TAMAQUA
The Tamaqua boys’ basketball team is in the midst of one of its best seasons in recent memory.
The Blue Raiders (21-6) earned a berth in the Schuylkill League playoffs for the first time since 1995 and reached their first league final, a 33-28 loss to Pottsville, since 1994. The 21 wins are the most since a 21-7 record in 1992-93.
Tonight, Tamaqua will do something it hasn’t done in 20 years: Compete in a PIAA playoff game.
The Raiders, the District 11 third-place finisher, open the Class AAA state playoffs at 7 p.m. at Milton Hershey High School against District 3 champion Steel-High (22-5).
Tamaqua’s last PIAA playoff game was March 10, 1995, a 77-58 loss to Mechanicsburg. This season’s Blue Raiders clinched their state berth by beating Salisbury 53-47 in the win-or-go-home District 11 consolation game last Friday.
“It is a new experience for myself and a lot of the students in the school,” said Tamaqua senior Tyler Skripko, who was sick and missed last’s Friday’s win. “It has been since 1995 and really seeing a boys’ basketball
team play in the state playoffs, I think, around the school especially, everyone is excited.”
Skripko, a 5-foot-10 forward, is expected to be in the starting lineup tonight. So is fellow senior Nate MacDonald, a 6-1 forward.
The two don’t have the offensive pedigree — MacDonald averages 5.5 points per game and Skripko 3.2 — or grab as many headlines as seniors Bo Rottet (16.8 ppg, 1,099 career points) and Brett Kosciolek (16.4 ppg, 1,477 career).
What Skripko and MacDonald have brought this season is toughness and willingness to do the dirty work. The two have also have keyed what has perhaps made the biggest difference for the Raiders this season.
The defense.
“We’ve been good pretty scorers throughout our high school careers,” MacDonald said. “The difference between last year and this year ... we’ve held teams, stayed in games. That helps us win games.”
Offensively, the Raiders are averaging 55.1 points per game, slightly up from the 55.2 from 2013-14 when Tamaqua (13-10) was hammered by Lehighton 85-59 in the first round of the District 11 Class AAA playoffs.
However, the Raiders are giving up 42.9 points per game defensively this season, around four points a game less than the 46.4 allowed last year. Tamaqua has also held its opponents to under 40 points 12 times this season, compared to eight last year.
“Every year coach (Caszy Kosciolek) wanted us to focus on defense and be one of the top defensive teams in our league,” Skripko said. “It never really happened that way until this season. We are seeing the effects of what can happen if we play good defense.”
In years past, the Raiders were primarily a man-to-man team. This season, they’ve primarily played zone, mostly a 2-3 alignment that switches occasionally to a 3-2.
Caszy Kosciolek calls Tamaqua’s defense “a zone with man principles,” and models it off Syracuse University’s zone defense.
Skripko and MacDonald play on the back line of Tamaqua’s 2-3 zone with the 6-7 Kosciolek in the middle. Rottet and Russell Blaker play out front.
“I think zone fits our personality, our athletic ability more,” Caszy Kosciolek said. “I think we do a much better job of keeping the ball in front of us and not allowing people to get the ball into the paint, either by the pass or the dribble.”
The grinding-type roles Skripko and MacDonald play for the Raiders suit them, especially Skripko, who was a fullback and linebacker for the Raiders football team.
“The coaches are always looking for us to have a certain, aggressive type of mentality,” Skripko said. “They are always telling us to get the team going, fired up for this game. I embrace that role, I like it.”
So does MacDonald, who almost didn’t go out for basketball this season, but decided just before the start of preseason practice to return.
“I can’t really shoot the ball,” MacDonald said. “If I can contribute that way, I guess I like it.
“I couldn’t give it up. I love basketball. I wasn’t sure if I just wanted to focus on baseball this offseason. I am glad I came back out. I love it.”
The defense will be the key again tonight against the Streamrollers, who average 69.4 points per game. Steel-High also has four double-digit scorers in guards Dee’quan Fleming (20.3 ppg), Jaqui Jenkins (16.3) Jaki Bowman (10.5) and Kavon Jackson (10.1).
“They are a very athletic team,” Skripko said. “If we slow them down and play our pace, I think we will have a chance to win it down the stretch.”