Hoop Notes: Boost for Hawks, century mark, scoring milestones and more
Hamburg has gotten a late-season boost from the return of junior guard Kevin McFarland.
He tore two tendons in his shooting hand during the preseason, had surgery Nov. 15 and a follow-up procedure Dec. 27, and was told he’d be out for 16 weeks.
He returned in nearly half that time and scored 17 points in his first game back, Jan. 22, against Pine Grove. He was working only with his left hand in practice before being cleared for that game. Hawks coach Nick Evangelista wasn’t surprised to see what he did in his return.
“I expected him to be Kevin,” Evangelista said. “He’s one of our best players, and he had a really good summer. He hit a couple 3’s in the first quarter like he didn’t miss a beat.”
McFarland sparked the Hawks to a pair of wins last week; they had gone 3-10 without him. He had a team-high 13 points in a 65-34 victory over Schuylkill Valley and 15 points in a 49-46 win at Schuylkill Haven. He also had a game- and career-high 22 points in a 65-51 loss at Tulpehocken Monday.
“He’s been pushing himself and pushing himself (in rehab),” Evangelista said. “He refused to believe (he’d miss the entire season).”
Mounts milestone
Hector Tiburcio is just 11 points away from becoming the highest-scoring player in Antietam history, though the senior forward still has a long way to go to get the program record.
Tiburcio, who has 1,309 points, can pass Andy Wrobel in the Mounts’ next game, Thursday against Oley Valley. That will push him to second on the Mounts’ all-time scoring list. Fred Wittich owns the record, with 1,495 points, set in 1972. Tom Sload, a 1984 grad, finished with 1,319.
The school changed its name from Mount Penn to Antietam in 1989 when it relocated to a different building but it’s still considered the same program. The geography of the school district was not altered, as it is when school districts merge.
This is Antietam’s 33rd basketball season.
For Tiburcio to catch Wittich the Mounts will need to have an extended postseason run, which is possible. They have three regular season games left, can make the Berks Conference playoffs and can play twice in the District 3 Class 2A Tournament, where they are in position to be the No. 1 seed. If they win their first district game the Mounts qualify for the PIAA Tournament.
They could be looking at seven or more games.
Century mark
Schuylkill Valley coach Taylor Grim is one win away from the 100th of his career. The Panthers (7-10) play at Wyomissing Thursday and have three regular seasons games remaining after that.
Grim has a 99-118 record in 10 seasons.
He’ll be just the second Panthers head coach in the last 50 years to win 100 games.
Mellen on target
Bryce Mellen is on pace to become Tulpehocken’s seventh 1,000-point scorer by the end of the week. He enters Wednesday’s game against Oley Valley 44 points shy of the milestone.
The senior forward will be the first in the program to reach 1,000 points in seven years, since Robert Ekvall did it in 2015.
He is averaging a team-leading 17.9 points.
Tulpehocken has five regular season games left and has a spot locked up in the District 3 Tournament. It can also qualify for the league playoffs.
The Trojans play at Kutztown Thursday and at Upper Dauphin Saturday.
Skidding toward history
Daniel Boone is on the verge of the first winless season by a Berks Conference team in seven years and the first in program history.
The Blazers are 0-19 with three games remaining: Wilson (11-5), Owen J. Roberts (5-14) and Manheim Central (12-6). They are losing by an average of 33 points per game and have dropped 23 straight over two seasons.
The worst season in program history came seven years ago when the Blazers finished 1-21. They won just two games the following season and two games in each of the past two seasons.
The last Berks Conference team to go winless was Hamburg, which finished 0-22 in 2014-15.
You would have to go back 25 years, when Oley Valley went 0-24 in 1989-90, to find one before that.