PIAA CLASS A Kennedy in familiar territory

Confident that his players could score, the Golden Eagles coach stressed defense.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. -- It is playoff time, and that means Kennedy Catholic more than likely will bring its "A" game to the gymnasium.
Playing solid basketball on both ends of the floor, the Golden Eagles advanced to the PIAA Class A Western semifinals with a convincing 65-42 win over Duquesne on Tuesday night.
Kennedy (24-5) advances to the next round of the state playoffs where the Golden Eagles will meet District 5 champion Conemaugh Township on Friday at a site to be announced Thursday.
Although winning by a wide margin, Kennedy trailed by four points two minutes into the game and still found itself behind 18-17 two minutes into the second quarter.
Going to work: However, that is when the Eagles went to work on the offensive end of the floor as they scored eight unanswered points on the front end of a 12-6 run that enabled them to take a 29-24 lead at halftime.
"I didn't think we were getting the ball inside like we should," Kennedy coach Tim Loomis said. "But then we took the ball down inside on the block because we knew they were vulnerable in there and we also threw a little bit different defense at them."
Loomis had been telling his athletes all season that if they play tough defense and control the boards, the offense will take care of itself.
"I thought the big key for us was a great defensive effort by seven guys," Loomis said. "We are going to get our points out of [Nolan] Reimold and [Dan] McElhinny, but if we are to win a championship, the other guys have to step up and they did that tonight."
McElhinny led all scorers with 22 points, while Reimold was close behind with 18.
But it was the efforts of some of the guys off the bench that proved to be the spark as Dan Harris scored 12, while Craig Wellman only scored four points but did a lot of positive things elsewhere.
"We knew we had to get some bench points and Harris just did a great job for us tonight," Loomis said.
Included in McElhinny's 22 points were six 3-pointers, and although the Eagles aren't known as a long-range shooting club, they were good on 9-of-15 attempts en route to the win.
"We had the right people shooting the ball and they were hitting them," Loomis said. "We only have two or three 3-point shooters, so we don't focus on shooting the 3s, but if it is there, we take it."
Coach impressed: Duquesne coach Montell Staples also was impressed by the shooting of McElhinny and Harris.
"I don't know what they shot from the field, but I know it had to be lights-out," said Staples. "McElhinny came out and set the tone early by hitting four 3s in the first half. He was on fire, and when a guy is shooting like he was, you can't gamble [on defense] like you might at other times.
"He carried them until Reimold got hot and when that happens, they have a strong one-two punch that is difficult to stop."
Staples admitted that his team could never get its running game going because it spent so much energy trying to defend Kennedy.
"We told the kids that you can't come with your hands down on defense against someone like [McElhinny], and at times we got caught with our hands down," Staples said.