Archbishop Carroll holds off Wissahickon in PIAA-5A 1st round

BENSALEM >> Archbishop Carroll beat Wissahickon, 66-59, in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A state playoffs Friday night at Bensalem High School.

The Patriots face Lampeter-Strasburg in the second round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

Carroll’s Luke House hit three three-pointers to start the fourth quarter and help the Patriots build a 15-point lead, 54-39.

“We have a kid like Luke House,” Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk said, “he gets in foul trouble early and nothing was going right for him. He goes he scores 20 in the second half alone. I can’t say enough great things about him.”

The Trojans came roaring back with a 14-2 run to make it 56-53.

House hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to five and Wiss’ Zach Reiner responded with a layup to make it a one-possession game again with 2:54 to go.

The Patriots rattled off four straight — a pair of Keyon Butler foul shots and an AJ Hoggard runner — to make it a seven-point game, 62-55, with 1:35 left.

Wiss wasn’t done yet. Max Rapoport hit a three — his fourth of the fourth quarter — and Reiner split a pair of free throws to get the deficit back to three, 62-59.

“You just need to keep playing,” Romanczuk said. “There’s a reason why (Wiss is) in the state tournament. They’ve played a tough schedule, they’re battle-tested and they’ve got some senior leadership there. They weren’t going to just lay down for us. There’s not too many guys that can shoot the ball as well as Max Rapoport. We’ve played some really good shooters this year, but he’s right up there with any of them. He got them right back into it. That’s a tough basketball team. They play with a sense of urgency. We were fortunate. If that game was another 30 seconds to a minute, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

The Trojans had one possession within three points in the quarter and it came with less than 30 seconds left. Rapoport’s contested three-point attempt was just off.

House grabbed the rebound, got fouled and hit two free throws to make it a five-point game and Justin Anderson hit two more with one second left to make it 66-59.

“We knew coming in they’re a team loaded with talent,” Wiss coach Kyle Wilson said. “Talent all over. Our kids said, ‘Hey look, we’re playing down one guy’ — we knew we didn’t have (second leading scorer) Eddie (Fortescue). ‘Let’s go out there and let it fly.’

“We finally got shots and looks when we needed them and it was one of those games where we came up a play or two short. We knew in a game like this on paper they’re the better team. They’ve got 6-5, 6-4, this guard, that guard. We knew we’re not going to beat them mano-a-mano, but if we play better as a team we give ourselves a chance. I thought we did.”

House scored 13 of his 20 points in the fourth for Carroll. Hoggard added 16 and Anderson 15.

Rapoport also scored 13 of his 20 points in the fourth for Wiss. Reiner finished with 16.

The loss brings an end to Wissahickon’s season.

“Considering what we lost, to get back to this same point and even play a local game and not have to travel,” Wilson said. “Get a three seed. We knew we were facing a tough District 12 team. Catholic League has tough teams. We faced a PW, we faced Cheltenham, CB West — all those teams are playing in 6A. We thought we’d be ready and we were. We just need to make a few more shots and not having a key scorer out there — it makes a difference.

Archbishop Carroll 66, Wissahickon 59
Wissahickon 13 11 13 22 — 59
Archbishop Carroll 17 9 19 21 — 66
Wissahickon: Oliphant 2 1-2 6, Rapoport 7 1-2 20, Hirsch 2 0-0 6, Lawrence 3 1-4 7, Ostroski 2 0-0 4, Reiner 6 3-4 16. Total 20 6-12 59.
Archbishop Carroll: Butler 3 2-2 8, Anderson 5 3-3 15, Hoggard 5 6-7 16, Kiyl Mack 1 0-0 3, House 5 6-6 20, Little 0 2-4 2, Ketner 1 0-1 2. Total 20 18-23 66.
Three-point goals: W: Oliphant, Rapoport 5, Reiner. AC: Anderson 2, Mack, House 4.