This article here is straight from Geoff Morrow of the Patriot News.... Good job covering the game Mr. Morrow....
Moments after Domenick Antonelli's step-back 3-pointer late in double overtime of Wednesday night's hoops madness, your brain might have prepared you for stepping back into the crisp February air that normally accompanies basketball of this caliber on your way out of the gymnasium.
But instead it was July's sweltering heat greeting enthused fans as they left Harrisburg High's Kimber Gymnasium following the Smallwood Summer League big school championship.
Antonelli's L'Koste Villa (Trinity) edged Sports Paradise (Bishop McDevitt) 67-63 to claim the title, played before a hyped crowd and featuring the intensity and big-play capablities usually on display in high school's playoff season that runs in February and March.
"It was awesome. It was crazy. I was not thinking this would be the atmosphere in summer league, but honestly I wouldn't want to have it any other way," said Josh Trumpy, an incoming Trinity senior who led all players with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Trinity and McDevitt are no strangers, sharing the Mid-Penn Keystone Division during the school season (McDevitt swept the Shamrocks) and meeting earlier in the Smallwood Summer League regular season (Trinity took that one).
"I thought it was awesome," added Trumpy's fellow big man, incoming Trinity senior Brandon Kuntz, who totaled 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists. "We came to the game together, and we pulled in like, 'There's a bunch of people here!' Didn't feel like a summer league game. Felt like a regular season or almost a playoff game."
Trinity's triumph capped a championship tripleheader, with a Lancaster AAU outfit winning the junior high title before Harrisburg Young Professionals (Harrisburg JV) beat New Grounds (New Hope Academy) 52-47 in the small school championship.
"Basically what we're trying to do is uplift basketball in the area," said the summer league's creator, Harrisburg High School head coach Kirk Smallwood, who began this league in 1991. "We don't have a lot of [summer] programs for high school kids that really enhance their skill sets and give them an opportunity to play with guys they go to school with."
So this, and other area summer leagues, are filling the void.
With shows as intense and entertaining as the Trinity-McDevitt finale, it only heightens the anticipation as the 2013-14 high school season approaches in late fall/early winter.
The largest lead for either team was four points.
Donte Vaughn nailed his own step-back 3-pointer with 34 seconds left in regulation to ultimately force overtime for the Bishop McDevitt crew, coached by high school head coach Jeff Hoke.
Each team managed only two points in the first OT, with Dyllon Hudson-Emory (team-high 21 points, plus five rebounds and three blocks) knocking down a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left to forge yet another tie for McDevitt. Justin McCarthur's jumper just before the buzzer trickled wide for the Crusaders.
In the second overtime, a freebie by McDevitt's Mark Ray tied the score at 60 moments before Antonelli's trey put Trinity, coached by high school head coach Larry Kostelac Jr. and his son, Larry Kostelac III, ahead for good.
"Honestly, it was funny, almost exactly like the Loyalsock game [in the PIAA playoffs]," said Antonelli, the incoming senior who finished with 16 points and a game-high five assists while playing every minute of the contest.
"I pump-faked, Donte jumped, I got him to bite, and I got a really good look at the rim. I just let it go, and it went in.
"McDevitt is a huge rival of ours, and we knew they were going to come out and give us a game. They're gonna be unbelievable this year. They have great players. Coach Hoke does a great job with their guys. We were fortunate to come out with the win tonight."
McDevitt's incoming junior, Milik Gantz, contributed a collection of dazzling drives and dishes, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. But he fouled out early in the second overtime on a three-point play by Trumpy.
On defending a talent like Gantz, here's what Kuntz had to say: "We play them a few times, so I know his tendencies, his spin moves and all that. Almost all the time, if you’re even with him, he’s scoring a layup or you’re fouling him. So what I’m trying to do is make him shoot, make him beat me from the outside, like they do with LeBron."
He paused for a moment, realizing he just compared Gantz to NBA superstar LeBron James. Then affirmed: "Yeah, kind of like him."
The New Hope-Harrisburg game was another nip-and-tuck affair, with the Cougars' JV -- or as coach Joe Proctor calls them, "the second varsity team" -- pulling away in the closing seconds.
Nick Retten scored 16 and Donte Proctor 12 for Harrisburg, while New Hope was led by Montrel Morgan's 21 and Kareem Oden's 15.
Joe Proctor, Harrisburg High's JV coach during the school year, is a math teacher at New Hope and works alongside New Hope head coach David Archer and assistant Steve Little.
"I know all of them," said Proctor, who engaged in some friendly and also outright hilarious trash-talk with his opposing coaches during the game. "Some of these kids I've had in class. I work with Steve and Arch. We carpool to work every day. So it was nice and bittersweet. It was fun."
Morgan, an incoming sophomore for the Class A New Hope Mighty Ants, really put on a show in defeat and will most definitely be a player to watch over the next three seasons.
"He's going to be an exceptionally good player," Proctor said. "Working with Arch and Steve Little is going to bring the most out of him. He's an even better student, straight A's. I think he's going to take New Hope to new heights."
As for the goal of summer league hoops, here's Proctor's take: "It allows our kids to get together in the gym every day. We can shoot, we can work on some individual skills, and it builds camaraderie, if nothing else. And it's fun, because a lot of kids in this area know each other."
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