Blair beats Hill in Mid-Atlantic Prep League final
The Hill School boys basketball team could not bring back the Mid-Atlantic Prep League title to Pottstown, as Blair repeated as champs and finished off an undefeated league slate with a 62-51 verdict in Sunday’s final at Lawrenceville.
The Blues (16-6) had a slow start, and trailed 14-8 after a quarter. Blair would stretch the lead in the 2nd quarter, but Hill stormed back and Solomon Ruddell took a nice pass from Ethan Norton and slammed it home before the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 29-29 going into intermission. Chase Audige had 10 of his game-high 17 points in the quarter, and Seth Stankiewicz had 7 of his 10 points to pace the Hill comeback. Hill went cold late in the third quarter and trailed the Bucs 48-39 lead into the fourth quarter. The Blues could not get closer than 5 points, snapping a six-game winning streak.
It was the 3rd straight MAPL championship game appearance for Hill. The Blues last won the league title in 2014.
Ruddell outscored his outstanding forward counterpart from Blair, 6-11 Deng Gak (10 points, 8 rebounds), showing solid improvement from the January meeting at Hill where Gak scored 27 points.
Stakeliunas had 10 rebounds to go with 8 points, and Audige had 7 boards.
Guard Bryce Allen dealt with rare foul trouble, and eventually fouled out. The loss leaves Allen still one game short of tying the Hill career wins record.
Hill returns to action this Tuesday night with a game against UPenn JV at the famed Palestra. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. After that, Hill returns home for the PAISAA state tournament. As the No. 2 seed, Hill is set for home games the opening two rounds, facing SCHA next Friday night at 7 p.m.
