Of small schools, Palmerton has reign
Glen Klein and the Cedar Beach Basketball Showcase staff didn’t hesitate.
When they woke up to rain and a flash flood watch, they decided to move all games on the final day of the 50-team, four-day boys basketball tournament to the Whitehall-Coplay School District complex with Dick Tracy Court in Whitehall High’s main gym serving as the centerpiece.
“It was a no-brainer to go inside,” Klein said. “It was raining and we weren’t going to be ready in time. We didn’t have to get out the blow dryers, the squeegees and do all kind of stuff to dry off the courts. We would have been four hours behind. And we have a great partner at Whitehall and they accommodated us on short notice. They have simplified things by having four courts on one campus and we could bring the games over here without missing a beat. We could accommodate the fans and everybody.”
The move inside seemed to take Mother Nature’s elements out of the mix and enhance the performances of some of the area’s most special players.
Defending tournament champ Allentown Central Catholic will be in that final game after beating Reading and Parkland in the big school winners bracket semifinals and final. In the 48-45 win over Parkland, rising junior Jahrel Vigo scored 30 points and had 24 of his team’s first 32 points.
The two were set to meet again in the finals after Parkland beat Emmaus 62-54 in a final three game.
“I thought we needed that kind of performance, from me,” Vigo said. “Parkland has [Nick] Coval and a lot of good shooters. We had to get out on their shooters and our defense was key. Coval can get into the lane and create shots, but our offense and defense was good.”
Coval had 19 and Robbie Ruisch added 16 for the Trojans.
Vigo said it’s hard to score 30 in a game when opponents “strategize against you” and whether it’s July or January, the rivalry between the Vikings and Trojans is a natural. He was happy to get out of the heat and rain and go inside for this one.
“I like playing outdoors, too, but with the heat and rain, I was glad we came inside and we didn’t have to worry about anything,” Vigo said.
Barber scores 31: Will Barber is one of the area’s best lacrosse players and has already committed to Saint Joseph’s to play Division I lacrosse.
But Barber is also one of the area’s top boys basketball players. He was a first-team all-Eastern Pennsylvania Conference selection and will be one of the best players in the league again next winter as a senior.
One game after Vigo’s spectactular 30-point effort Barber showed off his skills with a 31-point performance in a 60-58 come-from-behind win over Phillipsburg to put the Green Hornets into the final three of the big school tournament.
Emmaus, which rallied from a 23-8 deficit, won six games in a row after losing to Liberty Friday night. The Green Hornets eventually had their run end with a 62-54 loss to Parkland.
“To lose our first game on Friday night and come back to be in the final three is what has me so proud of our guys,” Green Hornets coach Steve Yoder said. “Our two senior leaders, Will and Jametric Harris, have really stepped up. The kids kept showing up and we were 15 deep and we’ve played 15 guys in every game except this last one. I think has paid off because we’re a little more fresh than maybe some of the other teams. We’ve had a great weekend.”
Barber averaged a team-high 17.3 points per game last season and Yoder said he has to tell him to be a little more selfish at times.
“Some of the guys he leaned on last year like Dylan Darville and Jake Fotta are now gone and these younger kids are doing an incredible job, but I told him that the younger kids need to feel your presence,” Yoder said. “He has been doing that.”
While Barber had 15 points in the first half and 16 in the second, Harris, was also consistent with seven in each half.
“Jametric has been unstoppable at times,” Yoder said. “We’re excited.”
Big School bracket: Whitehall posted one of the most exciting wins of the tournament on Saturday night in one of the last games played at Cedar Beach before the rain came.
The Zephyrs rallied from a
sizable deficit to go overtime to beat last year’s District 11 6A finalist Liberty, 54-53.
Luke Keppel hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation to tie it and then delivered what proved to be the game-winning points on an old-fashioned threepoint play with nine seconds left in OT and the Zephyrs won.
Keppel was one of several Whitehall players who came back from an AAU tournament in Myrtle Beach, arriving home at 3 a.m. Saturday because they wanted to play for their high school team in the Showcase. Keppel finished with 16 points against Liberty, but injured his ankle early in what proved to be a tournament-ending loss to Phillipsburg Sunday morning.
Phillipsburg then stayed alive in the tournament by beating Reading on a buzzer-beater before eventually losing a thriller to Emmaus.
Palmerton wins small school title:
Ken Termini has made a lot of progress with the Palmerton program in his time as head coach.
And, the Blue Bombers won a district title a few years ago.
But perhaps Termini was never prouder of his program than on Sunday when the Blue Bombers fought back from a 15-point deficit to beat defending tournament champ Holy Cross 62-60 in the small-school title game at Whitehall.
Matt Machalik was named MVP after he scored 28 points, including 19 in the second half in leading Palmerton.
“We’ve done a lot of knocking on the door of championships, but this time we were able to walk through it,” Termini said after his team went 5-1 over four days. “Our kids showed a lot of heart, down 15 and playing their third game of the day and playing against a great Holy Cross team that is so wellcoached and so disciplined. But we talk about playing for Palmerton and playing with heart, guts and pride and I think the boys did that today.”
Trace Stahler came up with a late steal that clinched the win for Palmerton, which avenged an earlier 49-47 loss to the District 2 power in the winners bracket final.
“Trace has worked so hard the last few years and things sometimes didn’t click as fast as he would have liked it, too,” Termini said. “I said Trace ‘all that hard work you’ve put in is paying off today; today is pay day for you!’ He showed it out here today and I think he’s going to have a great senior year with all of the boys.”
Machalik, who recently committed to play football at Lehigh, said it was a big moment for the program.
“We stress getting to Sunday and we had to win against tough teams like Oley Valley and Northwestern
Lehigh and we had a great team like Holy Cross to play in the final,” Machalik said. “We lost to them early, but fought our way back through the losers bracket. It’s great to win this championship. We wanted it so bad. We needed to do the little things to get this done.”