Zach Crisler leads La Salle over Simon Gratz, into PIAA-6A tournament
PHILADELPHIA >> La Salle forward Zach Crisler had a five-inch height advantage over his Simon Gratz counterpart during the opening tip Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs big man didn’t leave his feet when the ball was thrown into the air, allowing the Explorers 6-foot-9 senior to easily win the jump back to his point guard.
That was just about the same type of opposition Crisler faced for the rest of the game.
He scored 19 points — 15 in the first half — to lead La Salle to a 56-41 win over Gratz at Archbishop Ryan High School and secure the fourth and final District 12 spot in the Class 6A state tournament.
“It was all my teammates,” Crisler said. “It’s not like I did anything spectacular or made any crazy moves. They set me really nice back-screens and stuff. I was just cutting and they were seeing me, finding me for easy shots.”
La Salle, coming off a Philadelphia Catholic League championship game loss against Roman Catholic Monday, quickly jumped out to a big lead.
The Explorers opened the game with a 13-0 run and led 17-4 after eight minutes. Senior Konrad Kiszka had eight points in the first and Crisler added six.
“(Monday) was a really tough loss for us,” Crisler said. “This was a big bounceback game for us. It got a little shaky there at the end, but we were really just trying to play solid and prepare for later games.”
It was a dominant night for the Crisler-Kiszka duo. The former had five assists and three rebounds to go with his 19 points while the latter posted 10 points, six assists and five rebounds.
“I love playing with Konrad,” Crisler said. “We’ve been playing together since the seventh grade or something like that and AAU and stuff. We just have really good sight of each other. We know where each other is going to cut and slip. It’s a lot of fun when you cut backdoor and just get a nice, crisp pass right under the net for an easy bucket.”
Crisler, a Rice commit, continued his dominance in the second quarter, scoring nine points.
While he was scoring, the Explorers defense was keeping Gratz off the board. They limited the Bulldogs to four points in the first quarter and 14 in the first half to take a 31-14 lead into the break.
“We tried to be solid,” Crisler said, “put the pressure on, make them make quick decisions, which they struggled with a little bit in the first half.”
La Salle continued to dominate in the third quarter, out-scoring Gratz, 18-10, and taking a commanding 49-24 advantage.
The Bulldogs hit four three-pointers in the fourth to get their deficit under 20, but never truly threatened to get back in the game.
La Salle starts the state playoffs Saturday March 9 against the District 3 runner-up.
