Notre Dame High School faced Pine Grove in the District 11 Class AA boys basketball semifinals with both teams staring at a district championship berth, a spot in the PIAA tournament -- or an unceremonious end to their season.
And for the second straight year, it was Pine Grove that will be moving on while Notre Dame was left with the prospect of packing up the basketballs and wondering what if.
Pine Grove guards Larry Zimmerman and Kyler Burke were simply too much for the Crusaders as they combined for 40 points in a convincing 55-39 win Wednesday night before a crowd of 600 at Martz Hall.
The Cardinals also ended Notre Dame's season last year with a 51-49 victory on Brady Burke's tip-in at the buzzer.
"Burke and Zimmerman are both really good players," said Notre Dame forwardConnor Hughes, one of seven seniors who played their final game for the Crusaders."They're really strong with the ball. We'd get a little run of four or five points going and every time they'd answer."
The win propels second-seeded Pine Grove (19-7) into the district title game against fourth-seeded Shenandoah (22-4) in an all-Schuylkill League final Saturday night at a time and site to be determined.
Burke, a 1,000-point scorer, finished with 21 points despite shooting just 3-for-10, which included misses on his first six shots from the floor. He also pulled down 10 rebounds, shot 8-for-8 from the foul line and hit 2 of 4 3-point attempts.
Zimmerman ended up with a game-high 24 points on 7 of 13 shooting from the floor, 8 of 10 from the foul line and 2 of 4 from 3-point range.
"That's the best 32 minutes of basketball we've played all season," Pine Grove third-year coach David Archer said. "Our (Schuylkill) league really prepares us well for this tournament. We've been coming together now our last five games. We're realizing you can't just have two guys go against Notre Dame's five."
Notre Dame (16-9) got off to a quick start. Connor Reed, who started with his brother, Tannor, in the backcourt, converted a left-handed drive and Hughes finished off a steal to put the Crusaders up 4-0 after three minutes.
But Zimmerman, who is just one point short of joining Burke in the 1,000-point club, sank a layup off the break, a drive from the left side and a 3-pointer to give Pine Grove a 9-6 lead at the 1:52 mark of the first quarter.
From Notre Dame's perspective, the game would get worse before it got better.
"Things just never came together for us this season but not for the lack of effort,"Notre Dame coach Pat Boyle said. "Yes, we won 16 games but our kids have higher standards than that. They set their goals high and 16 wins with nothing to show for it isn't it."
Notre Dame's calling cards have been forwards Hughes and Alex Gregg, who average 14 and 13 points, respectively, and a bench that goes 11 or 12 players deep. Boyle quickly tried to mix and match against the Cards with various combinations of players but none clicked.
Zimmerman scored 16 points by halftime as Pine Grove built up a 25-14 lead. Gregg, who struggled through a 1-for-10 shooting night plus 3-for-8 from the free throw line, started the second half with two free throws and Noah Miller added a layup off a steal at midcourt to cut the deficit to 25-18.
But Burke hit two free throws, a layup off a steal and Zimmerman contributed a foul shot to account for a 5-0 run and the Cardinals lead was back to 12.
A 3-point play by 6-foot-4 Marcus Reed, who teamed with 6-7 Vincent Eze to give the Crusaders a bigger lineup at times, got Notre Dame back under 10 at 30-21, but Adam Zerbe finished off a nice look from Burke and Notre Dame never got it back under double digits.
Noah Miller came off the bench to lead Notre Dame with 11 points. Shooting against the Cardinals' man-to-man defense was an issue all night. The Crusaders were just 15-for-53 from the field (29 percent), including 2-for-11 from 3-point range, and were a wretched 7-for-17 from the foul line.....
Good luck to Pine Grove and Coach Archer as he shoots for his first District 11 AA Championship....
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