Lancaster Catholic's Tyler Purvis goes all-out in an effort to stop York Suburban's Sean Hinnenkamp during Tuesday night's game at Central Dauphin East. Purvis scored 19 points to lead the Crusaders and share game honors with the Trojans' Tom McInerney.
Lancaster Catholic's Phil Wenger drives against Sean Hinnenkamp of York Suburban. Wenger scored 12 points for the Crusaders.
Despite a breath-taking effort in the second half, the hole was simply too deep to dig out of.
Lancaster Catholic fell behind by 21 points in the first half, fought tooth-and-nail to get it within eight in the fourth quarter, but ran out of gas in the end.
The net result was a 70-55 Crusader loss to York Suburban in a PIAA Class AAA game Tuesday night at Central Dauphin East High School.
The defeat caps a 23-6 season for Catholic.
"I can't say enough about what this team has accomplished and how they got to this point," said Lancaster Catholic coach Joe Klazas. "It was certainly a good team they were up against. They were just a little better than us tonight."
The loss also marked the final time Tyler Purvis and five other Crusaders donned the purple and gold uniforms.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Purvis. "I'm pretty disappointed. We didn't come out ready to play and they got off to a big start."
It was actually the Crusaders who got off to a good start when Paul Senkowski drained a 3-pointer to start the scoring.
Tied 5-5, the Trojans (24-5) went ahead for good on a Ryan Triggs jumper from the corner.
Down 7-6, Catholic went the final 4:13 of the opening quarter without scoring and trailed 17-6 after one.
"They got that edge early and that was a big difference," said Klazas. "We knew coming in this wasn't a team we'd want to play from behind against. When we did fall in that hole, I think panic set in a little bit."
The Crusaders were 0-for-6 from the floor and had three turnovers in that scoreless stretch.
A 7-2 Trojan run to start the second quarter pushed their lead to 24-8.
Catholic had no answer for Suburban's Thomas McInerney in the second. The 6-foot-5 senior scored 11 of his 19 points in the quarter as the Trojans built up a 38-17 halftime cushion.
"We just got off to a slow start," said Klazas. "Suburban executed really well offensively. They got really good shots (16-for-26 shooting) and continued to open the gap."
Catholic, meanwhile, hit just 7-of-23 shots from the floor in the opening half and was never able to string together back-to-back baskets.
Purvis, Catholic's leading scorer (15 per game) was held to a single point in the first half.
"I personally didn't play well myself, so I was pretty upset," Purvis said.
Purvis responded with 18 points in the second half when the Crusaders made a valiant effort to claw back into the game.
They closed the gap to 48-33 at the end of the third quarter. A Senkowski trey followed by a three-point play by Purvis made it a 56-48 game with 2:58 to play.
But the tank was empty down the stretch and Suburban ran off 13 straight points to pull away.
"I was really proud of the kids," Klazas said. "They didn't put their heads down, they just continued to fight in the second half and got it to eight. But it was just too big of a gap."