Irish finish one game short of finals

Aided by its size down the stretch, Prep Charter starting hitting shots and held on for a thrilling 56-53 win over the Irish.

The loss ended York Catholic’s season at 30-4, one game short of a return trip to Hershey for the PIAA finals.

Jacob Iati led York Catholic with a game-high 24 points, 17 in the first half. Senior Sean Johnston tossed in 16 in his final game for the Irish.

Marcus Morris, a 6-foot-8 forward, scored six of his 13 points in the final three minutes to key the comeback for Prep Charter.

Morris climbed over the Irish’s Garrett Brown and his offensive rebound put-back tied the game at 48 with less than three minutes remaining.

Brown got redemption when he hit Johnston with a nice pass for a layup that put the Irish back on top.

A Douglas Davis jumper evened the score for the Huskies. A rare Irish turnover led to Kevin Radford’s offensive board and basket for a 52-50 Prep Charter lead with 2:14 to play.

Iati nailed two free throws to knot the game again, but Morris came right back with a driving bucket and was fouled.

He missed the free throw, but all the Irish could manage was a Johnston free throw on their next possession.

Jon Showers had to foul and picked up his fourth on the rebound of the Johnston miss and when Morris’ twin brother Markieff missed his front end of a one-and-one, Marcus grabbed the rebound, forcing Showers to foul out.

Markieff Morris drilled both and it was 56-53 with 24 ticks left.

After a York Catholic timeout, stellar defense forced Brown to launch a desperate 3-pointer that missed and the celebration started on the Prep Charter sideline.

“A missed foul shot and the rebound goes to them,� Irish coach Jim Senft said. “You’ve got a 6-8 kid, there is nothing you can do. That happened two or three times.�

Senft said the game was well officiated, but admitted he’d like to see the lane blocks moved back some to negate at least some of the height advantage teams get.

“In high school, the blocks should be moved back,� he said. “In college, we wouldn’t have lost those long free throw rebounds.�

Still despite being outrebounded 36-17 for the game, York Catholic was in the position it wanted, opening up a 38-25 lead less than three minutes before halftime.

After Prep Charter scored the final five points of the first half, Iati started the second half strong as well.

The sophomore drained a jumper and two possessions later, banked in a floater and was fouled. His free throw put the Irish up 43-31.

But with the presence the team lacked a year ago, the Huskies went on a 16-2 run to take their first lead of the game with 5:13 to play.

The lead would last only a few seconds when Showers bombed a 3-pointer from way outside the arc, putting the Irish back up 48-46, until the Prep Charter height took over.

“We are a year older, a couple inches taller (and) the guys understood what we wanted to do,� Huskies’ coach Dan Brinkley said. “In the first half, they just made shots, you can’t do anything about that. We came into halftime, made a few adjustments, figured out where they were killing us at and took that away.�

York Catholic’s offense wasn’t the same after Prep Charter pressured the Irish ball handlers even harder and the red-hot Irish went cold late in the game.

“They had to extend their defense,� Senft said. “With the two big kids inside it made it really hard for us. We battled, we just didn’t make shots.�

This Prep Charter team was also deeper than what the Irish saw last year. Huskies transfers Joshua Martin and Davis gave the team a better perimeter game.

“The kids they picked up can really shoot the ball, so that really makes it tough,� Senft said. “They didn’t shoot (last year).�

Even after the momentum began to change, things looked good for the Irish when LaSalle-bound Rodney Green, who led Prep Charter with 15 points, fouled out late in the third quarter.

Still, the Irish could not end the dry spell.

Reach Steve Navaroli at snavaroli@ydr.com