OLSH overcomes 22-point deficit, beats Kennedy Catholic in PIAA Class 2A semifinals

By: George Guido
Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 5:22 PM

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The mantra in March is “survive and advance.”

For Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon, it was ultimate survival mode.

The Chargers, with their 66-game winning streak and a berth in the PIAA finals on the line, fell behind by 22 points midway through the second period, rallied to tie and send the game against Kennedy Catholic into overtime.

OLSH dominated the extra session and emerged with a 78-68 victory in the Class 2A semifinals before a near-capacity crowd at Armstrong High School.

OLSH now has 67 straight victories and can tie the state record of 68 set by West Philadelphia from 1976-78 with a win in the PIAA title game against either Philadelphia Constitution or Old Forge in Hershey at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Giant Center.

Jake DiMichele, the fourth-leading scorer in WPIAL history, tallied 21 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and the overtime to pace the amazing comeback. The standout guard recalled his team’s last loss in the 2019 state semifinals.

“The best way to describe this is this game had a similar feel to the semifinals my freshman year when we lost,” DiMichele said. “I remember thinking after that game, ‘I wish I could have done more. I wish I could have done more.’ ”

The game started out with a scintillating performance by Golden Eagles senior Elijah Harden. The 6-foot guard hit all six of his 3-point attempts to give Kennedy Catholic a 27-10 lead at the end of the first period.

In the second quarter, it was more of the same as the Golden Eagles looked like they would have a chance to vie for a record 11th PIAA title. A basket by Harden, his only 2-pointer of the game, gave Kennedy Catholic a 36-14 lead with 3 minutes, 58 seconds left in the second quarter.

But OLSH began chipping away at the lead, cutting the deficit to 40-29 on a basket by Dawson Summers just before the half.

“It was a tremendous comeback,” OLSH coach Mike Rodriguez said. “The kid hit six straight threes and knew we’d have to come out on them on defense in the second quarter. We didn’t want to show it too early because our kids were hyped up. But we had to weather that storm, down by 22.”

The Chargers made more progress in the third quarter, cutting the lead to 52-48 on a 3-pointer by Kevin Wilson with 37.1 seconds to go.

Kennedy Catholic extended its lead to 63-53 on a pair of free throws by Harden with 5:15 left in regulation.

DiMichele’s steal with 2:13 left in the fourth quarter cut the Golden Eagles’ advantage to 63-60. A pivotal moment second later took place as DiMichele tried for the steal, tapping the ball away from the Kennedy ballhandler. An official first ruled the ball out of bounds to Kennedy Catholic. But after a conference, the call was changed to OLSH’s possession and DiMichele tied the game with his first 3-pointer of the game.

Summers tied the score on a basket with 1:13 to go, but his wrist was hit during the shot. His free throw missed as the 6-foot-5 center grabbed his shooting wrist in pain, thus keeping the score knotted at 65.

With Kennedy Catholic holding for a final shot, Simeir Wade misfired and the ball went out of bounds off OLSH with .3 seconds to go. A perfect inbounds pass from Geo Magesto to Remington Hart was blocked by Summers to send the game into overtime.

DiMichele hit a 3-pointer early into the overtime to give OLSH its first lead, 68-65. It was all OLSH after that.

Said Rodriguez: “We had to go to our defense, we had to start chasing a little more, going after their shooters a little bit more and it started to benefit us.”

“This outcome is something that is going to hurt,” Kennedy Catholic coach Ken Madison said. “Our juniors, sophomores and freshman sitting on that bench will understand the next time we get in this position. My seniors Elijah, Geo and Malik (Lampkins-Rudolph) were phenomenal, and I was glad they were able to show it on this stage.”

Harde finished the day with 31 points, Magesto had 19 and Lampkins-Rudolph had 12 and eight rebounds.

Summers had 16 points for OLSH with 12 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

DiMichele now has 2,578 career points, fourth in WPIAL history and 34 behind Neshannock’s Kevin Covert for the No. 3 spot.

Tags: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart