Conwell-Egan Catholic powers past Upper Dauphin in PIAA opener (GALLERY)
PHILADELPHIA – Conwell-Egan Catholic (CEC) may be the defending PIAA Class AA champions but in actuality, the only players the Eagles have with any state playoff experience are seniors Vinny Dalessandro and Lapri McCray-Pace.
Coincidentally or not, the dynamic duo led District 12 champion Egan (16-9) to its first PIAA tournament win over District 3 third-place finisher Upper Dauphin Saturday evening, March 5 at Philadelphia University’s Gallagher Center.
“When you have kids who play together for four years, who are teammates and know each other and what one another does, it’s special,” said CEC head coach Frank Sciolla.
“They already have left a legacy on this program and now, they’re looking for something more and I think that’s pretty neat.”
Dallesandro was electric, especially in the first half when he registered 17 of his game-high 23 points, staking the Eagles to a 33-20 halftime lead. After hitting three shots from the floor in the first period, Dallesandro turned it up another notch in the second, hitting for 11 points including a 3-pointer.
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“We took a timeout and we told Vinny ‘the name of the game is getting you to the rim area. If we do that, we’re going to be successful.’”
“Threes are great but we need to attack and pound the rim. He really took to that; we found him a number of times and he finished and that’s what we need.”
“If we’re able to get into the tournament deeper, we’re going to see more of our size. Tonight, the size advantage was ours and we used it to the best of our ability.”
“He’s 6-7; you have to get him to the rim,” added McCray-Pace, of Dallesandro. “Everyone else is four or five inches smaller than him so he HAS to get to the rim.”
For his part, McCray-Pace registered six field goals in the game including a pair of 3-point plays in the third quarter. CEC junior Kar’ron Johnson (11 pts.) hit a pair of 3-pointers before the intermission and two more field goals after the break.
CEC sophomore Eric Esposito added 10 points to the Eagles’ effort including a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.
“He can play,” said McCray-Pace, of Esposito. “But we had to get him out of the habit of standing on the 3-point line; he has to dribble the ball.
“He’s only 15 but his arms come down to his knees so he’s going to be tall.
“He has to dribble the ball and move in from outside the three (-point line).
“But we don’t mind him taking outside shots; he’s a great shooter.”
Pacing the Trojans (22-5) was UD senior Matt Miller, who hit for 19 points, canning six shots from the floor in the first half including four from behind the 3-point line. Sixteen of Miller’s points came before the halftime break.
“They came out and did a good job of finding Miller and he kept them in the game in the first half,” said Sciolla.
“He never really beat any of us; we just lost him coming out of a lot of screens. He never beat us off the dribble or anything,” said McCray-Pace, of Miller, a 1,500-point career scorer for Upper Dauphin. “We just had to contain him so we changed the defense we were playing and we just stayed with him.”
After the intermission, the Eagle ‘D’ limited Miller – the Trojans’ second all-time leading scorer – to a third-period jumper and 1-of-2 free throws. No other player for the two-time Tri-Valley champs reached double-digit scoring for Upper Dauphin however as the Trojans finished their current campaign at 22-5.
“Dalessandro is a tough matchup for us,” said Upper Dauphin head coach Anthony Weaver, whose team last made it to states in 2003. “Our tallest kid is 6-2 so we tried to back him away from the glass and make him shoot over the top.
“But he was getting rebounds and he was finishing.
“Pace was tough inside too. When he gets the ball in the paint, he’s a hard guy to stop.
“Conwell-Egan has a nice team; they’re returning state champs for a reason.
“But I’m proud of our guys; we gave it a good effort and we had a heck of a season.”
Limiting the Trojans to eight points in the second period and just six in the third, Egan registered 20 and 17 points, respectively, in those frames to go into the final quarter with a comfortable 50-26 lead. And that was after leading by a single point – 13-12 – after one period.
CEC senior James Thompson did a nice job, said Sciolla, of shadowing Miller and UD point guard Jordan Gessner (6 pts.).
“We started off a little slow but we picked it up – the second quarter, we picked it up,” said McCray-Pace. “We pressured the ball and everyone got more comfortable as we knocked down some more shots.
“That’s all it was – nervous, first game, so … keep it moving.”
Conwell-Egan advances to face District 11 champ Minersville – a 42-33 winner over District 4 runner-up Wellsboro – at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 9 at Governor Mifflin (Shillington).
“I just can’t wait; I love playing better teams,” said McCray-Pace. “That’s competition; we’re the state champions and everyone’s out to get us.”
The Battlin’ Miners (22-4) also made it to round two of the state playoffs last year but lost to 2015 District 4 champ Loyalsock.
Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Conwell-Egan Catholic 62, Upper Dauphin 38
(March 5 at Phila. University)
Conwell-Egan 13 20 17 12 – 62
Upper Dauphin 12 8 6 12 – 38
CONWELL-EGAN (16-9) — Danny Green 2, Kar’ron Johnson 11, Lapri McCray-Pace 14, Greg Lutz 2, Eric Esposito 10, Vinny Dalessandro 23; TOTALS — 26 6-12 62.
UPPER DAUPHIN (22-5) — Matt Miller 19, Max Snyder 2, Jordan Gessner 6, Travis Deitrich 5, Alex Uhler 4, Andre Norris 2; TOTALS — 14 5-8 38.
3-POINT GOALS: CE — Esposito 2, Dalessandro, Johnson; UD — Miller 4, Deitrich.
