Highlands pulls upset
Teams again might share Section 1 title
No. 3 Highlands knocks off No. 1 Knoch in Class 4A top-five showdown.
There might not be a better rivalry in WPIAL basketball right now than Highlands vs. Knoch, and Tuesday night’s game between the section rivals certainly lived up to the billing.
With first place in Class 4A Section 1 on the line — not to mention a potential No. 1 seed in the WPIAL playoffs — the No. 3 Rams (17-2, 7-1) withstood a secondquarter onslaught from the top-ranked Knights (16-2, 7-1) to pull out a hard-fought 7265 win on their home court. The teams split the regular season series for the second year in a row and are in position to share the section title for the second year in a row.
Highlands’ high-flying big man Johnny Crise was the star of the show, scoring a game-high 24 points while playing with a taped-up right knee after suffering an injury in a 70-52 win Sunday against Allderdice.
“Honestly, I think it was just the adrenaline and just going for it,” Crise said. “That’s the type of player I am. A little bit of pain is nothing, really.”
Fellow star senior Luke Cochran, Highlands’ leading scorer on the season with an average of 19.3 points per game, finished with only eight points on the night. But Rams senior Korry Myers picked up the slack with 23 points, none bigger than a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first half to seize momentum back from Knoch.
Senior Jared Schrecengost led the way for Knoch with 19 points. Fellow senior Scott Fraser scored 12.
“We challenged our guys. We challenged our seniors to lead. We challenged our players to step up and make plays in a game where we need you to step up and make plays,” Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski said.
Crise took the court for warm-ups wearing a longsleeved shirt over his game jersey, perhaps a show of gamesmanship from Stoczynski as most people in the building probably didn’t expect him to play.
Instead, he started the game and wasted no time making an impact, scoring the first six points of the game to help the Rams storm out to an 8-0 lead while providing an added boost to an already electric crowd.
Slowly but surely the Knights chipped away at the lead, and a 3-pointer by Adam Bajuszik made it a 159 Highlands lead heading into the second quarter. That’s when Knoch began to flex its muscles.
The Knights attacked the Rams with a barrage of 3pointers in the second quarter as seemingly every player on the roster took turns knocking down shots from behind the arc. Soon enough, Knoch found itself on top for the first time all game, 26-25. The Knights then stretched their lead to 36-28 before Myers hit a corner 3 as time expired to make it 36-31 at the half.
Crise took over in the second half.
Highlands fed the ball inside to Crise on back-to-back possessions, and both times he finished with baskets off the glass. He then added another bucket after a nice spin move to give the Rams a 49-46 lead. Lang hit a 3pointer to tie the score, but Highlands took a 51-49 lead into the final quarter and held on.