Lions’ Chiaradia hits buzzer-beater to top Slaters
Bangor loses Colonial League game for the first time since 2016.
Jordan Holmqvist has scored more than 1,400 points in his Moravian Academy boys basketball career and had 31 in Saturday’s much-anticipated Colonial League boys basketball showdown against Bangor.
So, when the Lions had the ball with seventh-tenths of a second left and trailed the Slaters 65-64, everyone in a packed Lions gym thought the ball was going to Holmqvist.
Instead, Abe Atiyeh lobbed the inbounds pass over a smaller defender to 6-foot-4 Pete Chiaradia. Chiaradia leaped up to catch the ball and in the same motion he banked it off the glass and gave Moravian Academy one of the biggest wins in school history.
Chiaradia’s buzzer-beater gave the state-ranked and unbeaten Lions a 66-65 win to end Bangor’s 55-game win streak in the league.
The Slaters last previous loss to a Colonial League opponent came on Jan. 7, 2016, a 51-47 defeat at Salisbury.
Bangor regrouped to win the league title in 2016 and has won four Colonial crowns in a row and five in the last six years. The Slaters may, indeed, win it all again this year, but for one day, Moravian Academy celebrated like a champion.
“It was going to come down to who was going to have the ball last and luckily, we had it,” Lions coach Steve Gabryluk said after his team, the area’s last unbeaten, improved to 9-0 and looked the part of being the No. 5 ranked team in the state’s Class 2A.
The play
Gabryluk said the game-winning play was well executed by his players.
”They probably thought the ball was going to Holmqvist, but they didn’t have much size and I thought we could get a mismatch inside with Peter,” Gabryluk said. “It took an excellent pass to lob it in there like that and he made an excellent shot. It was a team effort in designing that last play.”
Atiyeh said that originally Holmqvist was supposed to be the passer.
“We were going to have Jordan take it out and he was going to lob it up to Pete,” Atiyeh said. “But Jordan was so hot. So we thought it was better to have in the corner and I am sure everyone thought it was going to him. We practice that play a lot.”
Chiaradia said the play “worked out great for me. Abe put in right in my hands. It was at a place where only I could get it and C.J. Miles [the Bangor defender] couldn’t. It was a great pass. I just had to get up and finish.”
Bangor coach Bron Holland said the only thing he could have done differently was “put our 6-foot-6 guy in there to cover the lob, but then again, we don’t have one.”
The Slaters’ tallest player is 6-foot-3 Nate Owens and Bangor generally goes with five guards.
That hasn’t stopped them from winning eight of their first nine games and starting 6-0 in the league.
It also didn’t stop them from storming back from a 50-42 deficit late in the third quarter to take a 54-53 lead with 4:54 left in the fourth.
Moravian Academy came back to take a 63-60 lead on a Neel Surya basket off a Holmqvist pass with 44 seconds left.
But Ben Holland, who scored 24 of his game-high 32 points in the second half and had 16 in the final period, hit a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left to give Bangor a 65-64 lead.
After a few timeouts, Moravian Academy tried to get the ball upcourt in a hurry but it was deflected out of bounds, leaving 0.07 seconds left.
Two of the best
Coach Holland was justifiably proud of his son, who came on strong with the game on the line.
“You saw two of the best players today, not only in our league but in the Valley today,” Holland said of his son and Holmqvist. “They both can play. It was fun to watch.”
Gabryluk was also impressed with Holland.
“He’s tough with how he went to the basket,” Gabryluk said. “We had help coming, but it got there too late and he got to the hole and got his shots off. He’s tough to guard, just like Holmqvist.”
The two combined for 63 points and 11 3-pointers.
The rematch
While both Gabryluk and Holland enjoyed the atmosphere and the big crowd — the largest since the 40,000-square foot Athletic and Wellness Center opened in 2014 — both downplayed the significance of the game.
“There are a lot of good teams in this league this year,” Holland said.
Still, both sides are probably looking forward to the rematch Jan. 29 at Bangor.
Meanwhile, Bangor hosts Palisades and Moravian Academy visits Saucon Valley Tuesday night.