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HERSHEY -- It wasn't the play York Suburban drew up, but Mitch Kemp didn't mind -- as long as the basketball was in his hands.
In order to make that happen, the senior broke free from a double-team in the post out to the left wing and snatched a pass from point guard Ryan Kinard with four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the score tied in Thursday's District 3 Class AAA championship game at Giant Center.
The senior guard took one glimpse at the clock before firing his shot a couple feet beyond the 3-point line. He started laughing because he thought it was going to be an airball, but when the shot went through the net, his bemusement instantly turned to glee.
Wyomissing, the No. 6 seed, had two-tenths of a second to answer, and a long inbound to Edward Early amounted to nothing more than a bad miss that clinched the 48-45 victory for the No. 4 Trojans and first district title in the program's history.
"We've been talking about this since March," York Suburban coach Tom Triggs said. "This was a goal of theirs that they set. It's tough to beat senior leadership -- we have two four-year players (Kemp and point guard Kinard) and seven out of our top eight scorers from last year. It's just a very confident and mature group."
Suburban earned the win despite getting dominated on the boards by a 36-12 margin. Wyomissing's 20 turnovers helped the Trojans (24-3) make up the difference.
"I think our defense was the key to this game," said Kemp, who scored a game-high 17 points in the victory. "We had a slow start on offense, and we weren't clicking on offense the whole game, but our defense stayed there and stayed together."
With starting forward Tom McInerney fouled out with no points and the Trojans down 43-42 with three minutes remaining, reserve Kevin Donahue took a pass from Kemp in the lane and converted on a runner to put the Trojans ahead by one.
Donahue, who finished the game with eight points, hit a free throw to make the score 45-43 with 1:25 remaining in the game, and Wyomissing's Jon Baker
The Trojans worked the ball around the perimeter before calling a timeout with 12 seconds remaining. The plan was to get the ball to Kemp in the post, but Wyomissing defenders smothered the senior, which led to Plan B.
"I just popped out real quick, and Ryan (Kinard) did a great job getting me the ball," Kemp said. "I just saw there was four seconds left, so I let it fly."
Neither team held more than a four-point lead during the first half until a quick Suburban spurt that included a Kinard layup, a Kemp 3-pointer and a Kemp runner in the lane in the span of 45 seconds put the Trojans up by seven.
That cushion allowed Suburban to take a 21-18 lead into halftime despite not scoring any points during the last four minutes of the second quarter. The Trojans made up for it with defense, forcing 12 Wyomissing turnovers during the first half.
The Spartans (20-6) outrebounded the Trojans 21-4 over the final 16 minutes and led by as much as six points in the fourth quarter, but weren't able to hold on.
"All year long our rebounding has been steadfast for us," Wyomissing coach Toph Miller said. "It's been one of the keys we try to win. We try to win the field goals, turnovers and rebounds. Usually rebounds are steady. Tonight it was, but we didn't shoot better from the field than they did ,and the turnovers were in their favor. You get two out of three, you're usually going to win the ball game. Tonight they did."
Noel Abreu (6-foot-6), Clayton Bodden (6-foot-4) and Early (6-foot-4) each had 10 points against a smaller Suburban squad. Joining Kemp in double-digits for the Trojans was Kinard, who scored 11, but will be remembered more for his assist on Kemp's game-winner.
That's just how the senior point guard likes it.
"You can't draw it up better -- me giving it to Mitch at the end," Kinard said. "We've been doing that since fifth grade."
smclernon@ydr.com; 880-1501
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