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Rodney Gallagher’s free throws in final second of double OT lift Laurel Highlands past New Castle in WPIAL Class 5A final

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Friday, March 4, 2022 | 11:00 PM

Same arena. Same prize. There was a little less time on the clock when Rodney Gallagher walked to the foul line this year, but he made sure the outcome was also exactly the same.

The Laurel Highlands junior stirred memories of his freshman heroics by drawing a foul with three-tenths of a second left in double overtime Friday night and calmly making two free throws to lift the No. 1 seed Mustangs to a 60-58 win over No. 2 New Castle in a tense WPIAL Class 5A final at Petersen Events Center.

Gallagher finished with a game-high 26 points.

His winning foul shots were a once-in-a-lifetime moment for most, but Gallagher has now done it twice in three years. As a freshman, he made two free throws with 4.8 seconds left in regulation to win the 2020 championship over Mars.

There was one difference.

“I’ll tell you this, I definitely wasn’t as nervous as I was my freshman year,” Gallagher said. “I felt actually comfortable.”

Tied at 58, Gallagher held for the last shot as lights from cell phone cameras dotted the crowd. The 6-foot guard spun into the lane and tossed up a runner that touched the front of the rim and missed. Officials called a foul on New Castle’s Mike Wells, sending Gallagher to the line with three-tenths left.

“We barely had any time on the clock, so I knew I had to take Mike Wells to the rack,” Gallagher said. “I got contact, and they called the foul.”

New Castle coach Ralph Blundo was adamant that a foul shouldn’t have been called in that situation. Not tied in double overtime in a heavyweight battle between two recent champions.

“I don’t have words for it,” Blundo said. “(The official) is human. I get it. You don’t make that call.”

Blundo noted that officials faced a similar decision at the end of regulation. With six seconds left and tied at 47, Wells drew contact as three defenders converged on him under the basket, but Laurel Highlands wasn’t called for a foul.

“Much more contact in the exact situation with the referee in the same spot,” Blundo said. “It’s a double overtime game with a 24-0 and a 23-1 team playing their hearts out. Let’s go play another four minutes and figure this thing out. Let the kids figure it out.”

The WPIAL title was the third for Laurel Highlands (25-0), joining those won in 2020 and 1968. Defending champion New Castle (23-2), owner of 14 WPIAL titles, was trying to win its eighth in 11 years. Blundo had been 7-0 in WPIAL finals.

Both teams now advance to the PIAA playoffs, setting up a potential rematch in the state semifinals in two weeks.

Laurel Highlands went 12 for 18 from the free throw line, including 9 for 10 by Gallagher, while New Castle struggled from that spot. The Red Hurricanes missed 7 of 14, including the front end of two one-and-ones late in regulation.

Wells led New Castle with 23 points, Jonathan Anderson had 16 and Isaiah Boice had 14. Boice made a game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first overtime to keep the game alive.

“The kid made a great shot, so somebody had to step up for us and do the same,” Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger said. “A team like that that’s won so many championships, they know what they’re doing. We knew it was going to be a grind.”

Laurel Highlands’ Keondre Deshields scored 18 points, including nine in the overtimes, and Brandon Davis added 12. The Mustangs haven’t lost since falling to New Castle in last year’s WPIAL semifinals, a streak of 25 consecutive wins.

“I put a note in my phone and circled the date to hopefully get them again,” Gallagher said. “Around 7 o’clock, it popped up in my phone and said, ‘Game day.’ I’d even forgotten I’d put that in my phone, but that reminded me we’ve wanted this game for that long.”

The game was tense throughout, and the largest lead for either team was five points by New Castle in the first quarter. After halftime, nobody led by more than three. Laurel Highlands led 28-27 at half and 43-40 after three. The teams were tied 47-47 after regulation and 52-52 after the first overtime.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Laurel Highlands,” Blundo said. “Those guys made outstanding plays and big plays throughout the course of the game. They’re WPIAL champions right now and they deserve to be. We give them credit for that. I certainly don’t want to minimize their accomplishment because they were outstanding tonight, and so were we.”

Watch an archived video stream broadcast of this game on Trib HSSN.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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