By Ed Farrell

Herald ASsistant Sports Editor



FOX CHAPEL-- The final score was reminiscent more of the movie “Hoosiers” than that of 21st century basketball.

But unlike the celluloid celebration in the end for mythical small-town Indiana Hickory High of 1950’s fame, it was not to be Friday night for the Hornets of Hermitage.

Nick Herman hit a free throw with a tenth of a second remaining, as West Allegheny annexed a 42-41 PIAA Class A opening-round win.

Herman’s heroics and Hickory’s heartache coincided seconds after Matt Durisko had the Hornets even at 41 with 6.4 ticks to play after he took Aaron Banas’ inbounds pass. But after Herman hit his free throw, DUrisko did not so much as have time to take an inbounds pass and turn to toss a prayer as the officials already were signalling time had expired.

After Durisko’s score knotted the count, West Allegheny head coach Josh Bears eschewed the old-school philolophy and had Herman hustle up the floor with the ensuing inbounds pass. That placed pressure on Hickory’s defense and prevented the Hornets — with time-consuming fouls to give — the opportunity to organize.Garret Trosch was whistled for a foul attempting to block Herman’s shot.

“We’ve won several games that way. We don’t call a timeout. I feel it’s more of an advantage for the defense when you (the offensive team) calls a timeout, so they can set up,” Bears explained. “We take advantage of getting the ball in quick. We work on that in practice all the time, to where we can push in transition. We feel we’re athletic enough and good enough off the dribble where we can get to the rim and just creat something.”

“I was thinking of calling a timeout myself, but they got it in,” lamented Hornets’ head coach Nick Cannone. “You know, you watch the games on TV in that situation, and they get it and go, man. And that’s hard, as a coach, when you tell players), ‘Don’t foul, don’t foul, don’t foul!’ But they took it right to us and got it to their fastest guy.”

There were a half-dozen deadlocks and 11 lead changes, including 9 of the latter variety during the 4th frame.

Though Hickory hit on only 11 of 38 floor shots through 3 quarters — missing 8 of 9 in a nightmarish 2-point 3rd period — West Allegheny was able to annex just a 28-26 edge entering the final frame. But with Nicky DiBartolomeo and Durisko dialing up 7 and 6 points, respectively, the Hornets had 4 leads, though West Allegheny answered on each occasion.

As Bears, prior to the game, indicated, the Indians invariably took turns turning in big plays. Ben Simmen and Alex Reilly split 8 points, Mike Karas connected for a right-wing triple with approximately 16 ticks to play — as the Tribe took a 41-39 lead — and John O’Donnell drilled a jumper and added an assist. All those collective contributions served as a prelude to Herman, who hit the only 2 West Allegheny freebies the entire night.

“I absolutely cannot say enough about my four seniors (Simmen, O’Donnell, Herman, and Christian Rodak, who did not play). I can’t say enough about them!” Bears boasted.

Simmen secured a 14-point, 12-rebound, 6-blocked, 4-assist line for West Allegheny (16-9), which had never before won a PIAA playoff game during Bears’ 6-year tenure. And despite Banas’ best defensive efforts, O’Donnell delivered another 10 tallies, though half his 19.8 nightly norm.

“Simmen was the key (Friday) night, and we knew that he had to be able to match Durisko, or better him,” Bears observed. “I know (Simmen’s) toughness was the difference. We struggled rebounding (Hickory held a 36-24 edge) ... but down the stretch, these guys just continued to make plays. We’ve preached for four years with these guys, toughness, toughness, toughness, and it just showed. They just find ways to win,” Bears added.

The Hornets were extremely tight at the outset, missing their 1st 8 floor shots before Trosch tallied a putback with 2:55 remaining in the opening quarter. However Hickory, after missing 10 of 13 attempts, trailed 13-7. But with Durisko delivering 8 second-period points — including a jumper with 4.4 seconds remaining in the half — coupled with West Allegheny’s handful of miscues and 3-for-10 floor shooting -- the Hornets harvested a 24-20 margin at intermission.

Durisko delivered a game-high 21-point, 15-rebound double-double, but was the lone double-digit scorer for Hickory (16-10), though DiBartolomeo did get 9 points and 5 rebounds. Ultimately, however, Hickory hit only 18 of 53 field-goal attempts (34 percent), converted only 3 of 7 free throws, and made 10 turnovers, 1 more than West Allegheny.

“(Simmen) did throw us off our rhythm a little bit,” Cannone conceded. “But when you have a shot-blocker, you’ve gotta be under control. You shot-fake and you get him in foul trouble (Simmen ended with only 1 personal). How many times were we gonna let him block our shots?” Cannone rhetorically asked, “without us getting balanced and playing off of two feet. You know, get him up in the air. But he was very good defensively.”

Hickory had a 5-game regular season-concluding surge just to qualify for the postseason, won a pair of District 10 playoff games by a total of 3 points, but bowed in the D-10 title tilt and its PIAA opener.

Durisko, Banas, ’Rico Jones and Justin Lenhart played their scholastic swan songs, advancing to the playoffs all 4 years.

“What I’ll remember most about this season is the leadership my seniors provided,” Cannone commented. “When things are going good, everybody’s a good player, evervbody’s high-fiving. But I found out a lot about my seniors this year when we three-and-six, and they just came to work. That’s character there!

“All those seniors will be successful people. They showed positive leadership and their character was outstanding,” Cannone continued. “I told my underclassmen, if they could take anything from my seniors, it’s their leadership, their character,” Cannone continued. “When things were going bad, instead of pulling apart, we pulled together.

“Last year’s team set the bar high for us. Twenty wins, getting a playoff win,” Cannone recalled. “But this team surpassed that as far as getting to the District 10 championship and getting to a state playoff game. So the underclassmen, hopefully they’ll learn from this — the atmosphere and the exposure they witnessed this year and they played in.

“It’s just the way the season had been going,” Cannone concluded. “I told the guys, ‘Hey, we sent many a team home at one point; (Friday) night was our night.”

Note: Cannone said of Durisko, who concluded his career with 11,61 points, “I coached Lorenzo Styles (at Farrell) and Rick Ladjevich (at West Middlesex), and Matt Durisko’s right up there with those two players, as far as his performance taking us into the playoffs.”

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PIAA CLASS AAA PLAYOFFS

HICKORY 7 17 2 15 41

W.ALLEGHENY 13 7 8 14 42

HICKORY -- Banas 3-0-0-7, Votino 0-0-0-0, Durisko 9-3-4-21, Trosch 2-0-2-4, DiBartolomeo 4-0-1-9, Lenhart 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0-0, Mastrian 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Banas 1, DiBartolomeo 1. Totals: 18-3-7-41.

WEST ALLEGHENY -- O’Donnell 5-0-0-10, Herman 3-2-4-8, Simmen 7-0-0-14, Kaulius 0-0-0-0, Karas 2-0-0-6, Morelli 0-0-0-0, Reilly 2-0-0-4, Scott 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Karas 2. Totals: 19-2-4-42.