Highlands overcomes slow start to roll past Carrick into PIAA quarterfinals
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018 | 10:42 PM
Highlands fell behind by eight early, but coach Tyler Stoczynski resisted calling a timeout.
The strategy worked as the Golden Rams finished the first quarter with a strong surge and rolled to a 73-54 victory in a PIAA Class 5A boys basketball second-round contest Tuesday night at Gateway High School.
Highlands (20-5) is in the PIAA quarterfinal round for the second time in three seasons and will face long-time nemesis Mars (23-4) on Friday at a time and site to be determined.
The game started three minutes before the advertised starting time of 7:30, because of Sharon rapidly eliminated Johnstown in the first of a twin-bill.
The Golden Rams took the 7:30 start seriously, falling behind 8-0 and 10-2 before Shawn Erceg scored to get Highlands on the scoreboard three minutes into the game.
“That's one of things where I'd rather have the timeouts at the end of the game,” Stoczynski said. “I trust this senior group. With a young team, maybe you call something. But with this group we can let them ride it out; they've been through some tough times.”
Indeed, the Golden Rams finished the first quarter on an 11-0 run to carry an 18-14 advantage into the second quarter.
“We've been in this situation before,” Erceg said. “We're experienced enough. Maybe at the beginning of the year it would have been a different story.”
“They're a tremendous basketball team,” Carrick coach Walt Milinski said. “We had our game plan of wanting to match their intensity of getting up and down the court. We started, then we turned the ball over and struggled scoring.”
Erceg scored eight of his 16 points in the opening quarter.
Sophomore Luke Cochran took over in the second quarter, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and added two more in the third quarter and a fifth trey to start the fourth.
He finished with 21 points and six assists.
“He stepped up in a lot of big situations for us tonight,” Stoczynski said of Cochran. “He's worked so hard, and he deserves everything he's getting out on the court.”
Ramello Freeman also tallied 16, including a pair of slam dunks in the fourth quarter to bring the large Highlands following to its feet.
Johnny Crise added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
“Tremendous effort after a slow start,” Stoczynski said. “Our guys showed good composure and did not get rattled. They knew Carrick was a good team, and they'd come to play and give their best shot until we were able to build our lead.”
Carrick, forced to win a play-in game before defeating Hollidaysburg on Friday night, finished its most successful season in a long time at 20-6.
“In the second half, the ball just wasn't bouncing our way,” Milinski said. “I'm proud of my guys. I believe we won a (PIAA) game my first year there in 1993.”
Carrick's Daysean Woodson finished with 19 points before fouling out with 6 minutes, 44 seconds left in the game. Fellow senior Y'shua Bragg had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Carrick played three PIAA games without key player Vernon Washington, who broke his hand in the City League semifinals against Westinghouse.
George Guido is a freelance writer.
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