by kevin keating
staff writer
kkeating@republicanherald.com
NORTHAMPTON — Pottsville’s boys’ basketball team has been on a dream run through the District 11 Class AAA playoffs, upsetting three higher seeds on the way to the championship game.
Nick Schlitzer nearly shot the Crimson Tide’s dreams of their first district title since 1990 into reality.
Like an alarm clock on a Monday morning, Southern Lehigh’s Jimmy Grewal shattered Pottsville’s dreams with his sharpshooting.
Grewal scored 20 points and helped charge up a struggling Southern Lehigh offense in the fourth quarter, giving the Spartans their first ever district championship with a 48-35 victory over the Crimson Tide on Friday night at Northampton High School.
Both the Crimson Tide (12-14) and Spartans (21-7) advance to the PIAA state platoffs, beginning Friday. Pottsville will face longtime Schuylkill League rival and District 4 champion Shamokin in the opening round. Southern Lehigh gets District 4 runner-up Danville.
Trailing 22-14 with under 2 minutes left in the third quarter, Pottsville’s Josh Whalen drilled a 3-pointer from the corner and Schlitzer ignited a raucous Pottsville student section with a halfcourt shot at the buzzer that drew nothing but net to pull the Tide within 22-20.
“I felt very good going into the fourth quarter,” Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said.
“I told the kids to ‘just find Nick. We’re gonna find him.’ ”
Schlitzer, who finished with 17 points, then nailed another 3 to start the fourth quarter to give Pottsville its first lead since a 4-2 advantage with 3:30 left in the first quarter.
Although the Spartans answered with a bucket by Scott Hoffman on an offensive board, Schlitzer connected on another trifecta to put the Tide head 26-24 with 6:15 left.
With Marcus Toomey holding Southern Lehigh’s Cory Schmidt, who averages 22.8 points per game, to just three field goals, the Spartans were looking for someone else to step up.
Schmidt finished with 11 points, but wasn’t able to make much of an impact because of the defense of Toomey and help from Whalen.
“I didn’t expect him to hold him to two field goals,” Mullaney said. “I was confident he could handle it.  I wouldn’t guess he would have held him to two field goals.”
Grewal finally provided the offense the Spartans had been lacking, especially in the fourth quarter. The senior guard finished with 20 points, including 10 in the final stanza. He made back-to-back buckets to give the Spartans a 28-26 lead with 5:05 left.
“Jimmy Grewal gave us a great fourth quarter,” Southern Lehigh coach Bob Shaffer said.
“We needed somebody. Jimmy Grewal did it for us tonight.”
Schlitzer answered to tie it with a driving bucket, but the Spartans went on a 12-0 run led by Grewal to put it out of reach.
“We couldn’t get that defensive stop that we needed,” Mullaney said.
Grewal followed a Hoffman bucket in the paint with a 3-pointer then added another after Schmidt converted a free throw. Cory Sroka made 1-of-2 free throws and Schmidt added two more for a 41-28 advantage with 1:24 left.
“We knew the Grewal kid was a good player,” Mullaney said. “Whalen’s a very good defender.
“I think Grewal took advantage of” Whalen providing help on Schmidt.
After nine trips to the finals came up empty, including the previous three seasons, Southern Lehigh finally has a district title to call its own.
“Knowing that we had a group that has been here for four straight years, this would have been a tough one to lose,” Shaffer said.
Ninth-seeded Pottsville, which had to sink a free throw with no time remaining on the clock in its regular-season finale to qualify for districts, knocked off No. 8 seed Blue Mountain, No. 1 seed Wilson and No. 4 seed Jim Thorpe just to reach the final.
They’ll look to refocus for next Friday’s showdown with Shamokin.
“I told the kids we could feel sorry for ourselves until we shower,” Mullaney said. “We’ll be very excited to play that.”
NOTES: Pottsville shot 5-for-22 from beyond the arc. ... Three busloads of Pottsville students travelled for the game and had a “white out.” ... Southern Lehigh shot 7-for-12 from the field and 8-of-13 from the line in the fourth quarter.

Eric Leymeister paced the Crimson Tide with 19 points as Pottsville knocked off Jim Thorpe to advace the Class AAA district XI title against Southern Lehigh on Friday at a site to be determined.

Justin Alvarez (17), and Nick Schlitzer (15) both reached double figures for Pottsville.

Kysheem Lynch led all scorers with 26 points for the Olympians.

