How did he do it?
A look back at Boyle’s record-breaking night that sent ND-GP to the title game
In a vote of coaches on Sunday, Notre DameGreen Pond’s Brendan Boyle was selected Colonial League MVP for the 2020-21 season.
Suffice to say, the junior guard hasn’t rested on his laurels.
In Tuesday night’s league semifinal win over Palisades, Boyle had 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
On Wednesday, he had the best scoring night any Notre Dame player has ever had.
Boyle made nine of 12 3-point attempts, including four in a row in a decisive stretch and finished with a school record 42 points as the host Crusaders pulled past Palmerton 80-61 Wednesday night to earn a berth in Friday night’s league championship game.
The No. 1 seeds will take on No. 2 Bangor at about 7:45 p.m. at Moravian Academy for the title. The Slaters advanced with a 59-40 semifinal win over Northwestern.
Notre Dame (13-2) will be going for its first league crown since 2014 while Bangor will try for its sixth league championship since 2013 and 10th overall.
The Slaters got 19 points from Gabe Zieba, 17 from C.J. Miles and 14 from Josh Giaquinto in beating Northwestern, but if they are going to win their first time since 2018, they are going to have to cool off Boyle, who scored 26 in an 84-76 ND win at Bangor last week.
Boyle struggled through a 5-for-17 shooting effort in scoring a season low 16 points in a win over Southern Lehigh on Saturday in Notre Dame’s regular-season finale.
“I didn’t have a great shooting day [Monday] either and I was a little frustrated with myself so I got in here early around 2:30 [4½ hours before game time] and got some extra shots up,” Boyle said. “My brother Colin rebounded for me and that definitely helped. That was a factor.”
Boyle’s bombardment of treys was the deciding factor in Notre Dame’s 13th win in their last 14 games. He had 17 points in the first half and didn’t have a 3-pointer in a 9-point second quarter for the Crusaders, but then scored 14 in the third quarter and 11 in the final stanza before leaving with 3:09 still left to play.
Had their been fans in the stands, Boyle would have receiving a standing ovation and leading the cheers would have been Jake Ruppert, Notre Dame’s longtime timer for home games.
Ruppert had held the school scoring record for nearly a half-century since scoring 40
points for Easton Catholic in a 1953 game against St. Patrick’s of Norristown. Boyle tied his mark with 40 in a game last year against Bangor.
“I’m still waiting for the day that he breaks the record and I just hope he does it here at Notre Dame so I can see it,” the 85-year-old Ruppert said last year. “He’s going to do it and I want to be here to see it.”
Ruppert saw it happen on a had-to-see-itto-believe-it kind of night.
Palmerton (12-5) fell behind 21-7 in the first quarter and repeatedly tried to scrap its way back into the game.
But each time the Blue Bombers made a run, Boyle threw up a stop sign with a swish from long range.
“What can you say, he was tremendous,” said Pat Boyle, Notre Dame’s coach and Brendan’s father. “He was nine of 12 with 3s and most of them were not open because he had guys hanging all over him. But most of the shots didn’t touch the rim. It was just a tremendous performance by him. And he really needed it. He had been struggling with his shot and he had me bring him in early today to work on it.”
Boyle was pleased with the all-around effort of his team.
Na’kai Carew had 11 points and five rebounds and Joey Galle scored nine points and collected four rebounds. Logan Rickert didn’t have a big scoring night (5 points) but chipped in four assists.
Plus, everybody had a hand in holding down Palmerton star Kody Kratzer. The first-team all-league selection got in foul trouble and managed a season-low nine points, about 11 below his average.
“We knew we had to be physical and compete on the boards,” Pat Boyle said. “And I thought we did a great job on Kratzer. Logan
Rickert and Jayden Becker are excellent defenders and we tried to run a second guy at him to get the ball out of his hands. Kratzer did an excellent job of creating other opportunities for his teammates, but we wanted to limit his shots. Our guys rotated well and tried to keep the ball away from him.”
Palmerton coach Ken Termini gave all the credit for Brendan Boyle.
