Bulldogs complete uphill climb, live to play another day in District 3 tourney
It appeared for a few minutes late Tuesday that Cam Jones was staring at the final minutes of his four-year high school basketball career.
The Wilson senior didn’t see it that way.
“I wasn’t concerned at all,” he said of the Bulldogs’ eight-point deficit against Cedar Crest in a District 3 Class 6A opener at West Lawn. “I knew what we had inside of us, and knew it was a (matter) of time that it was going to come out onto the court.”
The seventh-seeded Bulldogs (18-7) found the energy they lacked all game late in the third quarter when Jones and classmate Seamus Breslin each made big plays to ignite a 14-point run that carried them to a 48-40 victory and a return to the district quarterfinals.
“Against any district team, going down eight, it’s tough to come back,” said Breslin. “We were looking uphill, for sure.”
Wilson trailed 35-27 with two minutes left in the third quarter before Jones, a 5-10 guard, grabbed a pair of defensive rebounds and made quick outlets to get the transition game going.
Breslin was the beneficiary of a couple of those run-outs; he scored seven of his career-high 15 points during Wilson’s game-turning 14-0 run.
“Thankfully we were able to flip our defense, apply a little pressure and get a string of stops and get guys leaking out for easy buckets,” Breslin said. “That’s what we want; the transition game is a big part of our game.”
The key was Wilson’s switch to a halfcourt trap late in the third quarter. That forced the 10th-seeded Falcons (14-10) to play at a pace quicker than their liking. They went over seven minutes without scoring and more than nine minutes without a field goal.
“Once we flipped to ‘50’ (the trap) I could see them get nervous,” Breslin said. “I could tell the guards were a little uneasy about handling the rock up there. I was able to read that, the other guys were able to read that, and we were able to get stops. We could see it in their eyes; we had ‘em.”
Wilson went from trailing 35-27 with two minutes left in the third quarter to leading 41-35 with four minutes left in the game. Cedar Crest turned the ball over six times during Wilson’s 14-point run and 10 times in the second half.
“We do a good job of pressuring the ball against teams that don’t like to be pressured,” Jones said. “Once that change was made I had a good feeling about how the rest of the game was going to go.”
Madyx Gruber and Ofure Odiale each scored eight points for Wilson. Odiale also had eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Gruber hit four straight free throws over the final two minutes to help Wilson pull away.
Fernando Marquez scored a game-high 17 points for Cedar Crest, which was eliminated.
The Bulldogs needed to win the game with defense because they weren’t shooting well against Cedar Crest’s 2-3 zone. They made just 3-of-14 shots from 3-point range.
In the first meeting between the teams, a 59-40 Wilson win in mid-January at West Lawn, the Bulldogs knocked down a season-high 10 3’s. Cedar Crest play man-to-man in that game.
Wilson advances to play a quarterfinal Friday at second-seeded Cumberland Valley, which earned a first-round bye. The Bulldogs saw their season come to an end last year at Cumberland Valley in a PIAA Tournament qualifier.
Wilson coach Matt Coldren sensed his team needed a spark at halftime, when it trailed 24-20.
“I told them: You have 16 minutes or your career is over: What are you going to do about it?”
The Bulldogs got after it on the defensive end and outscored the Falcons 21-5 over the final 10 minutes.
“It forced our guys to play harder, (and) it got (Cedar Crest to play) up-tempo, which is what we needed,” Coldren said.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Cedar Crest | 10 | 14 | 11 | 5 | 40 |
| Wilson | 12 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 48 |
| Falcons (14-10) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Tirado | 0-6 | 2-2 | 0-3 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Marquez | 7-13 | 0-0 | 3-4 | 0 | 8 | 17 |
| Chernich | 2-8 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Vega-Reyes | 2-10 | 0-0 | 0-6 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Schomp | 1-5 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Young | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Groff | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Custer | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Speaks | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Waranavage | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 14-46 | 5-6 | 7-18 | 3 | 28-29 | 40 |
| Bulldogs (18-7) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Gruber | f1-6 | 5-6 | 1-4 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| Harding | 3-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 8 | 6 |
| Melograna | 1-5 | 1-4 | 1-4 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Odiale | 4-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| Breslin | 5-6 | 5-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Jones | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Aikings | 2-6 | 0-1 | 1-5 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| McFadden | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 17-38 | 11-19 | 3-14 | 15 | 29-32 | 48 |
Turnovers: Cedar Crest 14, Wilson 12.
