
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | final score | |
| ACC | 13 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 33 |
| SAL | 12 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 32 |
Central Catholic is heading back to the District 11 4A BBB title game against Northwestern Lehigh and a chance to repeat as D11 champs after they pulled out a win 33-32 over Salisbury Township in a game that went down to the wire at the Canary Cage. A free throw by Diquiawn Leak with 7.9 seconds left in the game and a block by Yariel Gonzalez of Steven Lozada’s last second drive to the basket sealed the win.
Julian Makhoul got the scoring started with a nice drive to the basket for a 2-0 lead. Central got a couple 3s from Tahir Edmondson and jumped out to a 13-8 lead but Steven Lozada and Drew Petrie cut the lead to 13-12.
In the 2nd qtr points got a little harder to come by with each team only scoring 5pts. But like the 1st qtr the Vikings built a lead 18-12 with Grayson Schmell hitting one of his 3-3s on the night and Yariel Gonzalez added 2. But Julian Makhoul connected from 3pt land and took the ball across half court and drove to the basket for the score. Vikings held on their 1pt lead 18-17 at the half.
The Falcons tried to turn the table in the 3rd qtr and score 1st and build a lead and did 24-18. Garrett Leiner hit 2 FTs Bryan Gonzalez and Steven Lozada each added a bucket plus a FT by Julian Makhoul. But the Vikings were not going to let this game slip away and matched their 7pts Yariel Gonzalez 3pts Diquiawn Leak 2pts and Jared Fords 2 giving them back the lead 25-24 at the end of 3 qtrs.
In the 4th Yariel Gonzalez makes 2 FTs and Grayson Schmell hits 3 and the Vikings had a 30-24 lead. But the Falcons who were not going to down without a fight Lozada scored Garrett Leiner added a 3 to make it 30-29 and only down 1. Jared Ford catches the missed shot by Gonzalez and scores to give the Vikings a 3pt lead 32-29. Lozada sank a 3 and we were tied at 32-32. That’s when Diquiawn Leak got his 13th offensive rebound got fouled and went to the line to set up the dramatic finish. 33-32
Scoring for Central Catholic: Grayson Schmell 9pts 3-3s Yariel Gonzalez 9pts 3-4 FTs game ending block Tahir Edmondson 6pts 2-3s Diquiawn Leak 5pts game winning FT Jared Ford 4pts 2-2s 1st one gave Central the lead at the end of 3rd
Scoring for Salisbury: Julian Makhoul 11pts 2-3s Steven Lozada 9pts 5pts in the 4th qtr and a 3pt shot to tie it at 32-32 Garrett Leiner 5pts 1-3 Bryan Gonzalez 5pts 3-3 FT Drew Petrie 2pts
After the game Diquiawn Leak had this to say about free throws and rebounding. “Coach preaches rebounding and we go hard on that at practices,” he said. “We outrebounded them. That’s how Jared Ford had the hustle play to get the ball to me and that’s how I got to the basket and foul line. We take 5 minutes multiple times during a practice to work on foul shooting.”
Coach Csensits had this to say after the game about the final play. “They had a really nice play drawn up on that side. We defended it really well. Justin Villegas did a great job of helping on that. I think our kids were afraid to foul him when he got moving, but Yariel made a great play. That’s a great block and I will look forward to watch that one on tape.”
Coach Csensits also had this to say about returning to the title game. “We’re excited to play in the district final and excited to qualify for the state tournament and getting another home game is always nice,” Csensits said. “This group has been a pretty good practice team. We’ve been hampered by a lot of unfortunate things … a lot of injuries. We’re on our fifth point guard. I think in my first 14 years at Central we had a total of five point guards and I’ve matched that in one season.”
The Rematch happens Friday the 27th at 7:45 pm back at the Canary Cage Milo Seward GYM Allen
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