HERSHEY — Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek hesitated when asked if Tamaqua should celebrate its first trip to the PIAA Class AAA Boys’ Basketball Tournament in 20 years despite the Blue Raiders’ 64-51 loss to Steelton-Highspire in Friday’s opening-round game at Milton Hershey School’s Spartan Center.
“You know, if you don’t get emotional when it’s over, then it wasn’t worth a whole lot,” Kosciolek said. “This is worth it. We invested a whole lot in, and it hurts like heck to lose, but the sun will come up tomorrow. So do we celebrate it? I think so.”
Finishing with the program’s best record (21-7) since the 1992-93 team posted the same record, Tamaqua was unable to hold onto a first-quarter lead and eventually trailed the District 3-champ Rollers (23-5) by 15 points at 49-34 after three periods.
The Blue Raiders were unable to put much of a dent in Steel-High’s lead in the fourth quarter, when Ben Miller and Bo Rottet, who finished with 18 points, both fouled out.
“We didn’t make as many shots as we could have,” Kosciolek said after Tamaqua shot 18-for-51 from the field. “They could have gone up by 20-plus, but we stepped in and took some charges. We just absolutely battled.”
As was the case all season, the Blue Raiders relied heavily on Rottet and fellow senior Brett Kosciolek. A 6-foot-7 center, Brett Kosciolek finished with 25 points, including a 3-pointer for his first points of the game. The output thrust him past 1983 graduate Todd McLaughlin into third place on Tamaqua’s all-time scoring list. Kosciolek finished his career with 1,502 points.
Kosciolek’s trey enabled Tamaqua to take an 11-8 lead with 1:57 left in the first period.
Steel-High answered with a jumper by junior forward Javon Grayer and then an offensive rebound and putback by freshman Malachi Young to give the Rollers a 12-11 edge after one period.
Steel-High head coach Rick Binder indicated those points were crucial.
“I was worried if they got ahead of us,” Binder said. “That was important. They’re very well coached, and they move the ball around. I saw how they played Pottsville (in a 33-28 overtime loss in the Schuylkill League championship game) and what they tried to do, so I thought it was important to get ahead with our man-to-man. Once we got our lead, we went back to our zone.”
The four-point finish to Steel-High’s opening period began a 17-2 run for the Rollers. Kavon Jackson tallied seven of his 12 points in the surge, which gave Steel-High a 25-13 lead.
“They amped it up. We wanted to play a little bit slower,” Caszy Kosciolek said. “They wanted to speed us up and they did a good job of that. The crowd sometimes factors into that, though our kids have a lot of poise and composure.”
Trailing 31-21 at halftime, the Blue Raiders played evenly with the Rollers through the third period, but Young’s last-second 3-pointer to close the quarter gave Steel-High a 49-34 lead.
Tamaqua trimmed the gap to 10 points early in the fourth before the Rollers, who face the winner of today’s Octorara vs. Archbishop Carroll game in the next round, pulled away.
Steel-High finished with four scorers in double figures. In addition to Jackson’s 12, Jaqui Jenkins finished with 14 points, while Young had 12 and Grayer 10.
Rottet’s 18 points boosted his career total to 1,107 to finish eight on the school’s all-time scoring list.
Coach Kosciolek noted his team’s effort typified a successful senior class that he will sorely miss.
“This is a really hard group to let go,” he said. “I had these kids through Little League, CYO, junior high. We had our last supper the other day and they said, ‘If you look at this class — football, baseball, basketball — I don’t know if there is a class that has played in more postseason games than this group.’ ”
The cupboard isn’t bare, Kosciolek said. He indicated there is another group with more than 30 wins at the junior high basketball level this season ready to continue the legacy of the 2014-15 team.
“There’s talent and we’ve had success on those lower levels, so we’ll see how it all plays out,” he said.
Game Summary
PIAA Class AAA Boys’ First Round
At Milton Hershey High School
TAMAQUA (51) — Shilko 0 0-0 0, Blaker 0 0-0 0, Miller 0 0-0 0, Rottet 6 4-6 18, Zuber 1 0-0 2, MacDonald 2 0-2 4, Skripko 0 2-2 2, Kosciolek 9 6-6 25. Totals 18 12-16 51.
STEEL-HIGH (64) — Grayer 5 0-1 10, Fleming 1 5-9 7, Jenkins 3 6-8 14, Jackson 4 3-6 12, Young 5 0-0 12, Bowman 3 2-2 9. Totals 21 16-26 64.
Tam (21-7) 11 10 13 17 — 51 SH (23-5) 12 19 18 15 — 64
3-point FGs: Rottet 2, Kosciolek, Jenkins 2, Jackson, Young 2, Bowman