Ending especially painful
Curtain closes on Vincentian in more ways than one in second-round PIAA loss
Eyes red and tears streaming down his face, Vincentian’s Tim Tyree delivered the season-ending speech coaches dread Tuesday.
Many of his players were in tears, too, and Tyree had to leave the main area of the locker room at one point to blow his nose and try to regain his composure.
But this talk had so much more finality to it.
Not only is the season over, but also is the Vincentian boys basketball program. The school is closing at the end of the school year.
A season they hoped would conclude with a first state championship instead ended with a 74-54 loss to Berlin Brothersvalley in a PIAA Class 1A secondround game at Hempfield.
“It’ll sting. It’ll hurt. But when you look back, this will be the greatest team that you were ever a part of. And I guarantee that. I love each and everyone of you guys,” Tyree said.
Vincentian, a private Catholic high school in McCandless, announced Feb. 25 that it would close due to financial difficulties. Two days later, the Royals won a WPIAL championship.
Ranked No. 1 in the state, the Royals (22-5) triumphed in their PIAA opener last Friday, but fell short of reaching the final for
the second consecutive year when it was ousted by Berlin Brothersvalley (28-1), the District 5 champion and the state’s No. 2-ranked team.
“I didn’t think this was going to be my last game,” senior Ethan Embleton said. “I’m just glad that I played for Vincentian. I’m upset about the outcome because this is the last year Vincentian will be here. It really sunk in after the game when [Tyree] was giving that speech. And also looking at that scoreboard seeing that we didn’t come out with the ‘W.’ ”
All seemed to be going as planned for Vincentian early in the second quarter.
Priest Ryan threw down a dunk and Matt McDonough nailed a 3-pointer to give the Royals a 19-13 lead. That’s when the wheels came off, and a team nicknamed the Mountaineers slammed the Royals with an avalanche. Berlin Brothersvalley closed the second quarter on a 21-0 run to take a resounding 34-19 lead. The Royals missed their final 10 shots of the quarter, while the Mountaineers made nine of their last 10.
“It was rough,” Embleton said of the nightmare of a quarter. “We hit those shots and we had our confidence up. Then we didn’t sprint back and we let them shoot the ball. The two shooters we didn’t want to shoot were 3 and 11.
They’re great players and they shot the ball well.”
Embleton was referring to junior guards Wil Spochart and Elijah Sechler. Sechler scored 29 points and Spochart had 16. Berlin Brothersvalley’s speed and efficiency offset its height disadvantage. It’s tallest player was 6 feet 3, while Vincentian boasted a frontcourt that included two 66 players and another 6-5.
Vincentian pulled to within 12 points twice in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Royals would get in the second half.
It wasn’t a shock that Vincentian lost, but the margin of victory was. The Royals had played a strong non-section schedule and its other losses had been by 7, 10, 10 and 9 points.
“What made them unique from every other team we played was everybody on the court for them played hard. They were like family,” Vincentian’s Alex Griggs said.
Griggs (10 points) and McDonough (13) were the only Vincentian players to score in double figures.
The Vincentian coaches and players will face some difficult decisions in the upcoming months. Five of the seven players in the main rotation are underclassmen who must find a new school. That includes Griggs, a talented junior point guard.
Said Griggs: “Wherever I go next year, once a Royal, always a Royal. That’s how I take it.”