Vincentian the New Royalty of Boys Class A Basketball

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, March 2, 2013 | 12:08 AM

The Vincentian Academy Royals pulled away in the third quarter to claim their second WPIAL Class A Boys Basketball Championship with a 86-74 victory over the Clairton Bears on Friday night at the A.J. Palumbo Center. 

The Royals are now 25-1 on the season and have won 14 straight since falling to District 6 top seed Bishop Carroll on January 12th.

It was a balanced attack for the Royals. Five players ended in double figures with Junior Jim Kenna leading the way with 24 points and nine rebounds. Tony DiNardo added 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.  Ryan Wolf scored 14, Jay Cortese came off the bench to score 11 and Kevin Fischer scored 10.

The first half was played at a sometimes frantic pace. Vincentian led 19-15 after one quarter, but the Bears would rally to take the lead midway thru the second on a Terrish Webb basket, part of a 6-0 Clairton run.

The teams exchanged leads until late in the half when Ryan Wolf scored and was fouled. But Clairton was able to knot the game at 39 at the half.

Clairton forced their 2nd half lead to  44-39, scoring the first five points of the second half, but that would be their last lead of the night.

DiNardo tied the game at the six minute mark and Kenna gave the Royals the lead for good on a steal and score shortly after. Those baskets were part of an 11-0 run to put Vincentian up 51-46, the Royals added another 5-0 run later in the quarter. The final minute saw a great behind the back pass from Cortese to Wolf for a layup, acting as an exclamation point on the Royals led 63-55 lead after three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw the Royals head to the free throw line, scoring only seven points from the field. Vincentian was 16 of 22 from the foul line in the fourth, the Royals were 31 of 45 for the game from the line, and 25 of 56 from the field. The 31 made free throws is a WPIAL Championship game record. 

Vincentian Academy won the battle of the boards 46-33. The only down side for the Royals was 25 turnovers.

Vincentian Academy will take on the third place team from District 9 in the first round of the state tournament on Friday.

Clairton saw their four game winning streak come to an end, the Bears fall to 16-7 and will meet the District 10 runner-up on Friday in state play.

Bryon Clifford scored 20 points to lead the Bears, Terrish Webb added 15 and Armani Ford added 10 before fouling out with six minutes to play. Aaron Matthews came off the bench to score 10 points. Tyler Boyd scored 7 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Bears were 33 of 78 from the field, but just 3 of 14 from the charity stripe. Clairton committed ten turnovers.

Score By Quarter:
Vincentian Academy Royals        19 – 20 – 24 – 23 =  86
Clairton Bears                                    15 – 24- 16 – 22 = 74