Feb 22, 2018 4 min read

CORAOPOLIS – Walking onto the court for the opening tip, Washington High School’s Jordan Swart assigned himself a opponent for his defensive matchup.

He then assigned one to each of the other starters – two sophomores and two freshmen – for the third-seeded Prexies, riddled by absent players this postseason.

Playing Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, the two-time defending WPIAL champion and the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in the semifinal round a season ago, the Prexies just didn’t have enough horsepower to keep up with the Trojans.

Despite a slow start, a common occurrence for North Catholic this season, the Trojans found an offensive rhythm in the second quarter to take a big lead and defeat third-seeded Washington for a second straight year in the Class 2A playoffs, 47-34, Thursday night at Moon High School.

North Catholic, the No. 6 seed, outscored the Prexies 18-7 in the second quarter to take control and advance to the semifinals against Seton-La Salle Monday.

Last year, the Trojans knocked off Wash High, 49-44, in the semifinals, also at Moon.

“We’ve played 24 games. You don’t have time to be a freshmen or sophomore now,” Washington coach Ron Faust said. “You have to be a Wash High player. We put our best lineup out there and expect them to compete.”

The Prexies did compete for a majority of the game, but a lack of offense with two of their point-producing starters, Dan Ethridge and Isaiah Walton, not playing, it turned a mediocre offense into an inconsistent one.

Tied a minute into the second quarter, North Catholic’s Brian Davison made a layup to start a 13-4 run over the next five minutes to put the Trojans comfortably ahead 25-13 at halftime.

“The ball fell in,” said North Catholic coach Dave Long. “We’re not a quick-starting team, but once the air cleared and the dusted settled we were able to start putting the ball in the hoop.

“I recognized (Washington’s) roster changed when we got tapes on them and there were some different players in there each and every game. We didn’t know who we were playing tonight.”

One player Long knew would be in the lineup for Washington (18-6) was Swart, the only one with substantial playoff experience.

Playing a matchup zone, North Catholic rotated three different players to control Swart’s abilities to penetrate on the dribble, so much so that his first field-goal attempt came with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter.

“We morph and tinker with what we do depending on the other team,” Long said. “We do our homework. We recognized who we had to get on. We knew his ability to dribble penetrate. When we rotated our three different guys, it was because we didn’t like what one of them was doing. So, we’d pull them out, talk to them and throw someone else in.”

North Catholic (13-11) had two players score in double figures with Michael Dramel finishing with a game-high 15 points. Davidson had 12.

The commodity of having a deep bench wasn’t available to Faust, who tried keeping the Prexies into a low-scoring game with defense and extremely slow offensive sets.

“We’re not a great shooting team,” Faust said. “Some nights we shoot a little better than others. If I had the answers, we would be scoring 70 or 80 points. We know we have to keep games in the 50s. Also, were not very deep on our bench. The four or five passes during the beginning of our offensive possessions give us the chance to rest. We just don’t have people to put in.”

Sophomore guard Zahmere Robinson scored 14 for the Prexies. No other player scored more than six points.

North Catholic extended its lead in the middle of the third quarter with an 8-4 run finished by consecutive field goals by John Fukon to extend its lead to 16 points, 35-19. The closest the Prexies would get after that point was when Ian Bredniak made a three-pointer with 4:02 left in the fourth quarter to make it 42-30.

“We said from very first day of practice, when the time comes and we lose a game, we want to make sure to leave the floor exhausted,” Faust said. “We did that tonight. Our guys played very hard. They did what we asked them to do. It may not be the thing that people in the stands want us to do, but there is a certain way we have to play to be competitive. I’m proud of them.”