Rams duo leads way to Hershey
Petcash, Jurkovec collect 35 points as Pine-Richland reaches title game
ALTOONA — As his somewhat sluggish club sat uncomfortably in its locker room at the halftime break, Pine-Richland coach Jeff Ackermann challenged his stars to take the lead roles they’re accustomed to playing.
Once Andrew Petcash and Phil Jurkovec started to play the way they’re capable of performing, the rest of the Rams promptly stepped in line and followed.
Quite smartly, too.
With Jurkovec collecting 19 points and Petcash finishing with 16 — the dynamic duo shared 26 second-half points — Pine-Richland constructed a lead that was just large enough to hold off fastclosing Carlisle, 65-60, in a PIAA Class 6A semifinalround dandy Tuesday night at Altoona Field House.
Evan Luellen chipped in 15 points and eight assists, while Andrew Kristofic muscled for a double-double (11 points, 14 rebounds) as Ackermann’s Rams (28-1) earned a spot in their first state championship game Saturday at Hershey’s Giant Center.
“Once again, four guys in double figures for us,” Ackermann said. “We get four guys in double figures, we’re really tough to beat.”
And they were. Up next for Pine-Richland, which sported a 16-point advantage with just over two minutes to play, will be another District 3 outfit, Reading. Behind 35 points from Lonnie Walker, Reading ousted Archbishop Ryan, 57-51.
DeShawn Millington banked 22 points, Ethan Houston chimed in with 17 and Gavyn Barnes totaled 14 for the Thundering Herd (21-9).
Down by six points (33-27) at the halftime break — the Rams were just 9-for-31 from the floor in the opening half, a mere 2-for-20 in the second quarter — Ackermann told Petcash and Jurkovec that they needed to do what they do. Quite simply, that meant taking over the game.
“We’ve been the top two scorers [on our team] and we’d been held down in the first half, so he just looked at us and said, ‘Come on guys, this is not going to be the last time we play with each other,’ ” said Jurkovec, who added nine rebounds.
“So we just decided we were gonna go all out. We made a lot of mistakes in the second half, but at least we were going all out.”
With Petcash stepping into his shot more crisply in the third quarter and the 6-5 Jurkovec using his length to finish at the bucket in transition or when the Rams worked their halfcourt sets, those two combined for 21 points as Pine-Richland overtook the Thundering Herd and took a 45-39 lead after three.
“I knew they’d start falling,” Petcash added. “I’m just glad we won, man.”
Seems the Rams were just getting started.
Able to open the fourth quarter with a 13-3 surge, Pine-Richland’s lead grew to 16 points twice (58-42 and 6145), the latter the result of a Jurkovec finish off of a Luellen dish with just 2:18 between the Rams and Hershey.
Suddenly effective with all-out pressure — pressure that Pine-Richland had handled without much difficulty for much of the fourth quarter — Andre Anderson’s resilient Herd thundered back and made things really interesting.
Plus, it didn’t help that Petcash had fouled out with 2:13 to play. Neither did Pine-Richland’s nine turnovers down the stretch.
Pine-Richland, however, solved Carlisle’s pressure one last time and that proved to be enough as Kristofic dropped in a Greg Shulkosky pass at the 9.5 mark.