Lewistown vs. PC
Lewistown vs. PC
I took the trip to Cresson tonight to see Lewistown and PC face off. Lewistown came in 10-0 and PC was 7-3 to start the contest, and it lived up to the hype. Lewistown jumped out to an early lead behind the shooting of #5(sorry I didn't catch his name) and the inside presence of Stewart(#25) who gave Dziabo all he could handle. Lewistown stretched the lead to as much as 15 in the first half but PC cut it to 12 by the half.
The 2nd half started and Bruce had his boys ready to go, he quickly got it within striking distance at 3 before letting #5 rip off a stretch of about 10 straight for L-town, pushing the lead to 13. Dziabo, Tomaselli and Bernazolli took it back down to about 8 to start the 4th. Here is where the refs come into play. When in Cresson you must in reality win by 10 to win by 1 with they way Bruce gets calls for his boys and Lewistown did just that. Tomaselli hit a few 3's and #31(not sure who it is) made a few nice plays cutting it to 1 before Stewart scored again with :30 to go. PC got the ball back and missed 3 3's before L-town got a rebound. Lewistown promptly turned it back over and Jason Noga took the ball down, passed up a 3 and missed a layup with :05 showing on the clock. I don't know why he drove it, he is lights out from behind the arc but did not shoot it. PC lost a tough one by 3.
To me Lewistown didn't look as good as I thought they would and I think CC and Johnstown will be the class of AAA this year and will face off at SFU.
The 2nd half started and Bruce had his boys ready to go, he quickly got it within striking distance at 3 before letting #5 rip off a stretch of about 10 straight for L-town, pushing the lead to 13. Dziabo, Tomaselli and Bernazolli took it back down to about 8 to start the 4th. Here is where the refs come into play. When in Cresson you must in reality win by 10 to win by 1 with they way Bruce gets calls for his boys and Lewistown did just that. Tomaselli hit a few 3's and #31(not sure who it is) made a few nice plays cutting it to 1 before Stewart scored again with :30 to go. PC got the ball back and missed 3 3's before L-town got a rebound. Lewistown promptly turned it back over and Jason Noga took the ball down, passed up a 3 and missed a layup with :05 showing on the clock. I don't know why he drove it, he is lights out from behind the arc but did not shoot it. PC lost a tough one by 3.
To me Lewistown didn't look as good as I thought they would and I think CC and Johnstown will be the class of AAA this year and will face off at SFU.
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WPIAL~Titan
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Game
I was at the PC/Lewistown game as well. My 2 hour trip from suburban Pittsburgh was well worth the while for this exciting game. PC trailed most of the game, including by 13 (64-51) with 5:50 left before using full court pressure to mount a final charge. If PC had another 2 minutes, I believe they would have won the game.
Lewistown absolutely shot the lights out. I would bet that they were around 65% from the field for the game. #5 is a SOPH guard and crushed PC. He nailed 7-8 three-point shots and scored around 30 points. I didn't catch his name either, but he's going to be a very good player for the Mountain League and D6. I notice that #5's production tailed off a bit the last 10 minutes of the game when PC pressured and bumped/banged him around a little. PC's pressure was effective in getting Lewistown off balance and I'd bet if Bruce could do it over, he'd pressure Ltown more and earlier. It almost won the game for them. I also thought that #25 and #13 were decent post players.
PC missed way too many open looks to beat a good team...Dzaibo had a tough game shooting the ball and missed at least 7-8 easy looks less than 5 feet from the basket. Against good teams like Lewistown, that will kill a team. Dzaibo scored maybe 15 points, well below his season average and that was the difference in the game. Dzaibo is very aggressive and athletic. I was impressed with him, other than the fact that he had an off night finishing plays.
All in all, I thought Lewistown played pretty well. I definitely think that they will be right there with CC or Jtown come playoff time.
