Fourth-seeded McAuley Catholic played with top-seeded Golden City for every bit of the first half and even held a lead in the third quarter before the Eagles used a pair of scoring runs down the stretch as the catalyst in a 62-51 win over the Warriors in the Class 1 District 5 semifinals on Friday.
McAuley trailed by five at the half before knocking down the first two shots of the third quarter to take the lead. Golden City (18-8) used a 12-5 run in the third quarter and an 11-0 run in the fourth period to build an insurmountable lead down the stretch to earn the win.
“We didn’t give up,” McAuley coach Tony Witt said. “I don’t know what we were from the field in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t good. You have to take your hats off to Golden City. They’re not the No. 1 seed in this district just because. They are a good ball club. They exploited some of our weaknesses a couple times (in the second half). We had a little bit of momentum in the third before they went on a run to blow it open and never look back.”
McAuley ends the season with a 7-21 record and graduates seniors Kevin Tran, Jacob Bracich, Jeffrey Horinek and Declan Berkstresser.
“I am very optimistic looking forward,” Witt said. “We gained a ton of experience. … We showed signs of growth and mental toughness throughout the year in terms of taking on adversity, learning from it and getting back to what we do.”
Golden City advances to take on third-seeded Thomas Jefferson in the district championship game scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
GAME ACTION
Golden City took a 16-15 lead into the second period and pushed the lead out to nine points thanks to a 10-2 run out of the break led by four points from Josh Reeves and two 3-pointers by Elijah Pettengill to make the score 26-17.
Thomas Jefferson used a 12-4 spurt in response to trim the deficit to one with less than a minute to play in the first half. Noah Black had a pair of 3-pointers for the Warriors, while Michael Parrigon, Bradley Wagner and Bracich all head buckets.
The Eagles pushed the lead to 34-29 by the intermission thanks to two makes at the foul stripe by Reeves and a last-second jumper from Max Parrill.
The Warriors came out of halftime with back to back 3-pointers from Black and Parrigon to take a 35-34 lead, but that would be the last McAuley would hold the advantage on the scoreboard. Golden City closed out the third quarter on a 12-5 run to take a 46-40 cushion into the fourth period.
“We’ve had eight guys lead us in scoring this year,” Witt said about the offensive struggles in the second half. “When the ball is going in, it’s contagious. We need to have someone step up next season when we have one of those scoring lulls. That is what is going to separate us from being mediocre to being a good ball club. When teams are scoring, you have to stop them or score back and we didn’t do either of those in the second half.”
The Eagles led by five early in the fourth quarter and used an 11-0 run to build an insurmountable double-digit lead.
SCORING LEADERS
Reeves finished with a game-high 29 points to lead Golden City in scoring. Pettengill knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points.
Black finished with 13 to lead McAuley, while Rocco Bazzano-Joseph finished with 12 points in the loss. Parrigon finished in double figures with 10 points, while Bracich added six points.
