Mt. Lebanon overpowered in loss
Kennedy Catholic’s McDonald’s All-American flexes muscle
Back in November, Mt. Lebanon met Kennedy Catholic in a preseason scrimmage and it was a one-sided affair in favor of Mt. Lebanon. “They drilled us,” said Kennedy Catholic coach Rick Mancino.
When the teams played for real four months later, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound man, er, kid sat on the competitive see-saw and Mt. Lebanon Chiefs went flying right out of the PIAA tournament.
Oscar Tshiebwe didn’t play for Kennedy Catholic in that November scrimmage, but he did show up at Aliquippa High School for Saturday’s PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal. He tipped the balance of power just a little.
Tshiebwe dominated, scoring 25 points,
grabbing 18 rebounds and blocking two shots as Kennedy Catholic defeated WPIAL champion Mt. Lebanon, 68-51.
But this was not an unusual performance for Tshiebwe (pronounced SHEE-bwee). He averages 23 points and 18 rebounds. He is the second McDonald’s AllAmerican ever from a Western Pennsylvania school.
“They’re completely different with him,” Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David said. “Take him away, maybe we can beat them.”
Tshiebwe has signed with West Virginia. After the game, when most of the fans had left, Tshiebwe was walking around the court with a large, green St. Patrick’s Day hat on his head as he talked to West Virginia assistant Ron Everhart. Tshiebwe might be into some other green stuff in the not-too-distant future.
“You’ll see him someday probably playing on an NBA team,” David said to a couple of reporters. “Are you a financial adviser? If you are, I’d probably get to him because he’s going to probably be making some pretty good money.”
This was the second consecutive game that Tshiebwe and Kennedy Catholic (25-3) powered past a good WPIAL team. In the second round Wednesday, Tshiebwe had 24 points, 18 rebounds, five dunks and three blocks in an 82-63 victory against Pine-Richland. Mt. Lebanon (24-4) was similar to Pine-Richland in that it was not big and tried to spread out Kennedy Catholic’s defense with five players on the perimeter. And like Pine-Richland, Mt. Lebanon couldn’t stand up to theEagles in the second half.
Kennedy Catholic led by five points after two quarters. The Blue Devils missed their first eight shots of the third quarter — seven from 3-point range. The Eagles scored the first eight points of the quarter to grab a 13point advantage and breezed from there.
Mt. Lebanon made only 37 percent (20 of 54) overall and only 28 percent (8 of 20) from behind the arc. Another big key was rebounding. Kennedy Catholic, which uses five players 6-feet-5 or taller, outrebounded Mt. Lebanon by a whopping 36-14 margin.
Tshiebwe made 12 of 17 shots after getting only one attempt in the first quarter. Kennedy also got another nice performance from 6-5 senior guard Maceo Austin. A Duquesne recruit, Austin had 18 points, with Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot watching from the stands.
Senior guard Hayden Mitchell led Mt. Lebanon with 18 points and junior guard Blaine Gartley added 16.
Mancino gave plenty of praise after the game to David and Mt. Lebanon, but said he didn’t like a comment David made to reporters earlier in the week that his team was facing “the world” in Kennedy Christian. Tshiebwe came to the U.S. as a freshman from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Matia Acunzo, a 6-8 forward, came from Italy a year ago.
“I understand the whole argument, but there’s a time and place for that [comment],” Mancino said.
David said he had no regrets. “When you bring in the kids they have, it does make a difference.”
David continued and laughed while saying, “I don’t regret the comment. What I regret is kicking their cans [in the scrimmage] because they didn’t take us lightly and they were mad. They wanted to come get us. I would’ve liked to maybe sneak up on them.”