PIAA STATE BASKETBALL FINALS AA & AAAA Girls-A & AAA Boys

Steel-High & Serra Catholic boys; Central Dauphin & York Catholic girls are state champions

By Gorden Blain
UNIVERSITY PARK -- Steel-High won its fourth PIAA State Boys AAA championship since 1998 by defeating District 3 rival Susquehanna Township 65-52 Friday night at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center.

The victory avenged the Rollers’ 57-54 loss to Susquehanna Township in the District 3 championship game. It also gave the District 3 three state championships in four state finals played on Friday at Penn State.

Susquehanna started quickly and led 7-2 before Steel-High (28-6) got rolling. And the Indians never led again.

The Rollers led 14-10 after the first quarter and 31-22 at halftime.

The Indians (32-3), unable to match the Rollers’ intensity, never got closer than eight points in the second half as Steel-High’s inside players Josh Proctor and Jeff Davis dominated. Proctor finished with a game-high 20 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. Davis had 13 rebounds and scored nine points.

Guard Ryan Hill scored 15 and Jordan Smith had 10 for the Rollers.

Matt Jones led Susquehanna Township with 13 points and Tajh Turner had 11.

It was the first time two teams from District 3 met in the state championship game.

In the earlier game of the Friday evening state championship doubleheader that drew a paid crowd of 6,096, Central Dauphin outscored Mount Lebanon 23-10 in the fourth quarter to come from behind and defeat the Blue Devils 56-49 to win the PIAA State AAAA girls championship.

Trailing 39-33 after three quarters, CD, the third-place team from District 3, scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to take a 42-39 lead with 3:53 left in the game.

The Lady Rams then sealed the victory by making all 12 of their free throws with the lead. They were 14 for 14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter and 22 for 26 for the game.

Gabby Singer, whose three-point basket gave CD the lead at 42-39 and then sank eight straight free throws, led CD (28-7) with 19 points and Alyssa Thomas scored 18 points and had 18 rebounds. Jaclyn Babe led Mount Lebanon (28-4), the fourth-place team from the WPIAL, with 19 points.

It is Central Dauphin’s first girls basketball state championship.

In the Girls AA-Boys A championship doubleheader on Friday afternoon at Penn State that drew a paid crowd of 4,967, Serra Catholic rallied from 12 points down in the final five minutes to defeat Freire Charter 67-66 and win its first-ever the PIAA State Class A boys basketball championship.

Senior center Pat Grubbs scored 17 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Serra (30-2) rally. Freire Charter (16-7) led 62-50 with 4:59 remaining in the game when the Eagles outscored the Dragons 19-6 to finish the game.

Freire Charter, the District 12 champion committed nine turnovers on its final 12 possessions.

Grubbs also had 13 rebounds. Dave Menzies and Anthony Epolito each scored nine points for the Eagles, who also won the WPIAL championship.

Octavious Booker scored 18 points and had 14 rebounds for Freire. Koron Reed scored 14 and had 11 rebounds, Jarrod Denard and Antoine Singleton each scored 12 for the Dragons.

In the first game of the afternoon doubleheader, York Catholic girls won their third consecutive AA state championship when they defeated Northern Cambria 52-40.

There were nine lead changes in the first 11:30 but York Catholic (34-1) took a 19-18 lead on Gen McGann’s layup with 5:29 left in the first half and outscored the Colts 13-5 to finish the first half with a 30-23 lead. The Irish never relinquished the lead the rest of the game.

Freshman Kady Schrann scored 12 points to lead the Irish, who have won 103 of its last 105 games. Ashton Bankos scored 11 and Gen McGann had 10 for York Catholic. Breanna Kochinsky and Brittany Sedlock each scored 11 points for Northern Cambria (29-2).