Dominic’s defining moment comes at right time for Pennridge
WEST NORRITON >> John Dominic admitted he hadn’t thought much of it.
But, after maybe the best all-around game of his life in the biggest game in Pennridge boys basketball history, Dominic realized just how remarkable his story has been. Last year, he was a JV player who got by his own estimation less than 10 varsity minutes.
Now, Rams coach Dean Behrens simply cannot afford to take Dominic off the floor.
The senior guard was nearly perfect Tuesday night, scoring a team-high 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting as the Rams beat La Salle 52-47 in the PIAA 6A semifinals at Norristown. But that, like Dominic’s path, simply isn’t telling the whole story.
“To be honest, I’m not just saying this, I don’t think about my own minutes a lot but it is crazy to think about now,” Dominic said. “I don’t know, we’ve grown so much as a team, we’ve bonded so well and that’s what got us so far.”
Dominic’s imprint Tuesday was everywhere. He led the team in scoring, he served as a secondary ballhandler to take pressure off Sean Yoder, he got a couple crunch-time rebounds, he defended well and his passing was really good.
In fact, it was Dominic who made the last pass to Jack Gillespie in the corner when Gillespie hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining.
Just as a reminder, all this came from a guy who played almost exclusively JV as a junior yet never considered walking away from the program.
“John Dominic didn’t play varsity last year, he didn’t even start all the time on JV and now you can’t get him out of the darn game,” Behrens said. “I told him at halftime, all bets are off, you have 16 minutes so go get it. He’s been a tremendous second ball handler and has really propelled this group.
“There were a lot of coaches, even me, we didn’t know what John Dominic was going to be able to accomplish. We had five guys competing for that position and John took it and ran with it.”
Dominic’s rise to indispensable asset began over the summer. He was pressed into heavy duty for his AAU Perkasie Knights team out of necessity at point guard. Dominic leveraged that with key minutes in Dock Mennonite’s summer league, where the Rams were mostly without Yoder and Jon Post, forcing other players to take over.
Still, his spot in the starting group wasn’t locked down until the eve of the season but all Dominic has done since is keep forcing the coaches to put him out there.
Earlier this season, he hit eight 3-pointers in a game and finished with 37 points, the third highest total in school history. Three is a good number for Dominic, it’s why he wears jersey No. 3, but to him, his real impact is defensively.
“Every player has a role on their team, my role is defensive and I know that,” Dominic said. “Coach (Behrens) has told me multiple times ‘your defense, it’s hard to take you off the court.’ That’s what I’ve been focusing on, getting low, not letting anyone by me and just playing hard in my role.”
Tuesday, Dominic came out ready. He had eight points in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beating three to tie the game after eight minutes but also showed he could handle La Salle’s tenacious defensive guards which let Yoder work off the ball some.
The senior made his first five shots, another stat he didn’t know until after the game and finished with four assists. He didn’t score in the second quarter, added a driving layup in the third then hit a 3-pointer off a Post kick-out pass for a 45-36 lead with 7:50 left in the fourth quarter.
It was Dominic who was able to beat La Salle’s full-court pressure to find Yoder for a crucial layup in the midst of an Explorers 11-2 run, then he found Gillespie for the team’s shot of the season.
“All year, people have been doubling Sean so someone had to step up, be a second ball-handler and control the game,” Dominic said. “That’s been my role since middle school, I was a point guard but to have him take most of and let me be the second man, I know I can step up and do it.”
Dominic got fouled with 17.4 seconds left, sending him to the foul line for a one-and-one and the most pressure-filled shots of the night. Behrens felt if the senior made just one, the Rams were going to win, but as basketball likes to do, it got real interesting.
The guard’s first shot didn’t feel great out of his hands and with the previously roaring Pennridge fans holding their collective breath, the ball pinged off the iron but gave Dominic a fortuitous bounce and went in.
“I liked that bounce, jeez, I liked that bounce,” Dominic said. “It felt a little off, but that rim helped me out a little bit. So, thank you to that rim.”
His second was much cleaner, putting the Rams up five points and letting those Pennridge supporters empty their lungs in support.
“In practice, we work on that every day,” Dominic said. “As I was going to the line, all my teammates came up and said ‘you hit these every day in practice. You can hit these shots.’ And I said to myself, ‘Yes, I can. It’s just another practice.’”
If his rise from part-time JV starter to varsity keystone wasn’t enough, Dominic had plenty of other motivation to keep this season going. The senior is planning to attend Penn State and study mechanical engineering next fall, so this run is the end of his basketball career and getting a couple extra weeks out of it has been special.
“We all had it in the back of our heads, us seniors, that this could be our last game,” Dominic said. “That mentality has pushed us to get to the next game and play with the energy and intensity that we have.”
Dominic had one more play to make, grabbing the rebound off a La Salle miss after his pair of free throws. Again he was fouled and as the senior made his way to the line with 7.4 left, he couldn’t help cut start to clap.
While he didn’t make the front end of that one-and-one, it didn’t matter. The game was Pennridge’s to take and Dominic, despite having every reason to brag about his path or all he’s done to make himself this type of player, made sure it was about his teammates as much as it was him.
“It’s just the flow of the game, my teammates find me in my open spots and it makes my job easy,” Dominic said. “I happened to hit some of those threes. If the other team isn’t focusing on me, because we have so many other threats, that also makes my job easy. I have the confidence I can score.”
Dominic’s not the only guy who came from JV to a key role this year. Gillespie only played spot minutes on varsity last year and forward Trent Fisher was mainly a JV guy who’s evolved into a defensive and rebounding presence that can’t be replaced.
Fisher’s drawn some tough assignments of late but he’s come through time and time again. Tuesday, he defended the paint and worked the glass, making one of the key plays of the game doing so.
Late in the third quarter, the junior was able to grab an offensive rebound and while falling out of bounds, saved the ball to Gillespie for a trey that gave the Rams a six-point lead.
“Someone from our team tipped it, I was able to pick it up and while I was falling, I saw Jack and no one was guarding him,” Fisher said. “I saw him shoot it, I knew it was good.”
Fisher credited the team’s intense practices for helping him improve during the course of the season and he got to show some of it Tuesday. The forward scored five of his seven points in the second quarter, including a no-hesitation 3-pointer, that put the Rams up 21-16.
“It was pretty big, I’ve been working on it a lot,” Fisher said. “We’re always shooting around in practice and I’ve been taking more threes, so it was big for me to hit that one.”
Pennridge will try to win one more Saturday night when it takes on District 10 powerhouse Kennedy Catholic in the 6A title game at 8 p.m. in Hershey’s Giant Center.
“It’s going to be the talk of the school because it’s such a major accomplishment,” Dominic said. “It’s going to be wild. I’m sure it’s going to be awesome going up there.”
