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By Peter DiGiovanni
pdgiovanni07@gmail.com
@PeteDLNontwitter
NORRISTOWN >> The Unionville boys’ basketball team had a dream of winning the PIAA 5A championship this season. That dream expired Friday night at Norristown High School as the Longhorns dropped a quarterfinal round game to Archbishop Ryan, 62-45.
Ryan (21-9 overall) got off to a fast start, jetting out to a 17-6 lead after one period, and the Raiders never looked back. The Longhorns shot just 15-for-47 from the field (.319 percent) and turned the ball over 12 times for the game.
“We obviously did not get the start we wanted,” Unionville coach Chris Cowles said. “We gave them their first four points on our turnovers and we just never recovered. But give them credit. They played very good fundamental defense and we had trouble on offense.
“We did not execute on defense and I thought some of our rotations on defense were soft and then they had some guys make shots that do not usually make them.”
The Raiders shot .543 percent (25-46) from the field and were led by Georgetown commit, 6-foot-9, Thomas Sorber. The Raiders’ senior scored a game high 20 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Darren Williams added 15 points, 13 in the second half for Ryan.
Unionville scored the final five points of the first half — all by Nick Diehl — to narrow the Raiders’ lead to 29-19 at the half. Diehl had a strong game battling Sorber, and scored a team-high 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
“We knew how good Sorber was coming into the game,” Diehl said. “It’s just really hard right now. I just love these guys and I loved playing with them the last three years. This is a tough one.”
Ryan stayed hot in the second half, shooting 7-for-12 from the field in the third period. Williams drained two of his three 3-pointers in the period and Ryan outscored the Longhorns (25-4 overall) 18-12 in the period to take a commanding 47-31 lead after three periods.
Williams continued his hot hand in the fourth period as he drained a 3-pointer to put Ryan up 50-31 early in the fourth period. The shots continued to misfire for the Longhorns, who shot just 3-15 in the final period.
Sorber punctuated the win with a finish off an alley-oop pass from Williams for a monster slam to make it 57-36 with just over five minutes left in the fourth period.
J.T. Anderson drained a 3-pointer to make it a 57-40 game with 4:28 left, but baskets by Sorber and Jaden Murray kept the Longhorns at bay, and it was Ryan who was marching on to the semifinals Monday night against Imhotep Charter, while the Longhorns dream season came to a halt.
The bulk of the Unionville starting five includes four seniors and they have experienced lots of winning under Cowles.
“It is really tough right now,” Cowles said. “You build friendships with the kids and the staff. I mean, we spend so much time together and in the summer. They are the best team to come through Unionville in wins and they have won multiple championships of different kinds. Tonight was not our night.”
Archbishop Ryan 62, Unionville 45
ARCHBISHOP RYAN — Johnson 1 0-0 2, Williams 6 0-0 15, Everett 2 0-0 5, Morabito 2 2-4 6, Murray 2 3-4 7, Russell 2 2-2 7, Sorber 10 0-1 20. Totals 25 7-11 62.
UNIONVILLE — Brenner 2 0-0 7, Anderson 2 3-4 8, Robbins 1 0-0 2, Brown 3 1-3 8, Kammeier 1 0-0 3, Diehl 6 5-6 17. Totals 15 9-13 45.
Archbishop Ryan 17 12 18 15 – 62
Unionville 6 13 12 14 – 45
3-point goals: Williams 3, Everett, Russell, Brenner, Anderson, Brown, Kammeier.
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