Dec 19, 2017 4 min read

By season’s end, the Trinity and McKeesport boys basketball teams could very well be battling for the section championship.

If Tuesday night’s early season matchup at Hiller Hall was a measuring stick, the Hillers measured up very well against a very athletic McKeesport squad.

Joey Koroly led all scorers with 23 points, and both Jeff and Zach Ecker finished with double-doubles, as the Hillers won an exciting back-and forth Class 5A Section 1 matchup, 65-62.

With all the frantic action, having a senior-laden team made the difference for the Hillers.

“That’s where it matters,” said Trinity head coach Tim Tessmer. “With all the ebbs and flows in that game, our guys never got flustered. If (McKeesport) hit a big three it was like, ‘Oh, well, let’s go execute and get one of our own.’ There was no panic.”

Trailing 32-31 at the half, the Hillers (2-0,4-1) opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 38-32 lead.

McKeesport (1-1, 2-3), which started four seniors, came right back and closed the gap to 40-37 before a Dylan Kern three-point shot extended the Hillers’ lead to seven.

Trinity led 48-40 after three quarters after a layup and pair of free throws from Zach Ecker, who finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“They were hitting some tough shots, but we just needed to keep boxing them out and I tried to be a big presence on the glass,” Zach Ecker said.

That didn’t last long as the Tigers grabbed the momentum back to start the fourth quarter.

A three-point shot from Jordan Grayson capped an 11-4 McKeesport run and pulled the Tigers within 52-51.

Grayson finished with 11 points and hit three shots from three-point range in the fourth quarter.

McKeesport made seven shots from three-point range in the fourth quarter to keep the game close. Terron Taylor had three of them and finished with 14 points.

“For a while there it seemed like everything they threw up was going in,” Tessmer said. “But we never got rattled from it and we kept our composure.”

However, when it seemed the Hillers needed a big bucket on the night, one of the Ecker brothers delivered.

Zach Ecker ended the Tigers’ run with a layup, and after a pair of buckets from Koroly, Zach Ecker capped off a Trinity 10-0 run with back-to-back layups to make it 61-51.

“Those kids have come so far,” Tessmer said. “The work both Zach and Jeff have put in has gotten them to where they are. They are always in the weight room and doing the little things for us. It’s great to see them both rewarded with big games.”

Grayson made more three-pointers to pull the Tigers within 63-59 late, but Koroly was able to seal the win from the free-throw line.

“It’s a big performance from everyone on a big stage against a very good team,” Tessmer said.

The Hillers had success dumping the ball down into Jeff Ecker in the post as Ecker scored six quick points in the opening quarter. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“We’ve played with this group of seniors since seventh grade,” Jeff Ecker said. “We have the best chemistry in the WPIAL. We just have great trust in each other. If Joey is going then we are going to get him the ball and if we need scoring in the post, my teammates have trust in me to get the job done and we did a good job of that tonight.”

Trinity did a good job early on of not getting into a track meet with the Tigers, but that changed in the second quarter.

Koroly knocked down a pair of free throws and a three-point shot to give the Hillers a 16-11 advantage early in the second quarter.

He was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000-career point and was also named to the All-State football team earlier in the day.

But the turnovers started to pile up and McKeesport got their transition game going.

The Hillers turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions and the Tigers stated running, putting together a 13-5 run to take a 24-21 lead as the McKeesport feasted on layups and dunks.

A lot of the damage was done by Layton Jordan, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half.