State College Boys Set to Face Butler

The Butler Golden Tornadoes may only have finished in third place in the WPIAL 6A 1 Division, but they were just beginning to find their game as the regular season ended.

Butler entered the WPIAL playoffs as the No. 7 seed, and they had no easy road ahead of them. First, it was Baldwin, which resulted in an upset, 71-62 win Feb. 22 at North Allegheny High School. Next, it was powerful Latrobe, at Penn Hills High on Feb. 25, and that turned out to be another surprise and another win, 70-64.

In the semifinals, the Tornadoes faced Woodland Hills, another underdog team reaching for new heights. In an uncharacteristic game between two high-scoring teams, Butler outlasted the Wolverines, 54-36, and advanced to the WPIAL Final for the first time since 2000.

The streak ended there, however, as No. 1 Pine Richland (24-1) won its second consecutive championship and entered the state playoffs as the D-7’s top seed. Butler earned the No. 2 seed.

In the PIAA 6A first round, Butler squared off with another D-7 rival, Canon McMillan. And in another close-to-the-vest contest, the Tornadoes prevailed again by a score of 51-46.

The win sets up a second-round showdown with State College, an 82-71 winner over Woodland Hills in its PIAA opener. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown.

Butler is led by the outside-inside combination of 6-foot-5 star freshman point guard Ethan Morton and 6-6 senior forward Tyler Frederick.

Morton is the team’s leader and high scorer — he tallied a total of 40 points against Woodland Hills and Pine Richland — and he is a threat from the outside or going to the basket.

Frederick averages in double figures in points and rebounds (he had a double-double against Woodland), and he is the key to keeping Butler competitive inside against taller teams.

State College will bring two major scoring threats into the game — senior Tommy Sekunda and junior Drew Friberg. The two have carried the Little Lions throughout much of the season, but in the latter stages and the playoffs, State College is seeing other players emerge as scoring threats and supplying needed balance to the offense.

Eli Bokunewicz, Keaton Ellis, Tommy Friberg, Ryan McNulty, Rian Scanlon and Max Benner have all made important contributions down the stretch, especially in games when Friberg and Sekunda are closely marked.

Both State College and Butler are easily capable of going over 70 or even 80 points, but, as it is so often in the playoffs, the team that plays the best defense will have the advantage.

And both teams are capable of that as well.

At stake is a trip the state quarterfinals to face the winner of Pine Richland vs. Allderdice (D-8-1).

STATE HIGH TOPS WOODLAND HILLS

The echoes of the State College’s first round PIAA loss to Carlisle in 2016 may still have been swirling around the BEA gym when the Little Lions took the floor against Woodland Hills in this year’s 6A opener March 11.

They may even have gotten louder as Woodland Hills built double-digit first-half leads and then went ahead after halftime by as much as 16 points.

This was not 2016, however, and this was not the same Little Lion team. Sekunda and his State High teammates made a pre-season goal that they would not falter again when they made it into the state tournament.

“We lost here last year in the same game,” Sekunda said, “and didn’t want to let that happen again.”

They didn’t.

Sekunda led two second-half surges that eventually swamped Woodland Hills and vaulted State College into the second round after a physical 82-71 win over the Wolverines.

It goes without saying that playing to join the final eight teams in Pennsylvania’s big-school bracket is heady stuff, but State College looks up to the challenge.

The Lions won 21 games, against just four losses, took home the championship of the very competitive Mid-Penn Conference (more about that later) and won the first PIAA playoff game in the careers of head coach Joe Walker and every one of the Little Lions.

That first PIAA win was in many ways indicative of the whole season for the Little Lions.

Woodland Hills had just won its first playoff games in over 20 years, and to say the Wolverines were motivated for their first state tournament since the early 1990s would be a huge understatement.

They put that motivation into action as well. Led by swingman Deonte Robertson (20 points) and guard Kenny Lee (17), Woodland broke out to early double-digit leads and were seemingly taking control by halftime by a score of 41-33.

As it has through all kinds of adversity this season, State College stayed its course. Slowly the Little Lions’ depth and explosiveness began to take their toll on the Wolverines.

Early in the third quarter, Sekunda (game high 23 points), Drew Friberg (20), Tommy Friberg (12) and McNulty (6) led a 10-3 run that made it a game at 44-43, but Woodland Hills responded with a 10-0 streak of its own to go back up by 11, 54-43.

State College came back again, this time riding a hot streak by Sekunda, and finally drew within one point again, 66-65, midway through the fourth quarter.

“For them to expend the energy to come back (down 16),” State College head coach Joe Walker said, “and then to do it again in the fourth quarter was awesome. The resolve, the will to win, I am speechless in terms of how hard they wanted this, how much they wanted this.”

After this comeback, there was no Woodland response, just State College baskets. In quick succession, Drew Friberg hit two 3-pointers and a follow-up, Ellis (5) completed a 3-point play, Sekunda scored on a drive and Benner (11) hit a jump shot. In a matter of three minutes, State College went from being down by a point to an 80-71 lead. In all, the Lions overwhelmed Woodland by a score of 31-8 in the fourth quarter.

“We started playing our game again,” Sekunda said, “moving the ball, different guys stepped up, and Max Benner played a great game and was a big spark for us.

“I started to hit a few. My stroke was off in the first quarter, and it was nice to see a couple go in and it helped us a little bit. So it was easy buckets, good shots, and defense that got us back into the game.”

COMEBACK WINS 

It wasn’t the first time State High won in this fashion. In just the last month of the season, the Lions completed comeback wins against Altoona (twice), Greater Johnstown and Central Dauphin.

The Little Lions began the season 1-2 after losses to Math, Civics and Sciences from Philadelphia and C.D. East, but then went on a tear. There were only two other losses, at Carlisle and in a non-league contest against Williamsport. The Lions’ record since Jan. 6 is 14-1.

That record would be impressive in almost any league, but State College plays in the Mid-Penn. If the first round of the PIAAs this season is any indication, the league, and the Lions’ Colonial Division, is one of the toughest in the state.

Four teams — Carlisle, Harrisburg, CD East and State College — from the Colonial won their first-round games, meaning that four of the final 16 teams left in 6A are from the same Mid-Penn division.