Four players finish in double digits as Saint Joe’s boys basketball advances in playoffs
No one could deny Saint Joseph’s Catholic’s hustle on Tuesday night against Penns Manor in the District 6, Class 1A quarterfinals.
Spencer Gigante had multiple putback scores, while Charlie Yartz and Michael Lower chased after loose balls. Senior forward Tim Peters literally jumped into the fray by running into the stands. The quartet of players finished in double figures as the Wolfpack defeated the Comets 73-45 in the District 6, Class 1A quarterfinals at Bald Eagle Area High School.
“It was the first playoff game for a lot of these guys,” Gigante said. “I told them, ‘Let’s bury it. Let’s prove who we are.’ We’re getting in here coming off of a great season at 16-6. We played a good Greenwood team to end the regular season. We’ve prepared all week. We’ve basically been saying, ‘This is our game,’ and now we’ve proved that pretty easily.”
Gigante’s fellow senior Peters is headed to college this fall to play golf. When it came time to play what could’ve been his final competitive basketball game, many emotions came to him. The senior now gets to keep his career going.
“It’s awesome. Just growing as a team, it’s pretty exciting,” Peters said. “I’m excited to see what comes next. With three other guys and myself scoring double digits this game, it doesn’t happen very often, but for it to happen in a playoff game, it means a lot.”
The Wolfpack went on a 5-0 run in the first 49 seconds of the second quarter with Lower pushing the pace, connecting on a 3-point field goal and driving layup. Lower ended his first high school postseason contest with a game-high 19 points. He was still more impressed with the elder statesmen in Gigante and Peters with 17 and 14 points respectively.
“It was big for them to show up like that in the playoffs,” Lower said. “They didn’t score much in the regular season, but they came up big in the playoffs. That’s big.”
Yartz got into some early foul trouble in his first District 6 playoff game. The sophomore picked up two early fouls — his first one being a swipe across the dribbler’s wrist and the second foul was a questionable call at the rim. He quickly dusted himself off and finished the game with 15 points.
“I was really excited coming into it,” Yartz said. “I had to calm myself down because I was a little too excited, but we were all ready to play, we were all focused, and we just showed that on the court and played well together.”
Saint Joseph’s opened up the game with a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, powered by Gigante’s eight points. The Wolfpack finished the half with a 33-13 lead. From that point on, Saint Joseph’s turned up the heat — taking a 46-21 lead with 4 minutes, 38 seconds left in the third and capping off the third with a 56-30 lead. Saint Joseph’s head coach John Straub emptied the bench with a 70-40 lead with less than a minute left.
Splash.
Artie Welsh capped off the game with a 3-pointer for the Wolfpack to seal the 73-45 win.
The Wolfpack is set to travel to Harmony on Friday at 7 p.m. to take on the Owls.
Saint Joseph’s 73, Penns Manor 45
SJCA (17-6): Lower 19, Gigante 17, Yartz 15, Peters 14, Warner 4, Welsh 3, Eby 1
PM (11-12): Hill 15, Courvina 10, Ragley 6, Kerchensky 6, Polenik 3, Gresko 3, Kuzemchak 2
Half: 33-13, Saint Joseph’s
