State College boys’ basketball falls to Pine-Richland in second round of PIAA playoffs

Pine-Richland coach Jeff Ackermann devised a game plan centered around limiting State College forward Drew Friberg’s touches in the second round of the PIAA Class 6A tournament Wednesday night.

The Rams utilized a diamond-and-one defense to carry out that plan, and it worked even better than Ackermann thought it would in Pine-Richland’s 83-63 win over the Little Lions at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

“I didn’t expect to play the diamond all game,” Ackermann said. “I really didn’t, but it worked so well, we just stayed with it and we didn’t mess with it. We were going to go back to our man-to-man, but it didn’t make sense.”

The Little Lions never found a rhythm against the Rams’ defense, and Friberg rarely touched the ball all night. Friberg finished with 14 points, but he was held to five points in the first three quarters. By the time the fourth quarter started, Pine-Richland was well on its way to the win with a 54-37 lead.

The second-round loss ended a memorable two-year run by the Little Lions. State College won back-to-back Mid Penn championships and finished with a combined record of 45-7 in the past two seasons — with all seven losses against teams that reached the second round of the state playoffs. State College was one of the top teams in the state from the start of the season, winning its first 16 games and finishing with a 24-2 record.

“This team represents what I think high school basketball should be, and unfortunately, I think the story ended long before we wanted it to,” State College coach Joe Walker said.

The Little Lions envisioned ending their season in Hershey in the state championship game.

But they couldn’t keep pace with Pine-Richland, which lost in the state title game last year. The experienced Rams shut down Friberg with the diamond-and-one — Pine-Richland’s Colin Luellen and Kenny White took turns face-guarding Friberg on Wednesday night.

Friberg scored his lone bucket of the first quarter on a transition layup. He didn’t get the ball much on the offensive end and didn’t score in the second quarter until running off a double screen out of a timeout for a 3-pointer.

While Friberg’s looks were limited, the Rams started to take control. Pine-Richland led 35-26 at halftime and extended its lead to 54-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

“They had a great game plan to take him out of the game, and I didn’t do a good enough job to make sure he kept getting the ball in his hands,” Walker said. “I don’t think we were aggressive enough early on getting into gaps. It had a tremendous impact on the game when your 20-point scorer is held below his average and not getting touches.”

The Little Lions couldn’t find an answer offensively to stay within striking distance against the balanced Rams. Phil Jurkovec scored 22 points to lead five Pine-Richland players in double figures, and Greg Shulkosky added 20.

“We feel like we have something a lot of teams don’t have,” Ackermann said. “We have guys that have played in a state finals before, and there’s not too many guys around that have played in the state finals before.”

The Rams will continue to play toward making another appearance in Hershey after outplaying the Little Lions.

“I hate walking out of here knowing how they feel, knowing how I feel, but that’s state playoff basketball,” Walker said. “They played really well. We didn’t play well at points. They had a great game plan. We weren’t well prepared enough. They’re a great team. They went to the state finals for a reason last year.”

Though the Little Lions didn’t make a run to the state title game, Friberg and the rest of the seniors turned the program into one of the best in the state for two years.

“They’ve created a legacy in a short time in terms of our place in the center of the state and the Mid Penn, representing in our league,” Walker said. “That’s basketball-wise. People-wise, they’ve just had such an impact on my life of commitment to each other and the type of people that they are. I can’t say enough about ’em.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2018 at 10:08 PM with the headline "State College boys’ basketball falls to Pine-Richland in second round of PIAA playoffs."