Teegan Finucan and his teammates were eager to soak in the adulation Friday night. Beating Girard, 46-30, to open the PIAA Class 4A playoffs at home provided a crowded stage on which the Knoch boys basketball team seldom had an opportunity to perform.
Thanks to the quirks of high school scheduling, which typically sees schedules rotated between two-year cycles, the Knights’ first state playoff win since 1997 was only their ninth time playing in its own gym.
Roughly two-thirds of their schedule was played on the road at neutral sites. Scarcity of the product and the community’s interest in the team led to a sold-out crowd of 1,110 for Knoch’s win over the Yellowjackets, who were the fifth-place finisher out of District 10.
“I’m at a loss for words,” said senior guard Finucan, who scored a game-high 18 points. “The amount of people showing up and supporting the community and seeing new faces. There are people who aren’t interested in basketball at all, and they are here. They are enjoying what we are going through right now.”
Knoch (23-4) will get North Catholic for the fourth time in the second round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined. The Knights and Trojans shared the section title after splitting in the regular season, but Knoch beat North Catholic by 24 points in the WPIAL semifinals.
Knights coach Joe Lafko, who coached in front of several large crowds during his time at Hampton, was happy his kids got to see the same thing.
“A few,” Lafko said. “A few, but it’s fun. I’m glad the kids had an opportunity to experience that, and the community support has been outstanding.”
Against Girard, the Knights had to settle in versus a Yellowjackets defense that wasn’t afraid to challenge them. Girard (18-9) held Knoch without a basket for more than 3 minutes in the first quarter and led 4-2 after a jumper by Tyler Niewierowski.
Liam Avon scored 55 seconds into the game to give the Knights the lead, and Knoch didn’t score again until Finucan made a layup with 3:54 left in the quarter.
“We came with a plan of trying to be physical and try to pressure the ball on the perimeter,” Yellowjackets coach Mark Schrier said. “We knew if the ball got inside it was going to be difficult to defend their size. Then their game got ahead of us, and that zone was giving us problems.”
The Knights went back ahead 6-4 on a layup by Derek Lang and didn’t trail again.
Finucan struggled from the field in the first half, missing five of his first six attempts, including all five of his 3-point tries, in the first half.
“Defense comes first,” Finucan said. “We knew they were going to play a physical style of defense and physical style of basketball in general. We were getting our feet wet a little bit at the start of the game and adjusted to that.”
Knoch led 18-14 at the half and broke Girard down in the final 16 minutes. The Yellowjackets shot 26% (6 of 23) in the second half and 13% (2 of 16) from the 3-point line.
Kenny Godoy led Girard with 14 points.
In the second half, the Knights were able to find easier opportunities in the paint. Derek Lang (12 points) and Vinnie DeFelice (10) also finished in double figures for Knoch.
“I thought that we were able to create some offense from our defense in transition,” Lafko said. “That opened up the scoring for us in the second half.”