Rams outlast Vikings in overtime
Pine-Richland moves into 2nd in 6A Section 1
Central Catholic vs. Pine-Richland is already established as one of the best rivalries in WPIAL football. Tuesday night, the bitter section rivals extended their mutual disdain to the court.
With second place in Class 6A Section 1 at stake, the No. 5 Rams (14-6, 7-3) overcame a poor shooting night to escape from the Vikings’ cramped gymnasium with a hard-fought 5445 overtime win. Central Catholic (12-10, 5-5) tied the score on a free throw by Jack Cerkes with 4.2 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Vikings couldn’t get their shots to fall in the extra period, and Pine-Richland guard Jackson Sevco drained several clutch free throws to seal the game.
“Once we saw a couple [free throws] go in, it’s so contagious,” Rams coach Jeff Ackerman said. “You miss some, everyone misses them. You start making them, everyone makes them.
“Finally, in overtime we started making our foul shots.”
Pine-Richland senior guard Kyle Polce and Central Catholic junior guard Anderson Cynkar led all scorers with 14 points apiece, though it was Polce who came up with a pair of big steals in overtime along with a fastbreak layup to give the Rams some muchneeded breathing room.
“They were doing the same thing the whole game, but they started rushing it more,” Polce said. “I was just reading the pass. They would always make the extra pass, so I jumped the extra pass and that’s when I got my steals.”
The Vikings have long been known as a football powerhouse, but haven’t made much noise in WPIAL basketball in recent years. First-year coach Brian Urso is doing his best to change that narrative, as Central Catholic already holds big wins vs. defending WPIAL Class 6A champion Mt. Lebanon as well as a 78-69 win at Pine-Richland earlier this year.
As much as Urso would have loved to sweep the season series and take home a share of second place in the section, he understands how important moments like these are in the process of building a program.
The Vikings started the game by jumping out to an 82 lead as the Rams struggled to get anything going on offense early. Pine-Richland started to find its groove late in the first quarter though, while Central Catholic’s offense went cold. The Rams used a 13-2 run to take a 15-10 lead in the second quarter, then took a 23-17 lead into the half.
Coming out of the break, seniors Collin O’Toole and Ben Sarsons ignited the Vikings offense as they traded two buckets each to put Central Catholic back on top. A 3-pointer by O’Toole capped a 13-0 run to give the Vikings a 30-23 advantage, but Pine-Richland slowly started clawing away at Central Catholic’s lead.
With the Vikings leading, 34-29, going into the final quarter, senior guard Logan Murray made a tough driving layup and followed it up with an assist to Luke Shanahan to make it a onepoint game. Then, with Central Catholic leading, 38-37, Pine-Richland senior Levi Wentz used his football instincts to intercept a pass and take it the other way for a go-ahead layup.
The Vikings would tie the score on Cerkes’ free throw, but the Rams outscored Central Catholic, 15-6, in overtime to come away with a crucial victory.