Wildcats boys edge Hampton in PIAA playoffs, 51-45
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – It was a March Madness-like atmosphere in the Central Mountain High School gym Tuesday night and while it took the home Wildcats a bit to get untracked, Coach Tyler Bardo’s team picked it up down the stretch to edge visiting Hampton by a 51-45 score. The win was a PIAA Class 5A first round playoff game and the exciting victory moved the Wildcats into round two on Friday against New Castle (24-2), a 63-50 winner over Northeastern (16-13) on Tuesday night. The location and time for the Friday game likely will be announced on Wednesday but is expected to be somewhere in District 6.
The Wildcats came out misfiring early and fell behind by a 21-10 score midway through period two. But as coach Bardo said, “They were getting shots; they just had to settle down.” CM began its climb back by scoring the final seven points in the second stanza, including a 3-pointer from Cayde McCloskey with three seconds on the clock. That cut the Talbots’ lead to 21-17 at the half and things stayed tight for the rest of the game.
The Wildcats continued their second period spurt into the third period and finally drew even at 27-all. And early on in period four Hampton used several buckets from big (6-8) sophomore Liam Mignogna to take a 37-30 lead. But back came Central Mountain, a seven-point run tying things up at 37-all. The teams were last tied at 39 and then it was back-and-forth down the stretch.
McCloskey kept the Wildcats in the game with six 3-pointers in all, including two in period three and two more in the final quarter. Teammate Jack Hanna, hounded all night by an aggressive Talbot defense, scored 8 of his 12 points in the last period. Ashton Probst had five in the final quarter on the way to 8 points and Hayden Pardoe hit three clutch foul shots towards the end of the game while scoring 9 on the night. Brett Gerlach and Levi Schlesinger each had 2 points.
The Wildcats won it at the foul line,8-for8 in the final period, 9-for-10 overall. Hampton made it to the line five times and went 1-for-5.
Hampton last led at 45-44 but McCloskey swished another trey and Central Mountain took the lead for good at 47-45 with 28.9 seconds remaining. Hampton would not connect again and was forced to foul; Hanna hit two foul shots in the final seconds and two more from Probst set the final at 51-45.
Eric Weeks led the Talbots with 12 points, Mignogna finishing with 10. Central Mountain held its own on the boards all night with their visitors from Allison Park. The Wildcats are 14-11 on the year, winning nine of their last 11. Hampton finished with a 13-12 record.
Playoff Sidebars:
The Central Mountain win is believed the first for a Clinton County team in the PIAA playoffs since the Bucktail boys beat Rockwood in 1989, before losing to eventual state champ Monesson.
It was a near capacity and enthusiastic crowd, the Wildcat student section out in full force, augmented by the Central Mountain wrestling team in their singlets, including Taylor Weaver wearing a Burger King singlet.
The Talbot cheerleaders did a series of hand-springs, matched by Wildcat wrestling team member Leah Eisenhower who went end-to-end in the gym twice.
Natalie Young, a member of the Central Mountain bocci team, did an outstanding rendition of the National Anthem prior to the start of the game and PA system announcer Mike Flanagan brought his A-game to the playoff.
H 12 9 8 16 = 45
CM 8 9 10 24 = 51
