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#10 SPRING-FORD 58, #23 WISSAHICKON 56
The Trojans gave the favored Rams all they could handle and then some before falling in Friday’s opening round.
“They gave everything they had,” coach Kyle Wilson said. “We really played a solid game. I couldn’t be prouder of our kids.
“Our goal was – ‘Keep it close and give yourself a chance to maybe win it coming down the stretch. You’re going to be in enemy territory,’ and the kids just did a phenomenal job of putting themselves in that spot.”
The Trojans trailed by eight with 26 seconds remaining, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Harrison Williams sandwiched around misses on the front end of a pair of one-and-ones by the Rams set the stage for a dramatic ending.
The Trojans had 4.5 seconds to go the length of the court and came oh-so-close to tying the game.
“We threw the ball to midcourt to Carmen (Ostroski), and he handed off quickly to Harrison Williams,” Wilson said. “Harrison drove to the left side of the court, put up a three that came up short. Stefan Lowry caught it and put it in, but it was after the buzzer. That would have tied it and sent it to overtime.
“It was almost surreal – one more second and we’re going into overtime and have a chance to win it. Momentum was on our side at that point, but it just didn’t happen. I’m proud of the kids. There was even a point down the stretch where a couple of the underclassmen were hanging their heads a little bit, but our seniors were like, ‘Come on, this is our last chance. We have nothing to lose. Keep working hard.’ Harrison hit two 3s late to bring us within two. We just couldn’t get that last shot to fall.”
The Trojans, who led 20-18 after one quarter, trailed 33-30 at the intermission. Matt Compas had a big first half, scoring 14 points – 10 in the first quarter. Jackson Intrieri had eight points in the half.
“We had the lead for a good bit of the first half,” Wilson said. “They made a run to close out the half and took the lead.”
The Rams took a 46-43 lead into the final quarter, and the Trojans’ bid for the upset fell just short.
Compas led the Trojans with 17 points. Harrison added 15 on five 3s, and Intrieri had 10. Ostroski finished with six.
“Spring-Ford was able to get some comfortable shots down the stretch in the fourth quarter to hold their lead and to work it into a victory,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you need a little luck, you need a couple of things to break your way. We didn’t get a couple of those things, but my hats are off to a tremendous group of seniors that played their hearts out, our juniors as well with Matt Compas and Stefan Lowery and sophomore Josh Twersky.
“Only one team wins the district, only one team wins the state. There’s still great things you can take away from a game like that. I thought our kids from their effort, their preparation – they went into this week giving everything they could to give themselves a shot to win. To go in there and fight to a two-point loss, I’m really proud of the effort these kids gave.”
Spring-Ford’s Tre Medearis led all scorers with 23 points.
“Their kid number two got a lot of easy looks that really hurt us,” Wilson said of Medearis. “One of the things when you’re playing a tough opponent on the road, you can’t give up easy baskets, you’ve got to put them in uncomfortable situations.
I was very pleased with their effort and their ability to overcome adversity. We sent a message to our younger guys – ‘Starting 0-5, which we’d never done in over 20 years, imagine if that same game was Spring-Ford on our court at Wissahickon, maybe it’s a different outcome.’ There are things to be learned and taken away. Where we were last year to what this team grew to this year – those things we are very happy about and very pleased that this team was able to accomplish.”
Wissahickon (10-4 SOL) closed out its season with a 12-11 record.
Game Summary brought to you by
Wissahickon 20-10-13-13 56
Spring-Ford 18-15-13-12 58
Wissahickon (56) – Andrew Bucks 1 0-0 3; Harrison Williams 5 0-0 15; Jackson Intrieri 4 0-0 10; Stefan Lowry 1 3-4 5; Matt Compas 6 3-6 17; Carmen Ostroski 2 2-2 6; Totals 19 8-12 56.
Spring-Ford (58) – Tre Medearis 10 3-4 23; Pat Kovaleski 3 0-3 6; Michael Fitzgerald 0 2-3 2; Zack Serocki 6 1-2 15; Caleb Little 1 0-0 3; Nate Santiago 1 0-0 3; Jake Kressley 2 2-3 6; Totals 23 8-15 58.
3-point goals: Wissahickon – Harrison Williams 5, Jackson Intrieri 2, Matt Compas 2, Andrew Buck, SF – Zack Serocki 2, Caleb Little, Nate Santiago.