Rogers scores 29 as FC reaches semifinals
McDONALD – For the first time since 1961, the Fort Cherry High School boys basketball team is in the WPIAL semifinals.
Dylan Rogers scored 29 points and the second-seeded Rangers cruised to an 80-63 victory over seventh-seeded Winchester Thurston in a Class 2A quarterfinal game Friday night before a packed gymnasium at Fort Cherry.
The win clinches a berth in the state tournament for Fort Cherry and sends the Rangers (22-2), who have won 13 in a row, into the semifinals Tuesday night against Section 2 rival and third-seeded Carlynton, a 63-45 winner over Serra Catholic in the quarterfinals. The site and time of the game has not been determined.
Fort Cherry and Carlynton split two regular-season meetings and shared the section title.
After the first quarter ended tied at 15-15, Fort Cherry began to pull away behind the play of Rogers. The senior guard scored 21 of his points over the second and third quarters, when Fort Cherry moved out to leads of 34-30 at halftime and 57-45 after three quarters.
Winchester Thurston (11-8), despite getting 27 points from Jackson Juzang, never mounted a serious threat in the fourth quarter. Part of the reason was Fort Cherry stayed in control by making 21 of 25 free throws. Rogers was 10-for-11 at the free-throw line.
“At the beginning of the season, we weren’t a good free-throw shooting team,” Fort Cherry coach Eugene Briggs said. “But the last six weeks we’ve been working on that and been shooting much better. We’ve also had the right people getting to the line, which has helped.”
Owen Norman followed Rogers in the scoring column, tossing in 19 points. Maddox Truschel had 15. Truschel, Rogers and Adam Wolf each grabbed 10 rebounds.
Lance Nicholls and Jack Anderson Jussen both scored 14 points for Winchester Thurston.
“They were averaging 70 points per game, so to hold them to 63 was a good defensive night for us,” Briggs said.