Teddy Bailey (@TheTeddyBailey)
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Despite 20 wins, a District 12 championship and a state final appearance, Conwell-Egan was still seen as the underdog.
Especially on Saturday afternoon, when the Eagles took on unbeaten Aliquippa (29-0), a state power, for the PIAA Class AA State Championship.
Conwell-Egan’s Stevie Jordan totaled 21 points in the championship win. (Photo: Josh Einbinder-Schatz)
Frank Sciolla’s club, though, has embraced the underdog label all season. The label helped them raise eyebrows against Roman Catholic, La Salle and St. Joseph’s Prep, whom the Eagles played all to the wire – however, Conwell-Egan found itself on the other end in all of them.
Aliquippa, meanwhile, filled the role of a typical Goliath. The Quips breezed through its regular season, destroying teams by 40, sometimes 50-point margins. In the days leading up to the state final, Aliquippa’s players publicly doubted the legitimacy of Egan’s guard play in local newspapers.
There wasn’t much doubt left when the buzzer sounded at Hershey’s Giant Center.
The prolific backcourt of junior guards Stevie Jordan and LaPri McCray-Pace went for 21 and 22 points, respectively as Conwell-Egan withstood a second-half Aliquippa rally to claim its first-ever state championship, 62-51 in the Class AA title game.
The Eagles jumped out to a 31-15 halftime lead courtesy of a putrid shooting performance from Aliquippa. The Quips shot just 5 of 24 from the floor in the first two frames, but as their record shows, that would surely change.
Aliquippa found the same rhythm in the third quarter that they used to tear through its 29-game winning streak. Led by speedy senior guard Stephon McGinnis, the Quips used a 20-8 third quarter to pull within 50-48 with 3:48 to play. Stevie Jordan and LaPri Pace would go on to score eight unanswered points to seal Egan’s historical feat.
We’ve talked all season long about this idea of facing adversity and staying together,” Sciolla said. “Don’t fight, don’t argue with each other. Teams are going to make runs. Everytime the guys came over [during a timeout], [we said that] we’re okay, we’re okay. Even when it was two points and they had the ball. We were where we wanted to be. We knew around the state that we weren’t the trendy pick to win this game, but we never considered ourselves underdogs.”
The Eagles were seen as underdogs in an exceptional Catholic League field. Despite earning District 12’s number-one seed, Conwell-Egan was still a dark-horse pick to get to Hershey. While that motivated the upperclassmen-laden Eagles, Aliquippa’s comments bothered McCray-Pace.
Conwell-Egan’s Chase Kumor and Jordan Burney hoist the trophy. (Photo: Josh Einbinder-Schatz)
“I gotta be honest, they kind of disrespected us,” McCray-Pace said. “What I mean by that is, they said in the paper that — their coach said that we don’t have good guard play and all that. From what I know, from what we watch on tape, the league they play in — their guards are nothing compared to the guards we played against every single day.
“We never ever seemed like [underdogs] — in our eyes,” Jordan said. “To other people we might have because they were undefeated. They didn’t think we were good. So we surprised them with that. We didn’t take it personally. We just went out there and played basketball like we do regularly. We knew since we got here that we weren’t going to lose. And that’s what happened.”
An instrumental part of Conwell-Egan’s state title performance was its performance at the free-throw line. The Eagles were able to shoot 35 times at the stripe, converting on 28 of them.
“You know you’re going to get to the line against a team like Aliquippa,” Sciolla said. “Their style of play is almost to give you the basket so that they can flick you from behind. They got us a couple times. The key to that is to have the right people at the line, and we did.”
The duo of McCray-Pace and Jordan has quietly been one of the best in the area. Jordan, who transferred to Conwell-Egan amidst rumors of its closing, has done the school quite the service with his addition.
It means a lot for us, and it means a lot for the school,” Jordan said. “Because three years ago, they were going to be shut down and we would’ve never had this opportunity that we’ve now accomplished. People would question why I [chose to come here] but we made it out — the outcome was better. I mean we’re the state champs, it doesn’t get much better than that.
“LaPri is a kid who could walk out of here with two points and have his head high,” Sciolla said. “He’s not one of those sulkers, he just wants to get the W whether he had two or 20 points. I guarantee he doesn’t know how many points he had. If you look at his decisions tonight, he didn’t make a lot of bad ones – against a team that will force you into difficult situations.”
Conwell-Egan’s Chase Kumor attempts an off-balanced shot. (Photo: Josh Einbinder-Schatz)
The Eagles will be back better than ever last year, as Sciolla returns Jordan, McCray-Pace and Vinny Dalessandro. Whether Conwell-Egan climbs to the ‘favorite’ label is to be seen, but for now, they’ll gladly bask in the glory that was motivated by its doubters.
“Coach was trying to tell us that we really aren’t the underdog,” Chase Kumor, who added 14 points, said. “And we didn’t feel that way either. We came into today feeling that we could win the game. We played confident and just played our game of basketball.”
Frank Sciolla will be back at the drawing board tomorrow, but luckily not under the pressure that he was in on Saturdya.
“I have a fifth grade AAU girls practice tomorrow,” he said. “Here’s the deal, I need to get to that. For now, I will not touch a basketball in at least 12 hours.”
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