Tom Robinson Photo
Susquehanna boys basketball coach Lawrence Tompkins hugs senior Travis Craig after making substitutions late in Friday night’s state quarterfinal loss to Shamokin Lourdes Regional BVM.
EXETER – Susquehanna ended a boys’ basketball season that featured the second-longest playoff run in school history as the rare team that accomplished everything it set out to do when the season began.
That, however, did not take all the sting away from having the special season end Friday night with a 64-44 loss to District 4 champion Shamokin Lourdes Regional BVM in a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state quarterfinal at Wyoming Area High School.
“Our team was disappointed in that locker room, though,” Sabers coach Lawrence Tompkins said. “This was kind of our attitude once we got into the state playoffs.
“It wasn’t about getting there, it was about winning every game that was in front of us. We didn’t approach it as, ‘hey we’re just happy to be here’. You never know when you’re going to get back.
“ … There’s some seriously disappointed guys in there.”
That was not a feeling the Sabers experienced often in a 19-9 season that included the first Lackawanna League Division 4 and first District 2-11 Class A Subregional titles in school history.
They became the second Susquehanna team to ever win in the state tournament and the second to reach a state quarterfinal when they added a second-round victory, 57-54, over Lancaster Country Day March 13 at Hazleton Area.
The 1999 Susquehanna team won three state games, advancing all the way to the semifinals.
“Every single goal we set at the beginning of the year we accomplished,” Tompkins said. “It isn’t often where you have a team that sets goals and they accomplish every single one of them.
“That’s something, obviously, that will make this team a team that is remembered for a long time.”
STATE QUARTERFINALS
EXETER – Lourdes Regional held Susquehanna without a point for the first 3:41 and without a field goal for the first 4:52 while building an early lead that it protected the rest of the way.
The Red Raiders built leads of 7-0 and 9-1 on the way to a 19-3 advantage after scoring the first basket of the fourth quarter.
“If you look at it from that point forward, it was pretty much a dead-even game,” Tompkins said. “I think maybe we were a little bit too patient, maybe trying to feel the defense out a little bit too much early, but obviously you have to give some of the credit to them, too.”
Lourdes opened a double-figures lead for the first time with 1:32 left in the first quarter and kept it there the rest of the way despite several surges by Susquehanna.
Thomas Schultz hit five of his first six shots, then made his last seven to lead Lourdes. The 6-foot-5 junior forward finished with 29 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals.
Ty Klembara added 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots. Craig Reichard had 11 points. Lawrence Czeponis grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots.
Mason Deakin led Susquehanna with 15 points, including 11 in the second half. He also had four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
C.J. Stone came off the bench to score eight points, all in the second quarter.
Bryce Baldwin had seven points, seven rebounds and two steals. Eric Lee grabbed eight rebounds and also had two steals.
Susquehanna’s best comeback hope may have come in the second quarter.
Stone hit 3-pointers 38 seconds apart to get the Sabers within 26-16.
Lee then attempted to draw a charge that could have kept the momentum going, but officials ruled it a block for a three-point play by Klembara that started a nine-point run to end the half with the Red Raiders in front, 35-16.
“I thought that call was definitely a momentum swing,” Tompkins said. “From my angle, I thought that was clearly a charge. That was a big-momentum play in a couple of areas.
“It keeps momentum with us, but it also gives one of their big players a foul. I think at that point, we had kind of found some of our rhythm offensively and that’s obviously a time in the game where you had another shift the other way.”
Lourdes blocked seven shots in the game, including five in the first half.
“That’s something we talked about at halftime,” Tompkins said. “I think you saw us become more aggressive in the second half, saying, ‘we can’t shy away from the big guys. We have to drive the lane and get to the rim’.”
The Sabers fought back again, cutting into a 20-point deficit by scoring eight straight points to get within, 37-25, with 4:49 left in the third quarter.
Deakin started the streak with a 3-pointer and ended it with two free throws. Baldwin also scored and Lee hit one of two free throws during the run.
Lourdes again closed a quarter strong, scoring the last eight points of the third quarter for a 49-27 lead.
The Red Raiders built the lead as high as 25 twice before Deakin scored six points in an 11-4 surge by the Sabers that included a 3-pointer by Alex McHugh and two Brock Blodgett free throws.
STATE SECOND ROUND
HAZLETON – Baldwin and Deakin each scored 20 points and made other contributions March 13 when Susquehanna never trailed in its second-round victory over Lancaster Country Day at McGeehan Gymnasium.
