Hill, St. John Neumann too much for Faith Christian in PIAA-1A second round

CASS TWP. >> Slow starts are been something the Faith Christian boys basketball team have been able to overcome during its postseason run.

But that was not going to be the case Friday night against Davion Hill and District 4 champ St. John Neumann.

“That first half it’s kind of been the same story it has been this entire playoffs,” Faith senior guard Shane O’Conner said. “We’ve come out not shooting the best in the first half really and we’ve just been lucky from the past few games to not have the other team shoot as well either. But they came out and they were hitting their shots immediately.”

The Lions had few answers in the PIAA Class 1A second-round matchup for containing Hill, who racked up 18 points in the first half as the Golden Knights took a 30-13 lead into halftime. 

Faith’s offense finally came around in the third quarter but the District 1 champ could do little to dent the deficit as Neumann rolled to a 61-39 victory at Minersville Area High School’s Thomas Fitzpatrick Gymnasium.

“We knew we were going to have to play a complete game against a team like this,” Faith Christian coach Seth Brunner said. “When you get to the Sweet 16 of states, you can’t really afford slow starts, especially against a team like that who plays fast, has the guards that they do so they can shoot and attack so for us, we came out and I thought we got good looks early, they weren’t falling.”

Hill finished with a game-high 26 points, registered 10 during a 17-4 run in the second quarter that gave the Golden Knights their biggest lead before the break at 30-11. The standout junior scoring came from a variety of means – off steals, on rebounds, hitting twice on 3-pointers and in the third even having his pass deflected by O’Conner and having it sail up to the rim and dropping in.

 “I didn’t know what to do – I don’t know if you saw me, but I just kind of smiled,” said O’Conner of Hill’s very unconventional two. “I had no clue. I looked to my bench, I was like ‘Any explanation?’ One of the kids on the other team came down, he’s like ‘Yo, that’s crazy.’”

Gerald Pinkney had a team-high 11 points while O’Conner collected seven of his nine points in the third for Faith Christian (15-14), which was trying to reach the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2019.

“This year we lost four key starters, seniors and then we had multiple guys who we anticipated (were going to) play big roles who ended up not playing this year for various reasons,” said Brunner, a Faith alum who is in his third season as Lions head coach. “So when you have a brand-new team like this, a lot of people outside of our team didn’t have high expectations for us so when we came out it wasn’t an easy road, we had a lot of hard losses that we should have won and good wins but we preach to these guys all year ‘1-0 mentality,’ and we really believe we can do something special.

“So to go out there and do it with the guys that we had, I really believe that we were underdogs throughout the season and we embraced that mentally and these guys played like it. Played every game like it was their last and to come out and say that we were district champions and putting in the work like we did all year and look back and say, ‘You know, it paid off.’”

After a 10-12 regular season, Faith advanced to the Bicentennial Athletic League semifinals where it was bounced from the tournament by Phil-Mont Christian. But the Lions returned the favor in the District 1-1A semis, upsetting top-seeded Phil-Mont then topping Plumstead Christian for Faith’s first district title since 2018.

The Lions opened states Tuesday with a 49-45 overtime win over District 11 third-place side Roberto Clemente Tuesday.

“One of the biggest things this entire season has just been we’ve been the underdogs pretty much the entire way,” O’Conner said. “Even within our own school community they only people that thought we can make it this far were the people on the team, the coaches and all of our fans, like in terms of family. But it feels really good to go past all those expectations.”

Hanief Clay had 13 points while Naseer Dymeck added 10 points for St. John Neumann (24-3), which advances to the 1A state quarters for the second straight season. Tuesday, The Golden Knights face District 3 champ Linville Hill Christian, which beat Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg 66-56 at Minersville.

Faith never led Friday night, Neumann jumping out to a 5-0 advantage before baskets from O’Conner and Chris Evans had the Lions down 5-4. Hill, however, scored six points as the Golden Knights ended the first quarter with an 8-1 run – Hill’s 3-pointer making it 13-5 after eight minutes of play.

Two Pinkney free throws 33 seconds into the second quarter had Faith within six but St. John Neumann proceeded to score the next nine, the last five from Hill with his steal and layup putting the District 4 champs up 22-7.

“Davion, credit to him, he was a much better player than I think any of us gave him credit for cause we only saw so much of him,” O’Conner said. “But I think he was huge for them. I really felt like if we stopped him, we probably could of pulled that game closer or maybe even won but we weren’t able to stop him which was unfortunate.”

After a Clay foul shot gave Neumann a 25-8 lead, Tyler Forscht’s trey had Faith down 14. But Hill responded with three while a Dymeck basket extended the lead to 30-11. Two Pinkney free throws at 10.5 seconds made it 30-13 at halftime.

“I felt we’re definitely a lot better team composure-wise it just kind of got exposed tonight,” O’Conner said. “They kind of only really gave us one thing to do which was have our point guard drive into a wide-open lane and shots weren’t falling like you said. It’s unfortunate.”

The Lions began to get some shots to fall in the third, as a Bryce Robinson 3-pointer cutting Neumann’s advantage to 15 at 34-19. 

Faith was within 15 twice more, the last time at 38-23 after a O’Conner basket off a baseline drive. But Neumann posted the next seven points, a triple from Dymeck pushing the Golden Knights lead to 45-23.

“I thought we played to their pace instead of our pace a little in the first half,” Brunner said. “We told them, trust our offense, trust our game and let the rest work itself out. I thought they settled down a little more in the second half.”

A 6-0 Faith burst made it 45-29 after an O’Conner baseline runner. But a Hill two inside in the third’s final seconds then baskets from Clay and Hill to open the fourth had Neumann up 51-29. The Golden Knights grabbed their biggest lead at 59-35 after a Clay bucket.

PIAA Class 1A Second Round
(4-1) St. John Neumann 61, (1-1) Faith Christian 39
Faith Christian 5 8 16 10 – 39
St. John Neumann 13 17 17 14 – 61
Faith Christian: Gerald Pinkney 3 5-7 11; Shane O’Conner 4 0-0 9; Chris Evans 3 0-0 6; Bryce Robison 2 0-0 6; Tyler Forscht 1 1-2 4; Levi Nice 1 0-0 2; Paul Leisner 0 1-3 1; Totals 14 7-12 39
St. John Neumann:  Davion Hill 11 2-5 26; Hanief Clay 6 1-4 13; Naseer Dymeck 4 0-0 10; Jeval Weeks-Shuler 3 0-0 6; Nazier Smith 2 0-0 4; Jozef Savage 1 0-0 2; Josiah Coleman 0 0-2 0; Totals 27 3-11 61.  
3-pointers: FCA-Robinson 2, Forscht, O’Conner; SJN- Dymeck 2, Hill 2.