In terms of Bruce getting calls at PC, I think that is more perception than reality because PC is so tough to defeat at home. I have seen the two officials who did the game have been doing games for 20+ years at all different venues. They are decent, honest officials. Sometimes in district 6, officials get carried away with themselves and the (wrong) idea sneaks into their heads that the fans are there to watch them officiate. I have seen things like "3 seconds", "illegal screens", and "travelling" violations called out of nowhere in district 6 game, particularly favoring the home team. I also see many D6 officials get whistle crazy and make games Knights of Columbus FT Shooting Contests. The best officials don't make a lot of the chicken poop calls I see too many D6 officials make. In other districts, the pfficiating seems more "liberal", that is, officials let the players decide the games by not "over-officiating". Just my opinion from years of watching and coaching hoops at a variety of levels in a variety of different places.
Do I think that officials would consciously cheat for PC? No. The fact is, officials sometimes get caught up in the emotion of the game and it may seem like they gave PC more calls...But, if the game was at CC or Jtown or Lewistown, the home team would have gotten the calls. I have seen it happen time and time again where officials just get whistle happy and caught up in the moment due to the home crowd's emotion. PC is a tough place to play, but I've seen officials give calls at CC and Westmont, too.
Faces in the crowd: CC's coach Traino, Jtown's coach Shipman, Westy's coach Roman, and an assistant from Hollidaysburg.
This was a really good game. PC is getting better as the season goes on and no one will want to play them in Cresson in the 2nd half of the season. PC will also be the 6 or 7 seed that no one will want to play (including CC, Jtown, and Lewistown) come 6-AAA tourney time in February.
W~T
Lewistown absolutely shot the lights out. I would bet that they were around 65% from the field for the game. #5 is a SOPH guard and crushed PC. He nailed 7-8 three-point shots and scored around 30 points. I didn't catch his name either, but he's going to be a very good player for the Mountain League and D6. I notice that #5's production tailed off a bit the last 10 minutes of the game when PC pressured and bumped/banged him around a little. PC's pressure was effective in getting Lewistown off balance and I'd bet if Bruce could do it over, he'd pressure Ltown more and earlier. It almost won the game for them. I also thought that #25 and #13 were decent post players.
PC missed way too many open looks to beat a good team...Dzaibo had a tough game shooting the ball and missed at least 7-8 easy looks less than 5 feet from the basket. Against good teams like Lewistown, that will kill a team. Dzaibo scored maybe 15 points, well below his season average and that was the difference in the game. Dzaibo is very aggressive and athletic. I was impressed with him, other than the fact that he had an off night finishing plays.
All in all, I thought Lewistown played pretty well. I definitely think that they will be right there with CC or Jtown come playoff time.
In terms of Bruce getting calls at PC, I think that is more perception than reality because PC is so tough to defeat at home. I have seen the two officials who did the game have been doing games for 20+ years at all different venues. They are decent, honest officials. Sometimes in district 6, officials get carried away with themselves and the (wrong) idea sneaks into their heads that the fans are there to watch them officiate. I have seen things like "3 seconds", "illegal screens", and "travelling" violations called out of nowhere in district 6 game, particularly favoring the home team. I also see many D6 officials get whistle crazy and make games Knights of Columbus FT Shooting Contests. The best officials don't make a lot of the chicken poop calls I see too many D6 officials make. In other districts, the pfficiating seems more "liberal", that is, officials let the players decide the games by not "over-officiating". Just my opinion from years of watching and coaching hoops at a variety of levels in a variety of different places.
Do I think that officials would consciously cheat for PC? No. The fact is, officials sometimes get caught up in the emotion of the game and it may seem like they gave PC more calls...But, if the game was at CC or Jtown or Lewistown, the home team would have gotten the calls. I have seen it happen time and time again where officials just get whistle happy and caught up in the moment due to the home crowd's emotion. PC is a tough place to play, but I've seen officials give calls at CC and Westmont, too.
Faces in the crowd: CC's coach Traino, Jtown's coach Shipman, Westy's coach Roman, and an assistant from Hollidaysburg.
This was a really good game. PC is getting better as the season goes on and no one will want to play them in Cresson in the 2nd half of the season. PC will also be the 6 or 7 seed that no one will want to play (including CC, Jtown, and Lewistown) come 6-AAA tourney time in February.
W~T
