PIAA State Basketball Tournament Boys AAA Semifinals

It's an all-District 3 AAA boys state final after semifinal wins for Steel-High and Susquehanna Township
By Gorden Blain
ALTOONA -- They have been the gold standard for District 3 basketball for generations.

After the Steel-High Steamrollers defeated defending PIAA State AAA and District 10 champion General McLane 58-43 in the AAA state semifinal in front of a paid crowd of 891 Tuesday night at Altoona High School, they are headed back to where their demanding and rabid fans expect them to be every year.

Steel-High (27-6) will face Harrisburg area rival Susquehanna Township (32-2) for the PIAA State AAA championship Friday night at 8 p.m. at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center.

“I think that’s what this community expects,” said Steel-High coach Mike Pilsitz. “That’s what is expected of the sophomores, the juniors, the seniors, the coaching staff.”

Who would know better than Pilsitz about living up to state championship expectations at Steel-High? He played for the Rollers and was an assistant coach to Rick Binder, whose Roller teams won state championships in 1998, 2000 and 2005. Pilsitz replaced Binder in 2006 and has been on the hot seat since, especially so when the Rollers lost their district playoff opener last season.

Regardless of Steel-High’s return to the state final, Pilsitz doesn’t expect the fans to ease up one bit until the Rollers add another piece of state championship hardware to the trophy case in the hall outside Marty Benkovic gym.

“You never want to replace a legend,” said Pilsitz. “I was stupid enough to do it.”

Susquehanna Township held up its end of the deal to meet the Rollers for a third time in a championship game this season by defeating District 2 champion Scranton Prep 61-52 at Parkland High School in Allentown on Tuesday night.

It will be Steel-High’s ninth state championship game. The last time it reached the final the Rollers defeated Johnstown 70-48 in 2005. The Rollers had not returned to the state tournament since then until this year. Susquehanna Township is in its third state championship game. The last time the Indians played for gold they defeated Lewistown 64-45 in 1997.

The showdown of the two schools that border the City of Harrisburg--Steel-High to the south and Susquehanna Township to the north--just a few miles apart is the rubber match in this season’s edition of the rivalry.

Steel-High easily defeated Susquehanna Township by 18 points for the Mid-Penn Conference Tournament championship on February 8. Less than two weeks later, Susquehanna defeated Steel-High 57-54 on Ben Dupree’s thrilling buzzer-beater to win the PIAA District 3 championship game in Hershey.

“It’s a great rivalry,” said Pilsitz. “It’s good for both communities. I don’t think we remember the first game.”

Steel-High played the first quarter with the intent to let nothing to chance. The Rollers dominated and outscored the Lancers in the first quarter 18-6. Their 6-7 big men Josh Proctor and Jeff Davis combined for 13 points and guard Lance Chisholm had five.

Sensing they had the measure of the Lancers, who were smaller and struggling with the Rollers superior quickness, Steel-High eased off the pedal and General McLane took advantage.

The Lancers outscored Steel-High 7-1 to trim the lead to 19-15 with 5:15 left in the first half. But the Rollers quickly found the “on” switch and regained a 25-15 lead at halftime by holding the Lancers scoreless the remainder of the second quarter.

Aware that the officiating crew was comfortable with a physical game, Pilsitz paced the sidelines nervous that McLane remained in striking distance.

“I was never comfortable with the lead,” said Pilsitz. “I don’t think we relaxed. That’s a very good basketball team. A physical game tends not to be our strength. We have a bunch of finesse guys. Our inside guys are 6-7 and 6-8, but they don’t weigh a lot.”

McLane trailed 35-20 when it made another charge at the Rollers. Senior Shawn Walker, who led the Lancers with 20 points, finished a fast break with a layup to cut the lead to 39-31 with1:20 left in the third quarter.

But after Proctor’s layup put Steel-High back up by 10 after three quarters, General McLane could get no closer than nine points the rest of the game.

“We didn’t make a lot of outside shots,” said McLane coach Andy Shulz. “They are long and lanky. I don’t think they stayed in a defensive stance for more than five seconds. They don’t have to. They’re so quick they take the ball away from you. We have to make shots to win a game like this.”

Proctor and Chisholm each scored 15 points for Steel-High and Davis had 13. Dan Mulligan had 12 for McLane. Chisholm, whose mother and uncle ironically both won state basketball championships 28 and 29 years ago at Susquehanna Township, thought the Rollers’ defense made the difference.

“They were a real scrappy team,” said Chisholm. “We defended pretty good. We did a really good job on Walker. Defense, that’s what mostly wins ball games.”

McLane (27-4) had averaged 63 points per game in three state playoff games but were bothered by the shot blocking of Proctor and Davis and the quick hands of the Rollers backcourt.

“I thought we played well,” said Shulz. “But that’s as good a team as we’ve seen all year. By far and away, they are the most athletic team we’ve played all year.”

Ironically, Steel-High can accomplish what McLane was the first school in Pennsylvania to accomplish last season when it won both state football and basketball championships in the same school year. The Rollers won the Class A state football championship in December.