When the William Allen boys basketball team found itself in a close game early on against Freedom in the District 11 6A tournament quarterfinals, it turned to its press defense.
The pressure paid off for the Canaries.
Fourth seeded William Allen defeated the twelfth seeded Patriots 66-47 on Thursday night at J Milo Sewards Gymnasium.
Trailing Freedom 13-11, the Canaries forced several turnovers and scored seven unanswered points to start the second quarter.
“We haven’t played in a week and a half, so we wanted to see how the first quarter was going to go before we figured it out. We started off slow, but we know that that (press defense) can get us going,” William Allen coach Darnell Braswell said. “Forced them to turn the ball over, miss some shots or take some shots quickly that they didn’t want to, and once that happens Allen basketball is Allen basketball.”
The Canaries, ranked seventh by lehighvalleylive, can now look forward to playing ‘Allen basketball’ in the district semifinals at the PPL Center on Monday against top seeded Pocono Mountain West.
“Coach said from the beginning, ‘We gotta be on them, we got to put ball pressure on them, they’re going to turn the ball over.’ That’s what we did,” Allen senior Emmanuel Ozuna said. “It’s a blessing playing at the PPL Center.”
Sparked by two straight corner 3′s from senior Anthony Rondon, Allen went on a 15-4 run to end the first half and outscored the Patriots 26-10 in the second. Rondon scored 11 of his 13 points in the second.
“Ant’s been doing it all year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve been enjoying coaching him. He’s a guy who’s a coach’s dream, comes in ready to work every day,” Braswell said.
Freedom, who’s starting five were all sophomores, struggled to adjust to the change of tempo.
“We defended in the first quarter, we defended the three ball, we got back on defense and then all of a sudden, we stopped getting back on defense,” Freedom coach Joe Stellato said. “That second quarter was brutal, they scored 20 points on just transition alone.
“I challenged them in the locker room saying, ‘Get back on defense and let’s at least compete.”
The Patriots responded after the halftime break, starting the third quarter on a 11-2 run that was capped off by a transition layup by sophomore Aaron Levy.
After having its lead cut to five points, Allen scored seven in the final 90 seconds of the third thanks to a 3-pointer from junior point guard Nate Ellis and dunk from senior forward Mel Copeland.
Copeland followed up his third quarter dunk by slamming an alley-oop off an assist from fellow senior Josh Carrion to put the Canaries ahead 55-38 with 5:35 left to play.
“That’s Mel Copeland at his finest right there. He has a cool persona to him, but that kid is one of the most athletic kids in the area,” Braswell said. “You saw on those two dunks, it was awesome.”
Ozuna, who finished the game with five assists, scored the last of his 13 points just after Copeland’s highlight reel play by finishing strong on a contested layup.
“I’ve gotten better over the years. I try to find my teammates, try to get my teammates involved so we can all contribute to the game,” Ozuna said. “Coach told me to attack the basket hard, he was yelling at me at practice the other day because I was going up soft to the basket. Now I’m just focusing on attacking the basket.”
Allen (9-4) heads to the semifinals with the hopes of capturing its second district title in three seasons.
“We’re one of the highest scoring teams in the area, but our offense wasn’t flowing for us in the first,” Braswell said. “To see our defense turn into our offense was an amazing sight. The guys overcame some adversity.”
Freedom finishes the shortened season at 2-10. The Patriots, who were prevented from practicing consistently before February by COVID-19 issues, will welcome back most of its lineup next year.
“What I’m going to remember this year is the way we competed in games with very little practice. That’s what you have to be proud of,” Stellato said. “That’s something to build on, there’s no doubt about that... I have a ton of sophomores. Next year I’m only going to have one senior, they’re all going to be juniors next year. They’re going to have to compete next year even for playing time.”
Sophomore Nick Ellis paced Freedom with 14 points while sophomore forward Josh Washington pulled down 11 rebounds and had six blocks.
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Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com.
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William Allen boys basketball pushes the pace to get past Freedom, into D11 Semis - lehighvalleylive.com
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