Point guard gives Red Hurricanes fits
Hornets’ Whitehead scores 25 in state quarterfinal
A New Castle team that lacked experience and size — and wasn’t exactly loaded with talent — put up some Superman-like performances in the postseason.
Friday, the Red Hurricanes met their kryptonite.
His name was Donald Whitehead. Whitehead, Hickory’s star point guard, scored 25 points to lead the Hornets to a 59-48 win over New Castle in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal in front of a packed house at Slippery Rock University’s Morrow Field House.
New Castle, which two weeks ago captured its third consecutive WPIAL title, finished the season 23-5 after losing in the PIAA quarterfinals for the fifth year in a row, and the third straight year to the District 10 champion.
Hickory (27-1), which starts five underclassmen and set a school record for wins Friday, advances to the semifinals for the first time since 1995 and will play twotime defending champion Imhotep Charter.
Whitehead, a 5-foot-9 junior, was terrific, using his quickness and ball-handling ability to drive to the basket, get around defenders and help Hickory handle New Castle’s defensive pressure, which gives most teams fits. Whitehead averages 20 points per game this season and 25 points in three PIAA playoff games.
“A guy like Donald Whitehead is kryptonite for a team like New Castle because it’s our pressure that generates extra possessions,” New Castle coach Ralph Blundo said.
“He’s so savvy and so cerebral and so talented. We knew we had to get a lead going into the fourth quarter, because if we were playing from behind it was going to be really hard with a point guard like him.”
“He is quick. We couldn’t stay in front of him. And he’s a really good finisher,” said New Castle senior Drew Cox, who scored a team-high 18 points.
New Castle forced only 12 turnovers, as Whitehead and backcourt mate Peyton Mele were cool in the midst of the pressure.
Hickory went on a pivotal run late in the third quarter after New Castle, which trailed by seven points at the half, pulled to within 43-40 when Demetris McKnight made two free throws with 45 seconds left. Hickory’s 6-7 Isaiah Jarzab followed up two of his own misses with a layup, and New Castle’s Payne Prowell was whistled for an intentional foul after Whitehead stole the ball. Whitehead made both free throws and Jarzab scored on a layup to extend Hickory’s lead to 49-40.
“Their size overwhelmed us a little bit down there,” Blundo said.
“The 6-7 kid had three opportunities. We were fighting. We just couldn’t get there. And they finished. That was huge.”
Jarzab finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
New Castle cut its deficit to 51-46 on Sheldon Cox’s basket with 5:45 left, but that ended up being its last field goal of the game.
Hickory was 20 of 48 (41 percent) from the field, and New Castle was 18 of 53 (33 percent).
McKnight had 13 points and Sheldon Cox scored seven.
Afterward, Hickory second-year coach Chris Mele praised Blundo and the New Castle program.
“That’s been our measuring stick since day one,” Mele said.
“We’re nowhere near them, but what a program he has built here. And a lot of coaches other than me are trying to emulate what he’s got going on.”
At about the same time, loud applause could be heard coming from the New Castle locker room, not exactly what you would expect from a team that just saw its season end with a loss.
This ovation, though, made perfect sense — it was for the team’s three seniors.
“I told the underclassmen to thank the seniors,” Blundo said. “An overachieving group of seniors who came in here with no experience and led a very young group to a WPIAL championship and a quarterfinal game against a really good basketball team. I felt like our program owed them that, and I’m proud of them.”