Freshman Eric James scores 20 in 4th to help rally North Hills past Fox Chapel

By: Paul Schofield
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 | 10:29 PM

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North Hills freshman Eric James put on a show in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal game against Fox Chapel.

Maybe he was trying to impress Pitt coach Jeff Capel, who was sitting at the press table watching the game.

James scored 20 of his team-high 30 points in the fourth quarter, and No. 3 North Hills rallied to defeat No. 11 Fox Chapel, 67-62, at North Allegheny.

It was a rematch of the schools that played for the Class 6A title in 2022. Fox Chapel won that game 43-36.

North Hills will play Penn Hills in the semifinals at a time, date and place to be announced. Fox Chapel (14-10) is still alive as it drops into the consolation bracket, where it will attempt to qualify for the PIAA tournament.

“I guess we can’t get that one back,” North Hills coach Buzz Gabos said. “I heard from some of the players from that team. We needed this badly.”

James got loose against the Fox Chapel defense because it was paying so much attention to North Hills 6-foot-8 junior forward Royce Parham.

“They were double- and triple-teaming Royce so much that we were able to find Eric on the back door,” Gabos said. “We took advantage of their work playing on Royce.”

Parham still managed to get 25 points, and he did most of his damage in the third quarter when the Indians rallied from a 37-27 halftime deficit. Parham scored 11 points as North Hills cut the Fox Chapel lead to 46-44.

“We were aware of James, but they had other guys we had to worry about,” Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said. “He just got loose too many times. We’ve seen him do that before.”

Fox Chapel controlled the first half, leading 18-12 after one quarter as Asher White and Eric Wilson hit 3-pointers. The Foxes stretched their lead to 30-18 in the second quarter as White, who finished with 12 points, nailed two more 3-pointers.

“They shot the ball well in the first half, and I thought we were sluggish,” Gabos said. “They did a good moving our defense around and getting good looks.

“We made a slight adjustment at halftime, and then we made a 9-0 run to start the second half.”

Jefferson Moorefield-Brown led Fox Chapel with 18 points, and Kam Greil added 15.

“We played well enough to win,” Skrinjar said. “I’m proud of their effort, we didn’t quit. It was just a tough matchup for us.”

Brown gave North Hills the lead for good with 4 minutes, 33 seconds left via a driving layup.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Fox Chapel, North Hills