Experience paying off for Trinity
Tri-State Sports & News Service
The Trinity Hillers had a steep hill to climb Tuesday night.
Down 10 points in the fourth quarter of a WPIAL first-round playoff game, Trinity was minutes away from yet another early exit, this one particularly frustrating considering the Hillers had been having a terrific season and were a heavy favorite to defeat a Greensburg Salem squad that barely even made the playoffs.
But this Trinity team is different than many of the Hillers’ teams of the past, and they showed why Tuesday, rallying for a 61-52 win to put them in the WPIAL quarterfinals for only the third time in school history.
Get a win against McKeesport (15-8) in a Class 5A quarterfinal Friday, and Trinity (19-4) will make its first trip to the semifinals.
The Hillers are in rare air.
What has made the Hillers so successful? Skill and size certainly helps, but when your entire starting five and sixth man are all seniors, that goes a long way, too.
“Honestly, it’s experience,” coach Tim Tessmer said. “It’s our third year in a row of making the playoffs. Some guys have been starting since their freshman year. Some since they were sophomores or juniors. They have a lot of games under their belt. If things are not going well, they have that confidence to come back.”
Trailing, 41-31, against Greensburg Salem, Trinity wenton a 13-1 run to take a 4442 lead. Greensburg Salem went ahead one more time — 47-46 with less than three minutes left — but Trinity closed the game on a 15-5 run toroll into the quarterfinals.
Tessmer, who is in his fifth season, is a former assistant under longtime Trinity coach Joe Dunn, who is now one of Tessmer’s assistants. Dunn guided Trinity to its only other quarterfinal appearances in 2010 and 2012. Trinity’s win Tuesday was its 19th, the most by a Hillers team since the 1987 team also won 19.
The senior class Tessmer raves about is headlined by senior point guard Joey Koroly, one of the WPIAL’s top all-around athletes. Koroly, a 4,000-yard rusher for the Trinity football team, is a four-year starter who averages 16 points per game.
“His four years have helped resurrect this program to the point where we’re pretty proud of. He’s the guy who makes us go on the floor,” Tessmer said.
The rest of the senior class includes 6-7 twins Jeff and Zach Ecker, guards Dylan Kern and Stephen Schultz, and forward Dausen Marry.
One win away from its first semifinal berth, Trinity takes on a familiar foe in McKeesport, which edged out the Hillers for the Section 1 title. Trinity dealt McKeesport its only section loss, 65-62, on Dec. 19, but McKeesport returned the favor by taking an 83-72 win Jan. 23. That’s Trinity’s only loss in its past 15 games.
Something to keep an eye on is the status of McKeesport leading scorer Terron Taylor, who did not play in McKeesport’s firstround game due to an undisclosed reason. Taylor averages 20.3 points per game and scored 34 in the second meeting with Trinity.
The Ecker twins give Trinity the height advantage against most teams, but McKeesport is big across the board. Taylor, Tobias Green, Jordan Grayson and Deamontae Diggs are 6-4. Layton Jordan is 6-3.
Allderdice
City League champion Allderdice (22-2) begins its quest for a PIAA Class 6A title when it takes on District 10 winner Erie McDowell (19-4) in a subregional game Friday. Allderdice has a strong backcourt that includes three excellent scorers. Senior Tyler Williams is a terrific facilitator at point guard and junior Jackson Blaufeld is an outstanding shooter, but the team’s most dangerous player right now could be junior guard Bobby Clifford.
Clifford (6-3) has played his best the second part of the season and leads the team in scoring with 17 points per game. In Allderdice’s past nine games, Clifford has scored 29 points twice and has had outings where he has scored 26, 23 and 20 points. He scored 18 against Westinghouse in the City League championship game.
“He’s dropping 20 almost every night and he’s not taking a lot of shots,” Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky said. “He’s crafty getting offensive rebounds. He’s long. His biggest attribute is moving without the ball. He can go left or right. He’s more streaky than Jackson, but when he’s on, he’s on. He picks up points in different ways.”