Mustangs will play for title
Laurel Highlands scores 8 in first half, but recovers to oust Thomas Jefferson
Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger emerged from his team’s locker room after the game, shook his head and said to a couple of reporters, “How do you score eight points in a half and win?”
It was hard to answer that one, but here’s another baffler. Can you believe Laurel Highlands is in a WPIAL championship game?
Laurel Highlands, a team that won four games a year ago, a team that hasn’t played for a WPIAL championship since Richard Nixon was president, earned a spot in the Class 5A championship with a 44-42 victory against Thomas Jefferson in a semifinal game Tuesday night.
Laurel Highlands’ history makes the championship berth hard to believe. The Mustangs haven’t been in a championship since 1972. And what Laurel Highlands overcame against Thomas Jefferson also made the win more unlikely.
A huge crowd at Woodland Hills High School watched Laurel Highlands (16-8) score only eight points in the first half and trail, 21-8. Thomas Jefferson (17-7) took a 42-34 lead with 3:50 left, but the Jaguars frittered it away and were outscored, 10-0, the rest of the game.
“We didn’t play bad defensively in the first half, but offensively it was horrible. There is no other way to put it,” Hauger said. “The second half, it was like another team out there.”
And the player who led the comeback was a freshman.
Rodney Gallagher, a 6-foot point guard, averages 22 points. He struggled in the first half, making 1 of 7 shots. But he was 7 of 11 from the field in the second half, finished with 20 points and tied the score, 42-42, on a basket with one minute left.
“It was them freshman nerves in the first half,” Gallagher said with a smile.
In the second half, he played calm, yet fast.
“When it’s coming down the stretch, he seems to have another gear that most of us don’t have,” Hauger said.
Senior forward Keandre Cook also was key, scoring all eight of his points in the second half, including two 3pointers.
Noah Pierce and Shane Stump had 13 apiece for Thomas Jefferson, which rushed a few shots when it had the lead late and committed a big turnover.
With the score tied and 35 seconds left, Stump missed a one-and-one free throw. Gallagher missed a jump shot but Tyvaughn Long rebounded and was fouled. He made one free throw to put Laurel Highlands ahead, 4342, with 24.6 seconds left, the Mustangs’ first lead since it was 3-0.
Pierce missed a 3-pointer and Long was fouled with 4.1 seconds left. He made one free throw before a Thomas Jefferson shot at half court hit the backboard.
Other semifinal
Only two points separated Mars and Chartiers Valley early in the third quarter.
That’s when a player unlike any other in the WPIAL took the game over.
Michael Carmody, all 6 feet 7, 290 pounds of him, keyed a big third-quarter run that propelled two-time defending champion Mars to a 59-50 win at Moon.
Carmody, a Notre Dame football recruit, finished with 27 points and 22 rebounds, but it was his dominant play in the third quarter that helped the Planets (19-5) pull away after Chartiers Valley (19-5) had taken a 22-20 lead.
Mars went on a 17-2 run that included eight points from Carmody, including an and-one to start it and a 3pointer from the wing to close it. He also had eight rebounds in the quarter.
“He wears on you,” said Mars coach Rob Carmody, Michael’s father. “It’s the Jerome Bettis factor. It’s like, OK, he’s got 1 yard, 1 yard, 1 yard. And people in the stands are like, ‘Pass the ball or put someone else in.’
“Then in the second quarter it’s 3 yards. Then all of a sudden he has this quarter where you have to lean on someone 290 pounds and run with him and bang with him. It’s the cumulative effect of having to do that.”
Michael Carmody said he never feels like he needs to take over a game, but when he does, it’s usually a good sign for the Planets, who eliminated Chartiers Valley in the semifinals for the second year in a row.