Panthers fall to Pottsville in Schuylkill semifinals

POTTSVILLE – Ryan Kondrack set the tone for Pottsville.

That was all the Tide needed.

Kondrack’s hot shooting propelled Pottsville to a 76-36 win over Panther Valley on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Schuylkill League boys basketball tournament at Martz Hall.

The senior buried two early threes for the Division 1 champion Tide (18-5, 13-1), who drained 10 treys and pulled away in the second half to advance to the championship game.

“I think that the defense they played, we were just trying to attack the middle guy there, and we knew just from watching on film, that if we had a shooter on that wing, they weren’t really gonna cover that,” said Pottsville head coach Dave Mullaney.

“We thought that that would be there, and if it wasn’t, we’d be able to get short corner or high post out of it. And that kinda was open the whole game.”

Kondrack hit four threes in the game – three in the first half – and finished with 14 points.

“I think Ryan got some really good looks. He’s a good shooter,” Mullaney said of Kondrack. “You’re not always gonna make 70 percent of them. But he shot it pretty well tonight.”

Six Pottsville players connected from beyond the arc in the game. The Tide also got solid play from big man Ian Renninger, who finished with 16 points, while Ryan Schenk added 12.

“They’re so hard to guard, because they have multiple guys that can shoot that you need to worry about,” said Panthers head coach Pat Crampsie. “But they also have Eli Wood (seven points), who is great at penetrating; they have Renninger around the rims. So there’s so much you gotta worry about defending.

“We were kinda hoping our pressure would disrupt their rhythm a little bit. At times, I think it did in the first half. But second half, they really just did a great job of moving the ball, and getting great looks. I’m pretty sure they got a lot of turnovers in the second half, which didn’t happen so much in the first half.”

Brandon Stilitino provided a spark for Division 3 champion Panther Valley (15-8, 10-3), finishing with 12 points.

The sophomore nailed a trey in the first 30 seconds of the third quarter to cut Pottsville’s lead to 32-19. But the Panthers went scoreless for nearly four minutes after that, and trailed 45-22 after Stilitino’s next triple with 3:37 left in the third period.

“He kept us within striking distance there for a bit,” Crampsie said of Stilitino. “In the second half, we’re down 16, and he came out and hit a three right away to cut it to 13, which was exactly what we were hoping for. We were hoping to buckle down and get a couple stops there, maybe get it to single digits.

“But once they got a few steals, and ramped up the pressure, it kind of snowballed. Then we made a few plays that were uncharacteristic of things that we had done earlier in the year.”

A Pottsville defense that allowed just 36.1 points per game coming into the contest held the Panthers’ leading scorer, Rene Figueroa (19.68), to nine points. Tristan Blasko, who was scoring at a 14.45 clip entering the night, finished with four.

“Those guys knew what to expect,” Crampsie said of the Tide’s defense. “It’s something you can’t replicate at practice. No matter how hard you try, you can’t do it.

“That’s why we kinda took a little different approach and really wanted to force the issue and push the ball. But even when we got some looks in the first half, shots that usually fall for us weren’t falling.”

REMATCH … Pottsville will face Blue Mountain (19-4, 12-2) in Friday’s championship game. The Eagles knocked off Division 2 champion Lourdes Regional 78-58 in Tuesday’s first semifinal. The Tide suffered a 47-39 loss to Division 1 wildcard Blue Mountain in last year’s title tilt.

BEEN A MINUTE … Panther Valley’s last appearance in the league playoffs came in 2000, when the Panthers lost to Pottsville, 83-62, in the championship game.

PANTHER VALLEY

Marcharro 1-0-0-2, Stilitino 4-0-0-12, Turner 0-0-0-0, Figueroa 4-1-2-9, Depew 1-0-0-3, Distler 0-0-0-0, White 0-0-0-0, Blasko 2-0-0-4, Perez 0-0-2-0, Sanchez 0-0-0-0, Prudente 0-0-0-0, Wallace 1-0-0-3, Krapf 0-0-0-0, Brettle 0-0-0-0, Buzzard 0-0-0-0, Juracka 0-0-0-0, Berk 0-1-2-1, Hoben 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-2-6-36.

POTTSVILLE

Schenk 5-0-0-12, Sherakas 0-0-0-0, Barnes 3-1-2-7, Yost 1-0-0-2, Wood 3-1-3-7, Nabholz 1-0-0-2, A. Stanton 1-0-0-3, R. Stanton 0-0-0-0, McCord 1-0-0-3, Tobin 2-0-0-5, Renninger 6-5-4-16, Kondrack 5-0-0-14, Dicello 0-0-0-0, Hahner 2-0-0-5. TOTALS: 30-6-11-76.

Panther Vy. 8 8 9 11 - 36

Pottsville 18 14 23 21 - 76

Three-pointers: Panther ValleyStilitinoino 4, Depew 1, Wallace 1; PottsvilleKondrackack 4, Schenk 2, A. Stanton 1, McCord 1, Tobin Hahnerner 1.