BROOKVILLE — Austin Wigley certainly picked the right time to have the best shooting night of his high school career.
Wigley dropped 16 points in the fourth quarter to push Our Lady of the Sacred Heart past Coudersport 74-66 to end the Falcons’ season in the second round of the PIAA playoffs Wednesday night at Brookville High School.
The game was an intense, back-and-forth affair that you’d expect from two teams that entered the contest with a combined 46 wins on the year. Despite being overpowered and undersized, Coudersport gave up nothing easy, and made this game dramatic until the final minutes.
The two teams traded buckets for the game’s opening 16 minutes. Neither team led by more than four in a first half that saw 11 players register at least two points on the scoresheet. After an Owen Chambers buzzer-beating jumper, OLSH led by just one, 33-32, following a fast-paced half that saw nine makes from 3-point land.
In the third quarter, Coudersport started to pull away. Chambers had eight points as part of a 11-4 run by the Falcons to start the half, and Coudy looked like they had developed a successful defensive formula, as well. The Chargers scored 81 points in their first round matchup, and it was seemingly a matter of time until their shots started falling.
The Falcons led 47-39 with just over four minutes left in the quarter when OLSH got hot. Six-foot-six sophomore Donovan Johnson lead the charge and started to impose his physical presence down the stretch.
Johnson, who already has an offer to play Division I basketball at Duquesne, had eight points in the quarter, and willed his team back to take a 49-47 lead heading into the game’s final eight minutes.
The fourth quarter had a little bit of everything, including a technical foul on OLSH head coach Mike Rodriguez, six 3-pointers, and battles for every loose ball. But the fourth quarter especially had buckets from Wigley.
The junior scored just one point total in the second and third quarters, but couldn’t miss in the fourth. Twelve of his 16 points came from beyond the arc, including back-to-back hits from three to give his team a 68-59 lead to ice the game away.
“We got a little momentum going there but then they picked their defense up,” Coudersport head coach Brian Furman said. “We turned the ball over a little bit. They got back in the game, but our guys hung in there. Down the stretch, they were making shots and we weren’t.”
As good as Coudy’s offense has been all season, which included leading District 9 in scoring, it just couldn’t match the Chargers down the stretch.
To make matters worse for the Falcons, there was plenty of self-inflicted damage in the fourth with fouls, turnovers and a lack of rebounds on the defensive end.
Coudersport took a 57-56 lead with four minutes remaining, but were outscored 18-9 for the rest of the game.
Jared Green, Derek Keglovits and Dillion Keglovits each fouled out for Coudy in the fourth quarter, as the Falcons’ lack of size finally caught up to them. The Chargers made 11 of their 25 fourth quarter points at the charity stripe, but Furman was happy with how his guys battled — particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
“That’s certainly the biggest team we’ve faced this year, with a lot of talent too,” he said. “But our guys battled. Nobody backed down. We got a lot of scores at the rim. We kept attacking the rim and getting points there. That showed the character of the guys.”
Despite all the battles and bruises from the battles on the boards, both teams weren’t shy about shooting from deep. Combined, the two teams had 48 three-point attempts, with 16 makes.
“That’s kind of our game,” Furman said. “Attack the rim and open things up for threes. We were able to do that, but at the end they were just able to knock down some shots better than we did.”
OLSH’s victory advances them to the PIAA quarterfinals on Saturday against the winner of West Middlesex and Conemaugh.
For Coudersport, Wednesday’s loss marks the end to another immensely successful season. The Falcons went 23-4 and made it to the second round of the Class AA playoffs for the second straight season. Furman said that his postgame locker room talk to his team was completely positive, touching on all the team has accomplished this year.
“When you get into the states, there is not going to be a disappointing loss,” Furman. “You’re playing good teams and hope you can win, of course. But certainly looking back it was a great season.”
Unfortunately for the Coudersport program, the loss to OLSH also marked the last game for seniors Green, Derek Keglovits and Hunter Ricke. Those three players have been part of one of the best D-9 teams for four years running, going a combined 90-14 in that span.
“There is a lot of talent in that senior group,” Furman said. “(They) have had a lot of success over the last four years. They really set the bar high for the kids behind them.”
AT BROOKVILLE
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (74)
Austin Wigley 7 3-4 23, Donovan Johnson 6 6-8 19, Spadafora 4 5-5 15, DiMichele 4 1-4 9, Dugan 2 3-6 7, Tate 0 1-2 1. Totals: 23 20-30 74
Coudersport (66)
Owen Chambers 8 7-7 27, Ricke 5 2-3 14, De. Keglovits 6 0-0 12, Green 2 2-6 7, Di. Keglovits 0 2-2 2, Keck 1 0-0 2, VanWhy 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 12-17 66
OLSH 14 33 49 74
Coudy 15 32 47 66
Three-point goals: OLSH 9 (Wigley 6, Spadafora 2, Johnson 1) Coudy 7 (Chambers 4, Ricke 2, Green 1); Total fouls: Coudy 20, OLSH 11; fouled out: Coudy (Green, De. Keglovits, Di. Keglovits)
