All-time WPIAL boys basketball championship games No. 6: 2008 Central Catholic rallies past Moon

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, February 22, 2018 | 7:21 PM

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The TribLive High School Sports Network will be counting down the Top 10 boys and girls WPIAL basketball championship games leading up to the 2018 title games March 1-3 at the Petersen Events Center.

TRIBHSSN is the exclusive audio and video home for all 12 WPIAL championship games, which will be broadcasted and video streamed live at TribHSSN.triblive.com.

Here is the fifth installment of a 10-part series ranking the top WPIAL boys basketball championship games in district history.

No. 6: 2008 — WPIAL Class 4A finals: Central Catholic 55, Moon 54

Chuck Crummie had accomplished a lot in his nearly three decades as boys basketball coach at Central Catholic, with one glaring omission — no WPIAL championships. That all changed on a magical night in late February of 2008, as the Vikings made their first title game appearance since losing to Penn Hills by 20 points in 1987.

Their opponent was the Moon Tigers, a team that under Jeff Ackermann had dominated Class AAA with three straight titles in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before moving up to Quad-A.

The game was close throughout as Central Catholic took a 21-20 lead into the locker room at halftime. But senior Keir Jeter got hot early in the second half, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes of the third quarter to put the Tigers up 36-30. Moon took a five-point lead in the fourth quarter and increased its advantage to nine at 46-37 with just over three and a half minutes left.

But then Moon got sloppy and Central Catholic took advantage. Four straight turnovers allowed the Vikings to cut the deficit from nine to four in a span of one minute. Tigers freshman Aaron Johnson hit a pair of free throws with a minute left to put Moon up 52-45. It was all Vikings the rest of the way.

Evan Tsudis hit a 3-pointer for Central Catholic, then senior guard Matt McKenna drilled another 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to pull the Vikings to within 53-52. Moon's Ryan Falbo made one of two free throws with 17 seconds left as the Tigers went up 54-52. Central Catholic's Lucas Mickens drove the hoop looking to tie the game late, but his shot missed and the ball went out of bounds, last touched by Moon.

Chuck Crummie called a timeout.

“That was our side out of bounds play all year,” Crummie said, “although we had some in the huddle who wanted to draw something else up.”

The ball was inbounded to McKenna who drilled a 22-foot shot from the deep right wing to give his coach that elusive first basketball championship and his school a first district hoops crown in nearly 100 years.

“We had a player under the hoop that was wide open as well, but Matt made the decision to shoot it,” Crummie said. “Who knows if the pass would have made it there in time and if it did, we would have been going to overtime.”

McKenna and Mickens each had 14 points to lead the Vikings. Johnson led the Tigers with 14. Moon star guard Brian Walsh was held to 12 points, well below his average of 19 points.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Moon