‘End goal’ in sight
Parkland gets revenge and a berth into the 6A semifinals
Parkland’s boys basketball team waited a year to cleanse the bitter taste from their mouths after a 53-35 loss to Roman Catholic in last year’s PIAA 6A quarterfinals.
The Trojans can now consider them cleansed.
In a reversal of what happened last year at the same venue and in the same round, Parkland dominated the second half Saturday at Norristown Area High School and posted a 57-50 victory over the Philadelphia Catholic League champs and 2023 6A finalists.
The win allowed them to match the Parkland girls program and reach the state semifinals for the first time since 2004 when current coach Eddie Ohlson was the team’s starting point guard.
Senior star Nick Coval, who was held to eight points in last year’s loss to Roman and limited to mere three in the second, fought through a bruised knee to score 19 points — 10 in the second half. Jayden Thomas added 15.
Last March 18, Parkland led 20-17 at halftime ago and was still within 35-32 after three quarters. This time the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 champs outscored the Cahillites 19-7 in the third quarter to turn a 27-26 halftime deficit into a 45-34 lead and were able to hold off one late Roman rush to secure the team’s 25th win in 30 games.
“We are a senior-driven team and each and every day someone different steps up,” said Thomas, who didn’t get to play against Roman last year due to an injury. “And credit, too, to our second unit because they push at practice every day.”
Parkland turned things around early in the third quarter after two foul shots by prized junior Shareef Jackson made it 29-26. The Trojans answered with six points on one possession as Luke Spang fed Robbie Ruisch for a 3-pointer while a foul was called on Roman to allow Parkland the chance to keep the ball.
Spang picked up his second assist on the trip, this time getting it to Coval, who hit a trey to make it 32-29. The Trojans never trailed again. They were able to stretch the lead to 38-29 before Jackson hit a 3-pointer to stop the run.
Thomas, who added seven rebounds, had back-to-back buckets in the breakaway.
“Overall, it was a great team effort,” said Ohlson. “Roman’s a really good team, but I am truly happy for our guys because they put in a lot of time and effort to be to compete against a team like that. They believe in each other. They lean on each other. It’s not just Nick Coval doing everything out there. We had great contributions from our seniors all the way down to a freshman.”
That freshman, Blake Nassry, closed the third quarter with a falling-to-the-ground, off-balance layup that got a huge roar from the Parkland fans who outnumbered Roman fans by a large margin.
The Trojans faithful would get to cheer a lot more, but only after several anxious moments in the fourth quarter when five turnovers on offense allowed Roman to claw back.
A basket by Jackson, who had a game-high 24 points, got the Cahillites within 53-50 with a minute left but Roman wouldn’t score again while Coval made four foul shots in a row in the final 58 seconds to seal it.
“It was a great team effort today from the first player to the 20th person on our bench,” Coval said. “The support from our community was awesome. A win like this is awesome for our program and the Lehigh Valley.”
Coval said the key was coming out hungry.
“Shareef Jackson is a great player, so he’s going to get his, but we emphasized help-side defense and making him take difficult shots,” Coval said. “I think we did that. On offense, we took open shots and got some easy baskets and we just converted down the stretch.”
Parkland was 10-for-14 from the field in the second half and 20-for41 overall. Roman, meanwhile, was 18-for-47 and made just six of 23 attempts from 3-point range.
Roman, which finished 27-3, was missing three players including two starters due to the PIAA transfer rules. The Cahillites were hurt by that, but chances are that no one who remembers Roman’s three previous PIAA wins over Parkland or a 70-38 shellacking over the Trojans early in the 2015-16 season are going to feel sorry for the Philly team.
Since losing to Allentown Central Catholic 71-52 at Rockne Hall in the regular-season finale on Feb. 5, Parkland has won eight straight postseason games and has allowed just 41.6 points per game in that stretch. Roman was the first postseason opponent to reach 50.
Zaire Smaltz held his own against a bigger player in Jackson, and got help from others who got lent a helping and also tried their best to limit him to one shot. He was still able to 14 points after intermission and collect seven rebounds.
“We made a few adjustments defensively at halftime which were effective,” Ohlson said.
“Shareef is 6-foot-8 and over 200 pounds, so you want to limit his opportunities, but they also have guards,” Coval said. “They have been good all year. You don’t win the Catholic League without good guards. But we played really good defense today and hopefully we can keep doing that.”
Up next is Archbishop Wood, which defeated Lower Merion 66-64 earlier Saturday at Norristown. The Vikings are led by University of Miami commit Jalil Bethea, who happens to be an AAU teammate of Coval.
“He’s a really good player and a good friend,” Coval said after getting his career point total up to 2,09 which is fifth-best in Lehigh Valley boys basketball history.
“It’s going to be a battle,” Coval added. “We’re playing our best basketball right now but everyone is playing their best basketball right now. To make it this far is awesome. But we’re still hungry. We’re not done yet. We have an end goal in mind and we’re going to keep working toward that goal.”