Burrell’s breakout season ends with 4th-quarter struggles in PIAA loss to Bishop Guilfoyle

By: Josh Rizzo
Saturday, March 9, 2024 | 3:43 PM

There were bumps along the way, but the Burrell boys basketball team was where it felt it belonged Saturday afternoon. The Bucs earned a spot in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs by making a surprise run through the WPIAL playoffs as a No. 11 seed.

An energized Burrell team surged to a 12-point lead at home against District 6 third-place finisher Bishop Guilfoyle but couldn’t sustain the pace through 32 minutes. The Marauders pounded the glass relentlessly and ended up with a 62-51 win.

Bucs coach Mike Fantuzzo was pleased with his team’s season.

“A lot of people didn’t think we could get to this point,” Fantuzzo said. “From the beginning of the year, we had this expectation to get to the WPIAL finals and get to the state playoffs again. It’s been a two-year lapse. For us, we thought there would be a good chance we’d be here. We hit a rough patch where we felt it was sliding away and picked it up when the playoffs hit.”

Burrell (16-10) appeared to have enough juice to keep the party going. The Bucs made four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Forward Esau King-Buchak made the last of those with nearly a minute left in the quarter to stretch Burrell’s lead to 18-6.

“We’ve always been comfortable playing at our place,” Fantuzzo said. “It’s a nice advantage to have that opportunity. We have been shooting well here. We talked about starting strong, and we had a good performance starting off today.”

But there were signs of trouble. Tucker Bitar, who finished with 15 points, had to sit most of the first half with foul trouble. Trailing by 12, Bishop Guilfoyle was failing to finish shots around the rim.

The Marauders were relentless, sending waves of players on the offensive glass. Bishop Guilfoyle (25-3) shot 3 of 17 from the field in the first quarter.

“The start was rough,” Marauders coach Ryan Letoschi said. “We like being on the road. We like when everything is against us and we have to fight. We like being here. It was a great environment.”

Burrell led 27-22 at halftime. The Marauders tied the score for the first time on a layup by Trevor Rehm to make it 39-39 at the end of three quarters.

King-Buchak, who finished with 11 points while playing through foul trouble, made two free throws to open the fourth quarter to give the Bucs their final lead of the contest.

The Marauders couldn’t grab the lead until Tyson Letoschi scored a layup that put them ahead 42-41 with 4:52 remaining.

That kicked off an 8-0 run that allowed Bishop Guilfoyle to stretch the lead to seven points. Burrell never got within five points of the lead for the rest of the game.

The Marauders had three players finish in double figures scoring. Danny Haigh had a game-high 20, Trevor Rehm contributed 15 and Taurean Consiglio added 11.

Macky Bennis tied Bitar with a team-high 15 points for Burrell.

Bishop Guilfoyle never wilted after the Bucs’ fast start.

“From Day 1, we talked about mental toughness,” Ryan Letoschi said. “We showed how tough we are.”

Tags: Burrell