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Remember, this game was a league tournament semifinal.
Not a first-round game.
Not a play-in game.
Not some forgotten game sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's.
This is playoff time featuring two quality teams.
And that's why William Penn's 91-32 demolition of Northeastern stands out. Any coach in District 3 would have been flummoxed trying to figure out how to stop the Bearcats on Wednesday night at Red Lion High School.
The win allowed William Penn (22-2) to advance to the league championship game for a fifth consecutive season. The Bearcats play South Western in a rematch of last year's game at 7 p.m. Friday at York College.
The 16-win Bobcats had no answer for William Penn's 68-percent (19-for-28) shooting performance in the first half.
The Division II-champion Bobcats had no answer for William Penn's 26-point third quarter when the Bearcats missed one shot (and threw down three dunks).
The Bearcats even pulled out some District 3 championship magic from 2011, running the in-bound play under their own bucket where Tavon Parker tosses a pass to a teammate for an alley-oop dunk. (That move used to go to big brother Kelvin Parker; Wednesday the dish went to teammate Derek Wilson.)
"You can never predict anything in sports, and that's what makes sports so great," Parker said. "Northeastern is a great team. They have great shooters, and (Khalid) Nwandu -- obviously -- is a great player. So we didn't want any letdowns. We wanted to come out and suffocate them and continue sharing the ball on offense."
Every Bearcat player scored, and Parker netted a game-high 26 points.
William Penn's dominating performance comes on the heels of a sub-par showing against Bermudian Springs in the opening round of the league tournament. Head coach Troy Sowers didn't pound his fist or scream and yell about it. Teams have off-nights, and he just let it go at that.
"I didn't feel bad what we were doing offensively, we just missed six layups in the half-court set," Sowers said about his team's first-round game, a 60-38 win. "Tonight I thought we came out with a little more energy defensively, and that fuels us offensively. ... I thought we shared the ball well. I thought we got the easiest shot in almost every possession."
William Penn forced Northeastern to turn the ball over 21 times in the first half. In turn, the Bearcats hit 10 shots in the paint in that stretch. The ability to dominate the high-percentage shot opened up the perimeter game, allowing the
All of the early success snowballed into a lopsided third quarter, where the Bearcats just put on a show. Derek Wilson threw down three of his four dunks during the quarter -- including a pair of alley-oops.
"Our team: We love dunking," William Penn senior Derek Wilson said. "We missed so many dunks at practice our coach made us stop dunking. So we only have the game to dunk, my time is ticking down. So I have to get as many dunks as I can (in games)."
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Tickets: League championship game tickets ($5 adults, $3 students) will be sold at William Penn's athletic office from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to noon Friday.
@jimseip; 771-2025
NORTHEASTERN (32)
Khalid Nwandu 4 4-5 12, Riley 0 0-0 0, Josey 0 2-2 2, Coleman 0 0-0 0, Sprenkle 0 0-0 0, Wade 0 0-1 0, Reeser 1 2-2 4, Marshall 0 1-2 1, Bajrami 0 0-1 0, Ko. Nwandu 2 0-0 4, Maxfield 0 2-2 2, Bass 0 0-0 0, Wolgamuth 0 0-0 0, Eyster 1 0-0 3, Hoffman 1 1-2 3, Caldwell 0 1-2 1. Totals9 13-19 32.
WILLIAM PENN (91)
Derek Wilson 5 0-1 10, Casiano 2 0-0 4, Rivera 1 0-0 2, Maddox 3 0-0 8, Stephens 3 0-0 7, S. Dickson 2 0-0 5, Jackson 1 0-0 2, Beard 4 0-0 8, Trey Shifflett 4 3-6 12, Wilson 2 1-1 5, Tavon Parker 11 1-3 26, D. Dickson 1 0-0 2. Totals 39 5-11 91.
Northeastern 11 7 7 7 -- 32
William Penn 22 23 26 20 -- 91
3-point goals -- Northeastern 1 (Eyster); William Penn 8 (Parker 3, Maddox 2, Stephens, Shifflett, S. Dickson).
