McDonald nets another state title with Archbishop Wood, Vikings have family ties in Saturday’s games

HERSHEY >> It’s common for coaches leading their team to the Giant Center for the first time to tell players to get on the floor early and take it all in.

Apparently, that applies to coaches who have been there several times before as well. Mike McDonald has been Archbishop Wood’s head coach in five PIAA title games but admitted even he forgot what it was like walking onto the arena floor in his first trip back since 2018.

“I walked in the gym and forgot just how big the arena is,” McDonald said. “It was like as if I hadn’t been here but it’s always special. I’m going to remember this one.”

McDonald led Wood to its sixth state title and his third as head coach, joining the back-to-back champions of 2016 and 2017. The last two times, and earlier this season after winning the PCL title, McDonald had donned the net from Wood’s basket as an ornament around his neck.

Perhaps the PIAA people didn’t know that, because it somehow ended up with Ryanne Allen, who reveled in wearing it during the team’s boisterous postgame celebration. McDonald joked he was mad at the standout junior for taking it first but couldn’t hide his excitement at seeing all his players celebrating the accomplishment.

““It’s hard to put into words myself going through it so I can’t even imagine being in their heads as high school kids,” McDonald said. “They’re going to hybrid learning, their tryouts in November are shut down until January and after what they went through last year with their season being shut down all of a sudden, it has to get in your head and force you to ask if it’s going to come back.”

Saturday, he made all the right moved including adjusting defenses against Villa Maria’s slow pace and good passing against double-teams. In the second half, he opted to have seniors Noelle Baxter and Kaitlyn Orihel run their bread-and-butter cut plays when Wood needed an offensive spark and kept his players locked in.

By the time McDonald left the arena on Saturday the net had found its way to where it belonged, draped around his neck.

CHAMPION MORGAN

Spare a thought for Ryan Morgan this weekend.

The 2020 Wood graduate now has two state champion sisters in the family after Shannon, a junior on the Vikings’ girls’ basketball team, joined older sister Erin, a 2018 graduate, as a PIAA tournament winner. Ryan can hold his own in most family arguments as a PCL champion on the 2018 boys’ soccer team but not when it comes to states.

Safe to say, he’s going to hear about it.

“We’re going to rub it in a lot,” Shannon said holding back a laugh.

A college game prevented Ryan, now a freshman midfielder with Holy Family, from being in Hershey on Saturday but Erin was in the building where she helped Wood to win the 2016 PIAA Class 3A and 2017 Class 5A titles. It was the first time this season that Erin, who played the last two seasons with the La Salle women’s basketball team, had seen her younger sister play in person.

She also shared some wisdom with her younger sibling prior to Saturday’s game.

“She just told me to take it all in because it goes by so fast,” Shannon said. “She wished she could be back out on that court winning a state championship with all of her friends again.

“It was her first game she was able to come to and knowing she was there, it made me more comfortable.”

Morgan, a point guard who has been among Wood’s first reserves off the bench this season, will also be the answer to a Wood basketball trivia question someday. The junior was the only Viking aside from Kaitlyn Orihel and Ryanne Allen to score a basket in the state final with her driving layup in the second quarter putting Wood ahead 17-13.

“That definitely surprised me a little bit,” Morgan, a tenacious on-ball defender, said. “I tried to take the opportunity when I saw I had the lane. I figured I had to, it was a wide-open layup.”

The game stats credited Morgan with 11 minutes on Saturday and she spent most of them trying to get Villa Maria’s ballhandlers to actually do something other than dribble off clock. After the Victors were able to beat some of Wood’s double-teams in the first half, the Vikings left it up to individual defenders to do the work.

Her brother is going to get some good-natured kidding about the state champion medal he doesn’t have but his sisters do, but Shannon added that in the Morgan house, they’re always there to support each other.

“He texted me this morning and said good luck,” Shannon said. “I’m sure he’ll tell me congrats as soon as he can too, he’s a good a brother and is always really supportive.”

SIBLING NON-RIVALRY

Ryanne Allen was really hoping for some more good things Saturday night.

After helping Wood win the PIAA Class 4A girls title in the afternoon, the junior was back in the stands a few hours later to watch her twin brother Tyson try to win the Class 6A boys’ title. Unfortunately for the Allen siblings, their hope for a twin accomplishment was denied when Reading beat the boys 58-57.

The days leading up to the state final were filled with anticipation for both Allen siblings.

“Having a twin brother is already special but both of us playing basketball and getting to this point as well as both of us winning a PCL title is something I’ll never forget,” Ryanne said. “To be able to watch him play later after getting to play now, it’s something really cool and I’m happy our sister and parents get to experience it with us.”

Ryanne has been a fixture for the girls’ team since arriving as a freshman and her 17 points were the second-highest total on the team Saturday. A 6-foot-1 wing with deadly long-range accuracy, Ryanne is a highly-rated recruit in her class and has double-digit offers from Division I programs.

Tyson came into a Wood program behind a senior class that featured four Division I recruits and 1,000-point scorers, so he’s carved out a different role. An instinctive and active defender, he was a valuable spark plug for the Vikings during their state run and again Saturday night.

With the Vikings trailing late, Allen went in and helped spark their comeback. He tipped an inbound pass on the baseline that led to a steal and two free throws for Rahsool Diggins and his energy was needed lift all over the floor.

Ryanne cites her brother’s ability to make a role for himself and how Tyson bounced back from an injury this season as motivation.

“He looks at the positive side of things and steps up when he needs to,” Ryanne said. “It’s truly inspiring, I look up to him a lot whether he knows it or not.”

Basketball isn’t the only shared interest for the Allen twins, who both wear No. 5 on their jersey at Wood. Both are sneaker aficionados, Ryanne saying they each have racks of shoes and like hoops, they are competitive about their collections.

During quarantine last year, any time the two were bored they simply went outside and played one-on-one against each other. While they play at same school for different programs, they’re the perfect teammates for one another.

“I prefer being a boy-girl twin actually,” Ryanne said. “I think it’s pretty cool getting to see the boy’s side of things as well as the girl’s. I love it, he’s my best friend, we have all the same friends and him playing basketball and being in the same position I am is pretty awesome.”