Farrell rides hot start to 67-55 win over Gators
Rob Burchianti | 缅北禁地
Geibel Catholic鈥檚 Tre White (12) puts up a driving shot during Tuesday night鈥檚 PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell. White scored 13 points but the Gators lost, 67-55.
Rob Burchianti | 缅北禁地
Geibel Catholic鈥檚 Jaydis Kennedy fakes a jump shot and passes to a teammate during Tuesday night鈥檚 PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Farrell's Omar Stewart swats away a Geibel Catholic shot聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Trevell Clayton shoots over Farrell's Malachi Owens (1) during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell. Clayton scored 12 points but the Gators lost, 67-55.
Geibel Catholic's Jeffrey Johnson draws contact as he drives into the lane聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Jaydis Kennedy goes in for a layup聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell. Kennedy scored a team-high 18 points but the Gators lost, 67-55.
Geibel Catholic's Tre White (12) keeps the ball away from Farrell defender Kylon Wilson (4)聽during a PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell on March 8.
Geibel Catholic coach Don Porter talks to his players during a timeout in Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Farrell's Kebron Smith (23) hits a 3-point shot despite the defense of Geibel Catholic's Tre White (12)聽during the first quarter of Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Jeffrey Johnson puts in a layup聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Jaydis Kennedy takes a jump shot聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Tre White sinks a free throw during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
Geibel Catholic's Trevell Clayton grabs a rebound聽during Tuesday night's PIAA Class A first-round playoff game at Farrell.
FARRELL 鈥� Most of the time all the work coaches do in reviewing film and scouting opponents pays off in some way.
That wasn鈥檛 the case, unfortunately, for Geibel Catholic in its PIAA Class A first-round boys basketball playoff game at Farrell on Tuesday night.
鈥淲e scouted them, watched film and they just didn鈥檛 look that proficient in shooting threes,鈥� Gators coach Don Porter said. 鈥淪o we decided as a coaching staff to come out and run our match-up zone on them.
鈥淭hen they come out and hit four threes right off the bat.鈥�
Farrell鈥檚 barrage left Geibel facing an early 10-point deficit and it never quite recovered in falling to the Steelers, 67-55.
Farrell鈥檚 LJ Samuels, who scored a game-high 21 points, made two of his three 3-pointers in the opening quarter and Kebron Smith, who tallied 13 points, also hit two early treys.
The Steelers (16-8) also got 14 points from Omar Stewart and 10 points from Nasir O鈥橩ane.
Farrell, the District 10 champion, advances to Friday鈥檚 second round where it will face Elk County Catholic.
The Gators took an early 2-0 lead on two free throws by Trevell Clayton but Smith and Samuels answered with consecutive 3-pointers and the Steelers never trailed again.
Farrell led 14-4 early on.
鈥淭hose threes put us in an early hole and we were fighting to get out of it the rest of the game,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淲e can always second-guess ourselves. It鈥檚 a chess match. Sometimes you have the right plan and sometimes you don鈥檛.
鈥淭hat first couple minutes of the game was on me because that was my decision, basically, to zone them up. Once we got out of that zone I thought our defense played pretty well.鈥�
The Gators fought back to within 19-14 by the end of the first quarter on a late basket by Tre White.
Coach Myron Lowe鈥檚 Steelers, who forced 22 turnovers with their full-court pressure defense, opened the second quarter with a 13-2 run to go up 31-16, prompting Porter to use a timeout.
The Gators, sparked by five points from Jaydis Kennedy and four by Clayton, responded with an 11-5 spurt to cut the margin to 36-27 at halftime.
Geibel whittled the gap to eight on a basket by Jeffrey Johnson early in the third quarter but Clayton drew his third and fourth fouls soon after and Farrell took advantage of the 6-foot-5 senior鈥檚 absence by driving to the basket and scoring inside.
The Steelers held a 52-39 advantage after three quarters and after Clayton was whistled for his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter, the hosts extended the lead to as much as 20 before settling on a 12-point victory.
Porter felt Clayton鈥檚 foul trouble had a big impact on the outcome.
鈥淏ig T鈥檚 our guy. He鈥檚 our leader,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淗e was doing well on the boards, scoring, blocking shots. He鈥檚 a great player. The game was very, very physical at times and I felt some of the calls on him were very questionable.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not the same team when he鈥檚 sitting on the bench next to me.鈥�
Geibel was also hurt by an injury to starter Kaiden Grady who missed most of the second half.
鈥淗e rolled an ankle,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淲e had to go deep into our bench tonight.鈥�
Porter did laud the performance of bench player Brayden Curry who was pressed into significant action.
鈥淏rayden is a kid who worked his way through the system all year,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淗e had to play a lot of minutes tonight and he did a lot of good things out there.鈥�
Kennedy led the Gators with 18 points, White followed with 13 and Clayton wound up with 12. Grady added eight points with Johnson and Mike Miller contributing two points apiece.
Geibel鈥檚 campaign comes to an end with an 18-7 record. It鈥檚 the most wins the Gators have had since they were 18-5 under the late Ken Misiak in the 2004-05 season.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to use this game as a learning lesson for next year,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淲e have everybody back but Trevell, although that is a big loss. Trevell always settled everybody down. He鈥檚 the most level-headed guy on the team. He鈥檚 the one everyone looked up to.
鈥淏ut Jaydis, Tre, Jeffrey and Kaiden will be returning starters and Curry will be back. We鈥檒l have Tommy Kolencik and Najaah Haggins coming back from injuries.
鈥淭he guys now have some valuable playoff experience. We made it to the semifinals of the WPIAL and we played a state playoff game so everybody knows what to expect now. We鈥檒l be senior laden next season and we鈥檙e looking forward to that.鈥