HEARTBREAK IN HERSHEY
Trojans come up just short of a state title
Parkland’s push for a storybook ending to a memorable boys basketball season came up just short Saturday night in the PIAA Class 6A championship game.
The Trojans fell behind early and trailed by as much as 13 before storming back to take a lead in the fourth quarter.
However, Central York made one last push, and two 3-point attempts by Parkland in the final seconds that could have given them the lead just missed. The Panthers were able to hold on for a 53-51 victory before 5,000 people — the biggest crowd of championship weekend at Hershey’s Giant Center.
Senior Robbie Ruisch and freshman Blake Nassry both had open 3-point looks in the final minute but neither would fall. Either would have given the Trojans the lead.
Ruisch’s miss came with eight seconds to play, and Nassry’s shot came at the buzzer after two foul line misses by Central York gave the Trojans one last chance.
Instead, the ball wouldn’t drop and the heartbreaking loss ended Parkland’s quest to become the first Lehigh Valleyarea team to win a boys basketball title in the highest classification since Whitehall won 3A gold in 1982.
Nick Coval was trying to join his father, Scott, who led Whitehall in 1982 as a state champion.
Coval scored 18 points in his final game, but was an uncharacteristic 7-for-22 from the field and 3 of 12 from 3-point range. He ended his career with 2,123 points, the fifth-most by a Lehigh Valley boys basketball player. He and the Trojans gave it all they had after trailing most of the night but just couldn’t get a big shot to fall.
“It was just one of those nights,” Parkland head coach Eddie Ohlson said of the shooting struggles. “But even though our shots weren’t falling I thought we competed really hard in the second half. I’m really proud of our guys. They fought back. We were down 13 at one point and they came back and gave themselves a chance.”
Parkland, which finished 26-6 and with Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 championships, scored just eight points in the final period. Zaire Smaltz had five of them.
His reverse layup gave his team a 47-45 lead with 4:31 remaining, but Ryan Brown answered with a 3-pointer, the only one Central York had over the last three quarters, to go up 48-47 with 4:18 to go.
A Smaltz free throw tied it at 48 with 3:11 remaining, but two foul shots by Ben Rill, a drive by Ben Natal and one of two at the line by Natal gave the Panthers a 53-48 advantage with 1:13 left.
Central York didn’t score again and had to survive four missed free throws in the final 1:01.
Coval converted a three-point play off a Jayden Thomas pass with 49.7 seconds left to get Parkland within two, and that’s where it stayed as the two late 3-point shots wouldn’t go.
Smaltz tallied 15 points and had eight rebounds for Parkland, and Thomas had 11 for the Trojans, who struggled to find smiles as they received their silver medals and then fought back tears as they walked to their locker room.
“We’re going to look back and this one is going to sting a little bit,” Ohlson said. “But we’re still going to cherish these moments. We’re going to cherish the season we had. We still had two other championships and made it to the last game. It’ll sting, but the biggest thing is this group has become a family. We’re going to hug each other, embrace each other and we’re going to live and learn from this. They’ll become better young men because of it.”
The emotion was much different at the other end of the Giant Center.
It was the first title in Central York history, and veteran coach Jeff Hoke, a Moravian University graduate, enjoyed the moment.
He talked before the game about his team playing quality defense throughout their run. In the end, the defense was just good enough.
The Panthers (29-3) were never down by more by than two.
Ben Rill, a junior and one of the team’s three 1,000-point scorers, led Central York with 17 points. He also had seven rebounds, five at the offensive end.
“We knew Parkland was going
to be a really tough team,” Rill said. “First and foremost, they’re super well-coached and have so many good guards on that team. They adjusted really well in the second half. We just kept pushing because we knew we were going to have to deal with some stuff in the second half. Overall, though, we played our butts off.”
As the two late Parkland shots were in the air, Rill said he felt like they were in slow motion.
Had one of the last two shots fell, Parkland would have had a Hoosiers type of ending. Instead, it wasn’t meant to be.
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda … it is what it is,” Ohlson said. “We knew they were going to double Nick and we knew someone was going to get an opportunity. We felt we got two good looks and that’s all we could ask for. Unfortunately, they didn’t fall.”
Rill said the emphasis was on not letting Coval beat his team.
“Our whole week of practice has been based on him,” he said. “We know he’s going to do great things at Davidson. We know what he’s capable of. We tried to contain him as much as we can. We saw film of his game against Archbishop Wood and he was tremendous. We put our best defenders on him and they worked their butts off.”
Meanwhile, the Panthers made four 3-pointers in the first quarter to take a 20-17 lead and then
scored the first six points of the second period to build a ninepoint advantage.
The No. 5 seed out of District 3 maintained a multi-possession lead throughout the second quarter and stretched it to 30-20 with 3:50 left in the half and then got the last basket in the final seconds of the half to make it 34-24 at the break.
Parkland made just 11 of 23 shots in the first half and was only 2-for-9 from the 3-point range. The Trojans were also outrebounded 17-8 over the first 16 minutes, and the Panthers collected eight offensive boards to one by Parkland.
Parkland fell behind 40-27 after Rill scored on a putback before beginning its charge.
“I thought we toughened up a little bit in the second half and started contesting more shots,” Ohlson said. “It was a little bit of a gut-check and we just didn’t want to get to this game. We were going to fight. We did that. We competed in the second half. We probably needed another minute and unfortunately time ran out.”
Showing the form that carried them to PIAA wins over talented Plymouth-Whitemarsh, Chambersburg, Roman Catholic and Archbishop Wood teams the past two weeks, Parkland used a 16-3 run to tie the game on two Smaltz free throws with 1:09 left in the third quarter before a Brown
runner returned the lead to the District 3 team at the end of the third period.
However, the Trojans, who got back in the game with 6-for10 shooting in the third quarter, made just three of 15 in the final eight minutes and went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc.
They also had a few costly turnovers that stalled their comeback and ended up snapping a ninegame postseason win streak. They hadn’t lost since falling to Allentown Central Catholic in the regular-season finale Feb. 5.
“This senior group was so special led by Nick and Zaire and Jayden Thomas; their work-ethic was like no other,” Ohlson said. “They are going to leave a lasting impression on this program.”