“He played incredible,” the Blue Bombers coach said after his team had a 10-game winning streak snapped. “You can’t take anything away from him. He showed why he’s the MVP. He had an absolutely great night and put his team on his shoulders and carried them across the finish line.”
Termini was pleased his team shook off a slow start and got within five late in the first half and was still down only 41-35 in the third quarter before Boyle became unstoppable.
“Notre Dame came out with great energy and it took us awhile to respond, but we did,” Termini said. “You know the game just didn’t flow in a manner that was conducive for us to be able to come back. Kody being in foul trouble didn’t help and several other things didn’t help us either.”
Termini was hit with a technical foul in the third quarter when he questioned a non-call on an offensive possession.
Palmerton may get to see Notre Dame again in the upcoming District 11 Class 3A tournament, which will have its quarterfinals on March 4.
“We’re going to let it sting for awhile and maybe take a day off,” Termini said. “But then we’ll come back to work and the next tournament starts next week.”
106: 1. Ayden Smith, Notre Dame-GP; 2. Mason McLendon, Susquenita; 3. Jacob Deysher, Brandywine Heights; 4. Owen Lehman, Northern Lebanon; 5. Liam McGinley, Pequea Valley
113: 1. Dillon Reinert, Brandywine Heights; 2. Raif Barber, Boiling Springs; 3. Deven Jackson, West Perry; 4. Adam Schweitzer, Notre Dame-GP; 5. Brenden Smay, Northern Lehigh
120: 1. Brett Ungar, Notre DameGP; 2. Eric Howe, Lancaster Catholic; 3. Parker Davidson, Hamburg; 4. A.J. Stayton, Faith Christian; 5. Blain Puchalsky, West Perry
126: 1. Evan Maag, Notre DameGP; 2. Nolen Ziegler, West Perry; 3. Jace Beegle, Pequea Valley; 4. Christian Doi, Camp Hill; 5. Eli Bounds, Boiling Springs
132: 1. Brandan Chletsos, Notre Dame-GP; 2. Dominic Caldwell, Susquenita; 3. Brennan Schisler, Bermudian Springs; 4. Danny Capozoli, Newport; 5. John Samy, Salisbury
138: 1. Connor Brown, Littlestown; 2. Eric Alderfer, Faith Christian; 3. David Kreidler, Central Catholic; 4. Josh Bauman, Notre Dame-GP; 5. Justice Hockenberry-Folk, West Perry
145: 1. Levi Haines, Biglerville; 2. Noah Frack, Brandywine Heights; 3. Dalton Clymer, Northwestern; 4. Ayden Dillon, Littlestown; 5. Andrew Christie, Bishop McDevitt 152: 1. Michael Duggan, Boiling Springs; 2. Dalton Gimbor, Hamburg; 3. Joe LaPenna, Notre Dame-GP; 4. Kayden Clark, Northern Lebanon; 5. Mason Smeland, Palisades
160: 1. Holden Garcia, Notre Dame-GP; 2. Bailey Gimbor, Hamburg; 3. William Davis, Newport; 4. Eli Crum, Boiling Springs; 5. Liam Scrivanich, Saucon Valley
172: 1. Ben Haubert, Palisades; 2. Brant Mason, Hamburg; 3. Jake Jones, Saucon Valley; 4. Makoa Neibel, Trinity; 5. Sean Getty, Camp Hill
189: 1. Brad Morrison, West Perry; 2. Ty Csencsits, Saucon Valley; 3. Jacob Scheib, Tri-Valley; 4. Bryce Enders, Halifax; 5. Kade Werner, Bishop McDevitt
215: 1. Savauri Shelton, Bermudian Springs; 2. Leo Muzika, Faith Christian; 3. Nate Wickersham, Tamaqua; 4. Dante Mahaffey, Saucon Valley; 5. Brody Kline, Berks Catholic
285: 1. Riley Robell, Bishop McDevitt; 2. Aiden Compton, Pen Argyl; 3. Derek Hunter, Jim Thorpe; 4. Hogan Swenski, Bermudian Springs; 5. Jacob Moyer, Fairfield