Franklin Regional uses defense to top Norwin in Rettger final

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 | 10:18 PM

It wasn’t pretty, but Franklin Regional will take it.

Behind another strong defensive performance, the Panthers defended their title and won their fifth Mike Rettger Memorial Tournament in seven years with a 44-39 victory over Norwin on Wednesday night in Murrysville.

A game with little fluidity saw both teams run halfcourt offenses, a lot of passing and cutting, and both appeared to place greater emphasis on defense. Neither seemed assertive down the stretch.

But the Class 5A No. 5 Panthers did enough to move to 4-0 as senior guard Nick Leopold scored a game-high 19 points and made 12 of 12 free throws, including 10 of 10 in the fourth quarter.

Leopold was named tournament MVP, and senior Adam Rudzinski, who had 10 poionts, also made the all-tournament team.

“Coach Scorp always tell us we’re going to be fine with offense, but we’re going to win games on defense,” Leopold said. “That was clear tonight. None of us were really scoring, so we had to hunker down on defense and that’s what won us the game.”

The Panthers, who are holding teams to 39.3 points per game, limited the Knights (3-1) to one point in the third quarter as they built their largest lead at 31-21.

“Late in the game, we let some guys get to the rim and were late on a couple close-outs,” Panthers coach Steve Scorpion said. “I thought we did enough. We just have to learn how to finish games. We have to be stronger with the ball on both ends of the floor.

“I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty.”

Norwin, which last led at 5-4, cut the margin to 31-29 on free throws by Logan Liebdzinski, but the Panthers went back up by five when Leopold made a pair of free throws with his team in the bonus at 37-32.

Tyler Bilinsky made a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left for Norwin, and Gianni Rizzo drove the lane to make it 39-37.

After an administrative technical on Norwin, Leopold hit two more free throws with 35.8 seconds, then another pair with 6.8 after a jumper by Owen Sabol.

“Both teams defended well,” Norwin coach Lynn Washowich said. “For whatever reason, we have not been good in the third quarter. We’ve had single-digit third quarters in three games. We have to figure that out. We weren’t aggressive enough at times. We need to be looking to score.”

Franklin Regional 6-foot-7 center Johnny O’Toole fell and hit his head on the floor with 4:48 left in the third quarter. He left for observation and did not return.

Scorpion thinks he will be able to play, however, Friday when the Panthers open Section 3-5A play against Hampton. They host rival and defending WPIAL champion Mars on Monday.

“It was great to get these two games underneath us,” Leopold said. “Norwin is a really good test. Now it gets real, real fast. We’re always ready to play.”

Sophomore forward Jayden Walker led Norwin with 12 points and also made the all-tournament team.

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.