bigger environment includes Chester.”

Once again, the District 1 AAAA teams have flexed their muscle on the statewide stage. The Chester-Pennsbury semifinal guarantees at least one team from District 1 will play for a state championship for the fourth straight year. And Norristown has a chance to make it the second all-District 1 AAAA state final in the past four years.

In the middle game of the tripleheader, Norristown easily defeated the Public League’s Southern 71-44. The Eagles (31-1), who won their only state championship in 1948, will face Moon (23-7) in the other state semifinal on Wednesday night at Shippensburg University. In an all-WPIAL quarterfinal, Moon defeated Pittsburgh Central Catholic 61-41 in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Norristown hasn’t been in a state semifinal since 1990 and it’s Moon’s first semifinal as a AAAA team.

“I’m really excited,” said Pennsbury’s 6-5 junior forward Dalton Pepper, who led the Falcons with 15 points. ‘It’s all I’ve dreamed about. They’re a national powerhouse. It’s a great opportunity to see what we can do. I’ve played with (Nasir) Robinson and (Karon) Burton. The (Clippers) are athletic. We’ll need to keep them off of the backboard. It’s just what I dreamed about since I was a young kid.”

Pennsbury’s dreams of advancing to its first state semifinal and getting a crack to upset nationally-ranked Chester were in jeopardy after Ridley (25-7) rallied to trim the Falcons’ 36-25 third quarter lead to 38-37 with 3:25 left to play in the game when senior guard Steve Egee sank one of two free throws.

The Green Raiders had the momentum and when John McSorley stole the ball from Pennsbury after a Falcons timeout, the sixth-place team from District 1 was thinking that its hopes of upsetting Pennsbury, a team that they had lost two by 19 points in the district tournament, could become a reality.

But that’s when the Falcons turned up the defensive pressure. With a chance to take the lead, the Raiders’ almost-always solid ball handler Egee, who scored 13 points, was pressured into a turnover. Then the Falcons drew an offensive foul on 6-7 senior center Dan Robinson, who was a thorn in the side of Pennsbury the entire game with a game-high 21 points.

Despite not making a basket in the final 11:40 of the game and missing all four of their shots in the fourth quarter, the Falcons nailed down the victory with tight man-to-man defense, strong ball handling and clutch free throw shooting.

“We made our foul shots at the end of the game and our defense,” said junior guard Eddie DiRugeris, who finished with eight points. “I don’t remember us taking one bad shot. We knew the game was going to come down to foul shots. We knew when Egee had the ball we had to be in help defense.”

Pepper was four for six and DiRugeris made three of four free throws in the final 1:15. The Falcons made nine of 14 foul shots in the fourth quarter and for the game, made 12 of 15 free throws while Ridley made just three of six.

“I know we’re not as sexy and romantic as some of the teams down here today,“ said Sciolla. “If you would have told me that we would go that long without a field goal, I wouldn’t have believed it. It was a strange game. In the second half we got to the basket a lot and created opportunities.”

Norristown led 24-15 at halftime and then outscored Southern 27-8 in the third quarter to breeze into the semifinals. Senior guard Russell Graham led Norristown with 19 points and junior forward James Ramsey had 10. Antoine Reese led Southern with 10 points.

Now 31-1, Norristown’s only loss is to Chester 61-47 in the District 1 championship game. One more win in their historic season and the Eagles will earn another crack at the Clippers.

“We all imagined (a great season),” said Graham. “It’s an amazing accomplishment. We take one game at a time. Whoeverelse is up next, we’ll prepare for. We’d love to get revenge. We first got to get there. We’ve got to take it one day at a time.”