BY DUSTIN HALUSKA
STAFF WRITER
dhaluska@republicanherald.com
CATASAUQUA — During halftime, Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney reminded his players of the things they didn’t do well in the opening 16 minutes.
The second half of Friday’s District 11 Class AAA quarterfinal left him speechless.
The Crimson Tide erased a seven-point halftime deficit by tossing a third-quarter shutout that keyed a 50-45 upset over top-seeded Wilson at Catasauqua High School.
“The first half I don’t think we played well and our kids were caught up in the whole atmosphere,” said Mullaney, the Tide’s second-year coach. “We came out and defended in the second half. We did everything well.
Pottsville, which began the season 2-9, is just one victory away from the District 11 Class AAA title game and a berth in the PIAA state playoffs.
The Crimson Tide (11-13) advance to Tuesday’s semifinals to face Jim Thorpe (18-6), a 57-55 winner over Northern Lehigh, at 7 p.m. at Tamaqua High School. The Olympians swept two games from Pottsville in the regular season.
Trailing 26-19 at halftime, Pottsville appeared nervous offensively and surrendered too many open looks to the Warriors (20-5).
Wilson’s Graham Touhey exposed the Tide’s zone defense by netting 13 of his game-high 25 points.
Beside telling his team how poorly they played in the first half, Mullaney also shouldered some of the blame for using a zone to defend the Warriors through the first two quarters.
A man defense led by Marcus Toomey halted Wilson’s offense in the third quarter.
Toomey picked up the defensive assignment on Touhey and denied the Warriors’ top scorer not only open looks, but the basketball as well.
Please see TIDE, Page 17
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“Marcus Toomey did a great job and that was a big reason why we were able to hold them scoreless in the third,” Mullaney said.
The Colonial League champions went 0-for-10 from the field and turned the ball over three times during their scoreless third quarter.
A pair of free throws by Nick Schlitzer at the 2:58 mark of the third gave Pottsville its first lead since the opening two minutes of the game.
With every missed shot heaved up by the Warriors, the Tide offense loosened up.
Back-to-back buckets by Toomey to start the fourth quarter extended Pottsville’s lead to 35-26. Toomey stepped up in the clutch despite not having a field goal since a Feb. 3 game against Jim Thorpe.
Thirty seconds later, Josh Whalen drained one of his three 3-pointers to extend the Tide lead to 12 and cap off a 19-0 Pottsville run. Whalen finished the night with 20 points.
“Once we knew that we could stop them, we got loose and took advantage of some holes in their defense,” Mullaney said.
“He (Whalen) is one of those kids that is very offensive minded. He hits big shots and he’s not afraid to take them.”
The Warriors finally snapped a 12:11 scoring drought that went all the way back to the second quarter with a Touhey jumper in the fourth.
“You cannot go (scoreless for) 12 minutes in any basketball game and expect to win. It’s virtually impossible,” Wilson coach Bob Frankenfield said.
Though the Tide held a double-digit lead with under three minutes to play, the Warriors aggressively attacked in the backcourt and finally found enough offense late to make things interesting.
The Warriors scored 17 of their 19 fourth-quarter points in the final 3:10 of the game.
“The last three, four minutes were a nightmare, I never thought it was going to end,” Mullaney said. “We only had one timeout left; I was really trying to save it. We played through some really tough stretches.”
Added Whalen: “It was nerve wracking, but we got a big confidence boost in the third quarter and that was enough to win the game.”

BY DUSTIN HALUSKA
STAFF WRITER
dhaluska@republicanherald.com
ORWIGSBURG — Pottsville’s Eric Leymeister gripped the basketball tightly with a winning grin on his face as the final few seconds ran off the clock.
It was the first time the bullish forward smiled during his 32 minutes on the floor.
Most of his time was spent sacrificing his body and enduring collisions for 12 rebounds and a season-high 15 points to propel Pottsville to a 44-39 victory over Blue Mountain in Tuesday’s District 11 Class AAA preliminary round matchup at Blue Mountain High School.
“One of the keys to victory is taking care of the little things. Loose balls all that and it felt awesome to hold the ball as the clock ran out,” Leymeister said.
The Crimson Tide (10-13) advance to the quarterfinal round to take on top-seeded Wilson (20-4) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Catasauqua High School.
Advancing in the playoffs isn’t bad for a team that started 2-9 and needed a free throw in the final seconds of their final regular-season game to even make the postseason.
In that game, Pottsville got 25 points from Nick Schlitzer to survive a 55-54 win over Panther Valley.
“It’s been a while since Pottsville has won a playoff game and it was our goal coming into the season,” Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said.
“We are excited. I don’t think there is a team we can’t beat in this district. I’m not saying we are going in favored on Friday, but our team knows there is a chance we could win that game.”
Tuesday night, Schlitzer only netted 10 points, but was backed by a supporting cast led by Leymeister.
Using his 6-foot-1, 205-pound frame, Leymeister muscled his way to a double-double.
He capped off a 9-0 Tide run to finish the first half with a basket inside with only three seconds left. Leymeister added two free throws during the run that was highlighted by five consecutive points including a 3-pointer by Schlitzer.
Pottsville’s nine unanswered points closed the deficit to just two at halftime.
In the second half, Leymeister continued to make things happen around the basket.
A bucket at the 6:32 mark of the third quarter gave Pottsville a 23-21 lead. Leymeister added a block on the next possession as the Tide got consecutive baskets by Josh Whalen to open a 27-21 lead midway through the third.
For the remainder of the third period Leymeister attacked the offensive glass, tallying three boards which led to four more Tide points.
The biggest highlight of the junior’s night came when he pulled down an offensive board and then made a fadeaway jumper on the baseline while being fouled. After converting the 3-point play, Pottsville owned its largest lead of the game at 30-23 with 3:39 left in the third.
“Eric was unreal tonight. He rebounded so well and scored for us. He has been progressing all year long and he is our leader,” Mullaney said.
In the fourth quarter, Pottsville’s third double-digit scorer on the night, Justin Alvarez provided the spark to hold off the Eagles.
Alvarez netted nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. His final flurry included a 3-pointer, some shifty drives to the hoop and a drawing a charge that sealed the victory.
The rubber match of the rivalry was closely contested throughout the fourth quarter. The teams split their two games during the regular season.
Both student sections erupted down the stretch adding even more flavor to the playoff atmosphere.
“Tonight was a unique experience, playing a home playoff game against your rival,” Blue Mountain coach Dustin Werdt said.
“Whenever Blue Mountain and Pottsville play you never know who is going to win and you throw in the fact that the loser goes home it makes for a unique situation.”
Though, Pottsville never trailed, it clung to a one-point lead through several moments of the frame.
Blue Mountain’s John Harding kept the Eagles’ offense in the game, netting a career and game-high 21 points. Harding netted six of those points in the fourth quarter.
“All year we have been worried about the consistency of scoring. It was nice to see John come out in a big game and assert himself the way he did,” Werdt said. “He  just didn’t want to lose the game.”