Ellis goes full MVP late, guides Allen to title
Canaries rally from 49-45 deficit to win
The legend of Nate Ellis began before he ever put on an Allen uniform.
For the son of former Allen player C.J. Ellis, it began in July 2018 at Cedar Beach when he won a 3-point-shooting contest at the A-Town Throwdown summer basketball tournament.
He was named the starting point guard by Canaries coach
Doug Snyder before he ever stepped inside the Allen High School building.
Few have started a high school basketball career with such high expectations and few have delivered as much as Ellis has in just three seasons.
As a freshman he led Allen to a District 11 6A title and into the second round of the state tournament.
Last year he paced the Canaries to the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference crown.
On Thursday night, it was another title won and another remarkable performance by the 5-foot-10 junior guard that added to his legend.
Down 49-45 with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left, he took over the game by scoring by nine of Allen’s last 13 points, and 32 overall, in leading the Canaries to a stunning 58-51 win over Parkland for the 6A gold.
The victory not only made Ellis 3-for-3 in winning championships, but it also was Allen’s 20th district title in school history and the first for first-year coach Darnell Braswell, who has also lived up to expectations as the perfect choice to replace his mentor Snyder.
Snyder sat courtside doing the broadcast for Service Electric as two people he helped to groom had their finest moments.
Make no mistake, though, the night and game belonged to Ellis, who 24 hours earlier was announced as the EPC Lehigh County Division’s tri-MVP with Parkland’s Nick Coval and Central Catholic’s Tyson Thomas.
“He’s a winner,” Braswell said. “Every year he has won in some capacity. He’s a winner and the kid wanted it. It’s tough to take
In a year like no other, the Penn State wrestling team is still trying to do what it’s done in many other years: win the NCAA Championships.
The Nittany Lions, who finished second to Iowa in the Big Ten tournament at Penn State last weekend, get that opportunity next week in St. Louis during a three-day test of strength, stamina and smarts. Coach Cael Sanderson’s crew has won eight of the last 10 titles, sweeping from 2011-14 and 2016-19; the NCAAs were canceled in 2020 when Iowa would have entered as a favorite, a label the Hawkeyes will carry to St. Louis.
A season abbreviated by a pandemic is now down to its three most important days, and Sanderson says from what he can see during the current training cycle that his squad will be ready.
“They’ve been training all year and with the uncertainty and they had some offseason events. I think we’re pretty darn healthy right now, relatively speaking,” Sanderson said Friday morning. “After the Big Ten tournament, I’m sure every team is trying to come out of there after having probably doubled their matches in two days. The guys were a little sore and banged up and you’re gonna have some tweaks here and there. And I’m sure the nationals will be the same way.”
As of Friday, though, his nine-man NCAA contingent is on schedule. “Now we’re working great,” Sanderson said. “These guys feel great, they look really good . a lot of good, positive energy. We’ve been training hard this week. It’s not really a time to rest until after the nationals.
“We have a couple of more days and really hard training and then we’ll kind of cut back and let these guys get ready for the tournament. Right now, it’s just making sure that we’re ready to go on Thursday, and making sure that our technique and our conditioning and everything is up to par.”
Penn State will take senior Nick Lee (141), juniors Roman Bravo-Young (133) and Brady Berge (157), sophomore Aaron Brooks (184) and freshmen Robert Howard (125), Joe Lee (165), Carter Starocci, (174), Michael Beard (197) and Greg Kerkvliet (285). The Lions wrestled just six duals, winning them all, and Howard and Kerkvliet joined the lineup late - Kerkvliet in the final dual - because of injuries.
“It’s just a unique year,” Sanderson said. “I think your focus is always going to be tested; life is just going to test you to see if you really know what you want. I don’t think any of these freshmen thought COVID-19 and the challenges we had this year would be the challenge of their freshman year in college.
“I think it’s good preparation for the rest of their lives and just do what you can every day and keep your head up and count your blessings and focus on what you can. Everyone has the same challenges and I think adversity is always an opportunity to show your strength; that’s the perspective I choose to take.”
BIG TEN NETWORK RATINGS BONANZA:
TV ratings for the Big Ten finals were up 29% over last year’s record, making it the mostwatched wrestling championships broadcast in BTN history. BTN aired each round of the tournament at Bryce Jordan Center and viewership of each round increased accordingly.
Additionally, the network said, nearly 9 million minutes of individual matches were streamed via BigTen+ and the Fox Sports app. Wrestling remains the most-watched sport on the Big Ten Network YouTube page with 3.8 million minutes watched last weekend.
“The Big Ten Network is giving wrestling credit and ratings-wise we’re No. 3, the third sport in the conference, which in my mind is a big deal,” Sanderson said. “The value of that is something that we’ve been arguing for a few years . Big Ten wrestling, if you actually broke it down, is a revenue-producing sport. I really believe that, and that would change things in a good way for wrestling, when we can kind of get to that point where we actually acknowledge that and kind of give wrestling credit for the audience and the interest that is actually bringing would be huge for Olympic sports.
“It’s good to see that and I just think wrestling is continuing to improve. It’s fun to watch this because there’s some just incredible talents on our team and all across the country, so it’s a good time for college wrestling.”
STEER CLEAR OF CASEY CUNNINGHAM:
Plenty of former Penn State wrestlers have acknowledged their practice-room sessions against assistant coach Casey Cunningham typically don’t end well for them, and Aaron Brooks confirmed it again on Friday.
Cunningham won the 1999 NCAA title at 157 pounds for Central Michigan; he defeated Penn State’s Clint Musser 2-1. That was the same year Cael Sanderson won the first of four straight NCAA crowns, defeating current Minnesota coach Brandon Eggum 6-1 in the finals. Cunningham, the wrestlers say, still has it.
“Coach Casey’s a great guy and a great coach. He has a tougher mentality, so when you hear guys say he was beating up on them, it’s true, because Coach Casey goes hard,” Brooks said with a smile on Friday.
“But I’m just learning to just go out there and just scrap. Sometimes you have to get gritty, and I think that’s what we take from Coach Casey. A lot of times you want to go out there and have fun, but there are some times you have to buckle down and just get the job done. And I think that’s what I take most from Coach Casey.”