Allderdice scares powerhouse
No. 1 Kennedy Catholic pulls away and wins PIAA sub-regional, 68-55
Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky had the perfect game plan for Kennedy Catholic in the PIAA Class 6A sub-regional.
He didn’t have one. “We prepared nothing for this game,” Valinsky said. “Sometimes we over-prepare and we get blown out and sometimes you don’t prepare and you play like this.”
City League champion Allderdice (21-5) stood toe-totoe with the top-ranked team in the state and was within two points midway through the fourth quarter. But in the end, Kennedy Catholic (22-3) had way too much inside. West Virginia recruit Oscar Tshiebwe scored 24 points and yanked down 23 rebounds to lead the Golden Eagles to a 68-55 win over the Dragons Saturday at Slippery Rock University.
“It’s the way he plays and I knew he had a lot of rebound and I think what people see in him, including me, is one of the best players in the country and we all expect more,” Kennedy Catholic coach Rick Mancino said. “You see him playing like that and you think he should score 40 and it’s hard to score 40, 50 in a game, so that’s not bad.”
Both teams had already qualified for the state tournament, but the sub-regional would determine which WPIAL team they would play. Kennedy Catholic will now get the fifthplace qualifier (Upper. St. Clair or Fox Chapel), while Allderdice will take on the third-place (Canon-McMillan or Pine-Richland).
“This game didn’t mean anything,” Valinsky said. “Now if this was the end of the season, I think I would have been more upset, but this is a segue for next week.”
Bobby Clifford, who has committed to play at Slippery Rock, led the Dragons with 17 points, including three 3pointers on his future home court. He scored nine in the first quarter and helped keep Allderdice close early.
“It was exciting and it was like a first taste of college,” Clifford said. “I love it here and I thought we played well and, if we can clean up some mistakes, we’d definitely give them a better game.”
Allderdice certainly had its opportunities to take over, especially early in the game.
Kennedy Catholic shot an abysmal 6 of 23 from the floor in the first quarter. Tshiebwe’s 10 rebounds, most of them offensive, kept the Golden Eagles around.
What was something of a microcosm of the game occurred in the first 30 seconds. Kennedy Catholic missed its first two shots from the floor, Allderdice rebounded both and immediately turned it over each time.
Kennedy Catholic went in front for good, 22-21, on a Matia Acunzo free throw with 5:24 left in the first half, but the Dragons had five different occasions when they narrowed it to a one-possession game with the ball. Instead they committed three turnovers and missed shots on two other occasions.
“Opportunities missed and, maybe the next time you play them, you make them and that’s basketball,” Valinsky said. “And [Mancino] knows he was in a game. And they’re big, they threw it inside, and they’re going to win when they go inside like that when you’re 6-8, 6-9, 6-5, 6-6. They’re a big team.”