Sunday, March 28, 2004 7 Gators (continued from page 1) gan, who coached his son at Gate of Heaven. And the floor has to be cleaned, “especially if they had some- thing greasy for lunch,” he joked. Most of the new state champions enjoyed much less success in their Gators days. “We never had the great- est team, but it was always fun,” said Matt Flanagan, who scored more than 1,000 points as a Gator. Josh Aciukewicz has a more painful Rh memory. During a seventh grade game, in only his second year playing basketball, he dribbled to the wrong end of the court — twice in the same game. “It was embarrassing,” he said last week. Fortunately he didn’t shoot. Then, when his eighth grade team got to the league championship game, “I missed every single shot I took.” Josh took up basketball for the most mundane of reasons. “I didn’t have anything else to do,” he said, af- ter playing travel hockey through the fourth grade. So he took the advice of others who suggested his height would be an advantage in basketball. Tim Crossin, whose 31 points led the Queensmen to the state title, played on the best Gate of Heaven team in recent years. His 2001 eighth grade team won the league and dioce- san championship, earning a berth in the state playoffs, where they won three of four games. When he began developing a deadly outside shot in the seventh grade, Crossin decided to stop playing base- ball to concentrate on hoops. His O’Reilly teammates are glad he did; Crossin hit three of five three-point shots in the championship game, and scored 12 of the Queensmen’s 22 fourth-quarter points as O'Reilly held off a charge from Sewickley Academy to win 70-54. Ironically, only two of the five Gate of Heaven graduates ever played on the same team before joining the O'Reilly squad. Gate of Heaven teams are by individual grade, and only ~ Crossin and Judge were in the same class. But once they came together on the O'Reilly floor, things just clicked. “Everyone has taken the team con- cept, and we play together,” said Crossin, a junior. Aciukewicz credits coach Mark Be- lenski, as well. “I was horrible when I first came to O'Reilly,” he said. But good coaching and lots of practice paid off for the 6’-5” sophomore. Some of the practice came from close to home. His father, John, played for Nanticoke in the mid- 1970s. “We still shoot around in the back yard,” Josh said. “I couldn’t beat him when I was in the eighth or ninth grade; now I can take him.” Matt Flanagan, a senior, is also known as a workhorse. His father re- calls the winter day he sent Matt out to shovel the driveway. After about five minutes, he began to hear the sound of a basketball banging against a backboard. “He had shoveled out just enough to practice,” Art Flanagan said. Ann Lohin’s four boys played bas- ketball throughout their Gate of Heav- en years, and at O'Reilly. A teacher at Gate of Heaven for 15 years, she said the GOH family is basking in the glo- ry of the state championship. “Oh my, everyone is so ecstatic,” she said. By DAVE KONOPKI For The Post HERSHEY — Tim Crossin scored a game-high 31 points, and a tenacious zone defense by the Queensmen forced Sewickley Academy to shoot 30 percent from the floor, as O'Reilly cap- tured the PIAA Class A state champi- onship with a 70-54 victory against the Panthers March 19. The game was played in front of 6,602 fans at the Gi- ant Center. The Queensmen finish the season with a 30-4 record, and have Wyoming Valley Conference Division III and District 2 Class A championships to go along with their state title. O'Reilly also became the first boys team from the Wyoming Valley to win a state championship since the 1961 Nanti- coke squad. “Everyone on this team shows a lot of heart,” said Crossin, a silky-smooth junior guard. “We hit a little road bump in the middle of the season, los- ing three out of four, and we had to show a lot of heart to get through that. “Today, we got up by 21 and (Sewickley) started coming back, so we had to show some heart again. It’s carried us this season.” Although zone defense has become FOR THE POST/PETE G. WILCOX Scenes from the championship game. Left: Josh Aciukewicz (55) went up against Ryan Bradford of Sewickley Academy in the PIAA Class A Boys Bas- ketball State Final. Aciukewicz finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. Top: O’Reilly’s Tim Crossin dribbled past Sewickley Academy's Matt Palmer. Crossin led all scorers with 31 points, including some clutch free throws down the stretch. Above: Aciukewicz, Crossin and Chris Kester were all smiles after winning the PIAA Class A Boys Basketball State Championship at the Giant Center in Hershey. O'Reilly defeated Sewickley Academy 70-54 in the title game. Former Gators lead Queensmen to victory their trademark, the Queensmen start- ed the game playing man-to-man against the District 7 champion. Sewickley (26-5) attempted to pound the ball inside to 6-foot-6 forward Corey Diethorn and 6-5, 220-pound center George Raftis. That failed. After a collapsing Queensmen de- fense thwarted the strategy, the Pan- thers went to their perimeter game. And that failed miserably. Sewickley shot 24 percent from the floor in the first half, including an 0- for-7 performance from three-point range. “We went man-to-man early to get out all of the nervous energy,” said O'Reilly head coach Mark Belenski, who is assisted by coaches Joe Darling and Paul Guido. “We wanted to get the kids moving. Once we went to the zone, we shut down their inside. Once they started to struggle from the perimeter, we decided to stay in the zone.” After taking a three-point lead at the end of one quarter, the Queensmen opened the flood gates in the second quarter using a 13-0 run during a four- minute span. Sophomore center Josh Aciukewicz, who finished with 12 points, started See QUEENSMEN, pg 9 Arris Engineering captures DYB 5-6 girls championship Arris Engineering defeated Bishop Photo 22-18 in the DYB 5th and 6th grade girls championship game. Do- minique DeAngelo led Arris Engineer- ing with 12 points. Shannon Brobst added 6 points. Dana Krawetz and Amber Mulhern each scored 2 points. Shown in the picture are the Arris En- gineering team members. From left, first row: Brittany Takacs, Chelsi Hunter and Shannon Brobst. Second Row: Coach Donald Brobst, Amber Mulhern, Ashley Napierkowski and assistant coach Sharon Krawetz. Third row : Demetra Szatkowski, Dana Krawetz and Dominique DeAn- gelo. March Madness for kids, parents The ninth annual Back Mountain Basket- ball Shootout will be held Sunday, March 28 at Dallas Middle School, starting at 12 noon. There will be competition in three-point shooting, free throws and layups for boys and girls age 7-16 in multiple flights. There will also be a parent/child team shooting competition. Registration and warmup at noon, competition starts at 12:30 p.m. The program is sponsored by the Kingston Township Recreation Commis- sion. For more information, call 675-0066. Youth soccer registration Back Mountain Youth Soccer Associa- tion will hold registration for the fall, 2004 intramural season on Saturday, April 17, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Dallas Senior High School cafeteria. Age groups U-6 through U-18 will be accepted. Eligible players must be at least 5 years old before August 1, 2004. Social Security numbers and proof of age are required.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers