Quips achieve the double
Win vs. Holy Cross adds basketball title to state football win
HERSHEY, Pa. — These Aliquippa Quips have been a bunch of double talkers for years.
“Since we were probably kneehigh, we’ve been talking about winning with each other,” said Aliquippa senior Quentin Goode. “Then this happened. It’s a dream come true.”
“This” is winning state championships in football and basketball. Only a few schools in the history of Pennsylvania have done the double take in the same school year. Now it’s the few, the proud, the Quips.
Aliquippa won the PIAA Class 2A basketball championship Friday when it crushed Holy Cross, 7452, at Giant Center in Hershey. The Quips got a splendid 36-point performance from sophomore Josh Pratt, and their quickness and strength on defense gave Holy Cross fits. It added up to a relatively easy win for the Quips (25-5), who led by 20 at halftime.
The win made Aliquippa only the fifth school to win football and basketball titles in a school year. Jeannette, with Terrelle Pryor, is the only other WPIAL school to do it — in 2007-08. The three others are General McLane (2006-07), Steelton-Highspire (2007-08) and Archbishop Wood (2016-17).
For Aliquippa, four of the five basketball starters were also starters on the football team — Goode, senior Cam Lindsey, senior Brandon Banks and sophomore Qalil Goode (Quentin’s brother). One of the Quips’ top basketball players off the bench was junior Tikey Hayes, a star running back in football.
Aliquippa had lost in the PIAA basketball championship the past two seasons. Although Aliquippa had won WPIAL football and basketball titles in the same school year five times, the Quips had never done it on the state level.
“My core guys, my seniors, have been through a lot, and they were really locked in,” Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich said. “I never once had to tell them to pay attention the past few days. They just wanted it.”
The only non-football player was Pratt, who seems to have a thing about championship games. In the
WPIAL championship, he scored a career- high 33 points. Twenty days later, he had a new career high with 36.
On Thursday night in the Class 4A state title game, Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings had one of the best performances by a WPIAL player in state championship history when he scored 37 points, making 14 of 18 shots. Pratt was just a step behind.
Pratt, a 6-foot-1 guard, made 14 of 19 shots, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. A year ago, he was on the bench as a reserve when Lincoln Park won a state title. He transferred to Aliquippa before this school year.
“We’ve had this goal since the beginning of the season to win a state championship,” Pratt said. “They lost the last two years, and I was just here to help them finish the job.”
Holy Cross (23-4), located near Scranton, started the game with a box-and-one defense on Aliquippa’s Lindsey. The Crusaders might have picked the wrong guy to use a junk defense against. Although Lindsey averages 15 points and 10 rebounds, Pratt is Aliquippa’s leading scorer on the season. Pratt scored 13 of Aliquippa’s first 23 points to help the Quips grab a 14-point lead with 6:27 to go in the half. Aliquippa led at halftime, 41-21.
“I definitely was surprised. I thought they would box-and-one me,” said Pratt, who also had five steals. “I didn’t think anybody could guard me one-on-one and [the box-and-one on Lindsey] just opened everything up for me, and the middle was open all the time.”
Lackovich said, “I don’t know how you [play a boxand-one] on an inside guy. I don’t know what their thought process was there. They eventually got to Pratt later, but it was too late. The horse was already out of the barn.”
Holy Cross coach Al Callejas said the box-and-one strategy against Lindsey was simply a move to maybe “throw off” Aliquippa. Instead, Aliquippa threw a haymaker at Holy Cross. Aliquippa shot 63% from the field in the first half and the Quips’ biggest lead was 39-13 with 2:40 left in the half. The game was pretty much over then.
Another big factor in the game was Aliquippa’s quickness and athleticism. The Quips used a full-court press, and Holy Cross had 21 turnovers. Aliquippa also outrebounded Holy Cross, 29-17.
Lindsey, a Pitt football recruit, was the only other Aliquippa player in double figures with 10 points. He also had eight rebounds. Quentin Goode had nine points, six assists and three steals.
“We thought facing Constitution Tuesday [in the semifinals], we were in a similar boat,” said Callejas, who started four juniors and a freshman. “But from the beginning, it was different. Aliquippa is extremely fast, and film just doesn’t show that. The strength was a factor, too, in terms of some of our guards could usually get by guys on defense. But we couldn’t get by today. If we did get by, one little nudge would throw us off our path.”
For Lackovich, it was his second state title. The other came in 2016 with an undefeated Aliquippa team.
“This is the best one, just because there was so much outside interference this year,” Lackovich said. “To be able to fend that off and get the job done at the highest level makes it better.”