Baldwin started 6-for-8 from the floor, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the first 9 ½ minutes. He scored the first four of the second quarter for a 20-15 lead.
“We knew, or at least we felt, they were going to play man,” Tompkins said. “We thought if we ran our sets, we’d be able to get good looks at the basket.”
Baldwin got many of them.
The junior center also led all players in the game with 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Deakin scored nine points in less than four minutes during the second quarter to help Susquehanna build the lead as high as nine before Lancaster Country Day closed to within 31-27 at the half. The Sabers held on with the help of his eight points in the fourth quarter when Deakin was 6-for-8 from the four line.
The junior guard also had a game-high six assists and grabbed seven rebounds.
“It was amazing, it couldn’t feel any better,” said Deakin, who returned from missing the district championship game and first round of state play when he was academically ineligible.
Lee scored 10 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, helping the Sabers to a 36-25 advantage on the boards.
Craig dished out four assists, hit one of two free throws on his only shots of the game with 32.9 seconds left, and made his usual strong defensive contributions.
After Andrew Williams went 3-for-4 on 3-pointers and scored 15 points in the first half, Craig’s defense limited him to six more. Williams also had four assists and three steals.
“Travis Craig did a terrific job,” Tompkins said. “We knew he was their best player and we found ourselves helping too much in the first half.
“We told Travis Craig, ‘you don’t have any other responsibility but to glue yourself to him’. I think he did that.”
Will Lisk added 12 points while Luke Walling had 7 points and 9 rebounds for Lancaster Country Day.
Adam Rockwell scored in transition then picked up his third assist by feeding Baldwin for a basket to open a 47-37 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Lancaster Country Day came back with the next eight points and the Susquehanna lead hovered between one and four points for the final 4:32.
Deakin went 4-for-6 at the line in the final 19.1 seconds to add to what had again shrunk to a one-point lead.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Susquehanna was part of District 2 continuing an impressive run in the PIAA basketball tournaments. The Abington Heights (Class 5A) and Holy Cross (Class 2A) boys and Dunmore (Class 3A) girls gave the Lackawanna League three state semifinalists. Hazleton Area, in Class 6A boys, made it four total representatives from District 2.
Lackawanna League boys’ teams were a combined 10-3 in the first three rounds of the tournament and District 2 boys’ teams were 16-8 total. In the girls’ tournament, Lackawanna League teams were 7-4 and District 2 teams were 9-10.
Jackson Danzig had 38 points Friday when Abington Heights defeated Northeastern York, 76-56, Friday night. Danzig hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter to get the Comets out to a 15-3 lead.
Holy Cross held Math, Civics & Science from Philadelphia to three fourth-quarter points while rallying to a 71-58 victory Saturday.
Victoria Toomey had her second 28-point effort in four games when Dunmore defeated Imhotep Charter from Philadelphia, 57-42.
Josh Samec scored 33 points and Hazleton Area held on through a wild fourth quarter for a 94-86 victory over Abington from suburban Philadelphia. Abington outscored the Cougars, 41-38, in the fourth quarter of the highest-scoring game of this year’s state tournament.
In boys’ swimming, Adam Mahler from Holy Redeemer gave District 2 a state champion by winning the Class 2A 100-yard butterfly Friday at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
COLLEGE CORNER
Montrose graduate Hailey Rapisardi had a hit in her second collegiate at-bat Thursday when she made her debut for Marywood University as the starting first baseman in a 2-1 loss to Missouri Baptist at Cocoa Beach, Fla.
Rapisardi started the two most recent games, going a combined 1-for-5 in pair of losses for the Pacers (3-5).
A member of three Lackawanna League division championship teams while at Montrose, Rapisardi was a four-year starter and a three-time, first-team division all-star selection by coaches. She is expected to also spend some time at third base for Marywood.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The first Battle of the Valley All-Star Classic doubleheader, sending senior basketball all-star teams from the Lackawanna League against teams from the Wyoming Valley Conference, is scheduled for Monday, March 26 at Wilkes University.
Forest City’s MacKenzie Hartman and Elk Lake’s Rierdan Reyan have been selected to participate in the game.
Hartman will play for the Lackawanna girls’ team, coached by Wallenpaupack’s Roy Gibbs, in the 6:30 p.m. game.
Reyan will play in the boys’ game at 8 p.m. on the Lackawanna team, coached by Delaware Valley’s Kris Holtzer.
The games come just days after the completion of the winter high school season with the PIAA state basketball championships Thursday through Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
