PIAA basketball: Carver E&S boys end North Catholic’s run in Class 4A quarterfinals
MCCONNELLSBURG, Fulton County — North Catholic entered Friday evening’s PIAA Class 4A boys basketball quarterfinal hoping to play spoiler.
For most of the contest against District 12’s Carver E&S, Jim Rocco’s Trojans held their own, but a late run vaulted the Engineers to the state semifinals with a 68-61 win at McConnellsburg High School.
That game will be at a site and time to be determined.
With 2:09 left to play, North Catholic (21-7) senior Jason Fredericks nailed his fifth 3-pointer of the game — thanks to an offensive board and assist by classmate Tommy Arth — squaring matters at 61.
The Trojans were only able to fire off two more shots the rest of the way, by then down two possessions, and were held off the scoreboard for the final 2:09.
“I think we got a little tired,” said North Catholic senior Jude Rottmann, who poured in a game-best 28 points. “Their physicality kinda wore us down. … We kinda held on. We were just hanging around, and we were hoping that (if) maybe just a few shots (would) go in, we get the win.”
In the second half, North Catholic led for just 1:07. Carver (23-6) went up by six with 32 seconds to go in the third quarter, but treys by Fredericks and sophomore Jake Olkowski evened things back up at 56. On the possession following the former’s final 3-pointer, the Engineers’ Fareed Brown deposited a driving layup. The Trojans turned the ball over on their next two possessions, allowing Brown to stretch the gap back out to six.
Brown, who finished with a team-high 23 points and pinned up each of the game’s last seven, converted the front end of a trip to the free-throw line with 14 ticks remaining to ice things.
“With their size and their attack … the way they were able to get inside of us, they were just bigger and stronger than us,” Rocco said. “Not a whole lot we can do, but we battled.”
“We knew we could play with them,” Rottmann said. “We could compete with anybody. The way we play, the fight in this team is ridiculous. We’re not gonna back down from anybody. We’re not gonna be intimidated by anybody — and it showed. They thought they would come out and they would steamroll us.”
Rottmann swished six first-half 3-pointers, including four in the opening frame that helped the Trojans climb ahead 18-7. Carver answered with an 11-0 surge that bled into the second quarter. Still, North Catholic clung to the advantage for most of that frame before heading into the midway point down 38-37.
“Just play with joy,” Rocco told his players. “And we made a couple adjustments, and they did, as well, trying to run a few things. We had to creep out on (Billy Henighan). … Jude was feeling it, and Jason was great. A lot of kids did a good job. We just came up a little bit short, that’s all.”
Rottmann and Fredericks have played basketball together since AAU in seventh grade. They teamed up to post 51 points and 11 treys in the season-ending loss. Rottmann underlined the fact the Trojans turned things around after a commanding WPIAL Class 4A semifinal loss to eventual district champion Knoch, which they eliminated in the second round of states earlier this week.
“Going into the WPIAL semifinals, you’re thinking it’s the biggest game of the year,” Rottmann said. “You play terrible, get crushed. A lot of teams just fall over at that point. … We decided we were gonna get them back, and we did. And I’m really proud of that.”
NORTH CATHOLIC 61
Jude Rottmann 10 2-2 28, Jason Fredericks 9 0-0 23, Jake Olkowski 2 0-0 6, Brandon Pickett 2 0-0 4, Tommy Arth 0 0-0 0, Colin Campbell 0 0-0 0, Tom Rottmann 0 0-0 0, Brady Trout 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 2-2 61.
CARVER E&S 68
Fareed Brown 10 2-4 23, Billy Henighan 6 0-0 17, Sahin Rodriguez 6 2-3 15, Matthew McField 4 0-0 8, Malcolm Musgrove Jr. 1 0-0 2, Samir Roberts-Mouzon 1 0-0 2, Trayvon Deadlock 0 1-2 1, Taydon Lewis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 28 5-9 68.
North Catholic 18 19 16 5 — 61
Carver E&S 14 24 18 12 — 68
3-point goals: North Catholic 13 (J. Rottmann 6, Fredericks 5, Olkowski 2); Carver E&S 7 (Henighan 5, Brown, Rodriguez)
