March 11, 2006
Greenwood boys advance in Class A with victory over Elkland
By Todd Hummel
For The Daily Itemr
WILLIAMSPORT — Greenwood coach Kent Houser was seeing something he had hoped never to see again.
The Wildcats had a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter of Friday’s first-round PIAA Class A boys basketball game with Elkland, but then saw the Rams rally to re-take the lead. It was similar to what happened to Greenwood in the Tri-Valley League
championship game with Newport a few weeks back and Houser didn’t like what he was seeing.
"Yeah, I was having a lot of flashbacks," Houser said. "What was our lead at one point? Nine and they came back to take the lead."
But this time, Greenwood didn’t blow the game. Andrew Burns gave the Wildcats the lead for good with a 3-pointer with 1:32 left in the contest and Trey Ritzman was 4-of-4 from the line down the stretch to give Greenwood a 59-52 victory over Elkland.
Greenwood (23-5) advances to play defending state champion Bishop O’Reilly on Tuesday night at a site and time to be determined. Elkland finishes its season at 26-2.
Trey Ritzman played a large role in Friday night’s victory. He had a team-high 15 points, while holding Elkland’s leading scorer, T.J. Howe, to 15 points, eight under his average.
"I had watched some tape, so I knew he was quick," Ritzman said. "I wanted to keep him in front of me and let him shoot from the outside."
The Wildcats led by two at the half, but the Rams used an 8-3 run to open up a 28-25 lead on Ben Burkett’s 3-pointer with 5:09 left in the third.
Greenwood took the lead back on a Derek Yohn drive, a Yohn 3-pointer and Tyler Ritzman’s long 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to make it 39-34 going into the fourth quarter.
It looked like the Wildcats were taking control of the game, as Greenwood opened up a 43-34 lead with 6:40 left in the game on a Tyler Ritzman jumper off an inbounds play.
But the Rams weren’t going away yet. Elkland went on a 10-1 run, capped by Jon Wheeler 3-pointer with 3:40 left in the game to tie the score at 44.
After Johnson hit two foul shots to give the lead back to the Wildcats, Joel Patt hit a 3-pointer with 2:54 left to give Elkland a 47-46 lead.
Howe hit two foul shots with 1:53 left in the game to give the Rams a 49-48 lead, but Burns answered with a wide-open 3-pointer to give Greenwood a 51-49 lead with 1:32 left in the contest.
The Wildcats went 6-of-8 from the line down the stretch to seal the game.
Tyler Ritzman finished with 13 points and eight boards, while Johnson had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
C.J. Huyett scored 17 points to lead the Rams. Patt finished with 13 — 11 in the fourth quarter.
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