No Panic Brookville Moves into D9 3A Boys’ Title Game

Aaron Park Jimmy Moore Hager Paving Players of the Game
CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) – Less than a minute into the fourth quarter of its District 9 Class 3A semifinal game with Kane, Brookville found itself trailing for the first time since early in the game.

(Photo: Aaron Park (left) and Jimmy Moore were the co-Hager Paving Player of the Game for Brookville)

But there was no panic from the fourth-seeded Raiders (12-11), who quickly turned a 32-30 deficit into a seven-point, 39-32, lead with a 9-0 run that including five points from Trenton Gilhousen, the only five points the sophomore scored all night. The Raiders then held off a Kane comeback to gain a spot in the District title game with a 48-42 victory at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.

“A lot of it came down to determination and grit of the guys,” Brookville head coach Kevin Wolfe, who has the Raiders in the D9 title game for the first time since they won the title in 2014, said. “They wanted the basketball game. The seniors weren’t ready to go home, and the rest of the guys weren’t ready to let the senior go home. They found a way to win.”

What Brookville did was attack the basket with some sharp cuts during the game-deciding run.

It starts after a 30-second timeout by Wolfe when Nick Keth cut to the hoop and took a pass from Jimmy Moore converting for the game-tying layup with 6:54 left.

Then after Kane’s 6-foot-7 big man, Andrew Bucheit missed a free throw – something that plagued Bucheit and the Wolves all night long with the big man going 4 of 11 and the top-seeded Wolves (16-8) 11 of 22 from the line – Gilhousen gave the Raiders the lead for good, 34-32, with 5:38 left.

Following another Bucheit missed charity shot, it was Gilhousen cutting to the hoop again and taking a backdoor pass from Aaron Park for another layup that was turned into an old-school 3-point play to make it 37-32 with 5:14 left.

One more cut, this time from Bryan Dworek, who left the game momentarily in the third quarter with an apparent shoulder injury, closed out the run at the 4:28 mark giving Brookville th 39-32 advantage.

Kane wasn’t quite done.

The Wolves used the momentum from a Bucheit alley-oop dunk off a Davis Gardner pass to go on an 8-2 run that ended with a Bucheit basket with 1:37 left that closed the deficit to a single point, 41-40 with 1:37 left.

A pair of free throws by Dworek with 44.8 to play made it 43-40, but Bucheit hit two charity shots at the 29.2 mark to get Kane within a point again, 43-42.

Park, just a freshman, had what it took to seal the victory.

He hit two free throws with 28.1 to play to make it 45-42, and then came up with a steal with 14.3 left when he dove to the floor for a loose ball that Bucheit just reached down to try to pick up.

“That was a huge play,” Wolfe said.”They had a shot to tie it up. The ball got away (from Maze), and Aaron wanted it and got it. I saw it playing out and got the timeout called. We had one to burn.”

Watch Park get the steal.

Less than a second later Park was back at the line and hit two more free throws that all but sealed the victory putting the Raiders ahead 47-42.

Park and Moore, who led the well-balanced Raiders with 12 points and seven rebounds while hitting three 3-pointers, talked about the victory.

After trailing 6-5 late in the first quarter, Brookville took control of the game with an 8-0 run to close out the quarter thanks to four points from Colton Singleton.

Kane battled back in the second quarter thanks to four points and two rebounds from Keaton Rounsville to close within one, 17-16, on an Ange Costanzo bucket off a steal with 2:56 left.

But Moore’s second three of the first half with 27.3 to play before the break put the Raiders up four, 20-16, at halftime.

The game continued at a fairly slow pace in the third quarter with Kane, which lost to Brookville by 28 during the regular season, controlling the tempo with a zone defense and a methodical offense.

The result was an 11-10 third-quarter advantage for the Wolves, who went into the fourth down three, 30-27.

“We got what we wanted on the offensive end,” Kane head coach Matt Gasbarre said. “We executed our game plan really well.”

The Wolves seemed to grab the momentum at the start of the fourth when freshman Chad Greville hit his only shot of the game, a 3-pointer, 11 seconds into the quarter to tie the contest at 30. Bucheit then followed with a basket 32 seconds later that gave Kane the short-lived lead, 32-30.

“We (Greville) hit the three to star the fourth and then we took the lead, I thought we could sustain the momentum. We got good looks, but we didn’t hit our free throws.”

Kane was 4 of 12 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter while Brookville went 10 of 11 from the line in the quarter.

“That’s playoff basketball,” Gasbarre, whose team won the D9 2A title last year, said. “You have to shoot the ball well and hit your free throws. Give credit to Brookville. Their freshman and sophomore hit the free throws. That was the difference. That was a great high school basketball game.”

BROOKVILLE 48, KANE 42

Score by Quarters

Brookville 13 7 10 18 – 48
Kane 6 10 11 15 – 42

BROOKVILLE – 48

Bryan Dworek 2 6-6 10, Ben Reitz 2 0-0 4, Aaron Park 3 5-6 11, Jimmy Moore 4 1-2 12, Colton Singleton 2 0-1 4, Nick Keth 1 0-2 2, Trenton Gilhousen 2 1-1 5, Alec Lachnicht 0 0-0 0, Brady Caylor 0 0- 0 0. Totals 16 13-18 48.

KANE – 42

Frank Truden 0 0-0 0, Davis Gardner 4 2-3 10, Ange Costanzo 1 0-2 2, Andrew Bucheit 7 4-11 18, Chad Greville 1 0-0 3, Ray Maze 0 3-4 3, Keaton Rounsville 2 2-2 6. Totals 15 11-22 42.

Three-pointers: Brookville 3 (Moore 3). Kane 1 (Greville).


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