By: Jerin Steele, Saturday, February 24, 2018, TRIB-LIVE
There’s never a good time for a bad shooting day, but with the way Fox Chapel played defense and rebounded against a bigger Pine-Richland team Saturday, it could not have come at a worse time for the Foxes.
Fox Chapel’s defensive intensity forced a tie going into the fourth quarter, but the Foxes could not remedy their cold shooting.
The No. 3-seeded Foxes made only two field goals in the fourth and lost to No. 6 Pine-Richland, 48-39, in the Class 6A boys basketball quarterfinals at North Hills
The Foxes only made 15 field goals, two of which were 3-pointers. They were 7-for-10 from the free-throw line.
“At the end of the day, you have to make shots. We had plenty of opportunities, and we didn’t make them,” Fox Chapel coach Zach Skrinjar said. “That’s a fact. It’s an unfortunate one, but it’s still a fact.”
Pine-Richland (19-5), the defending WPIAL 6A champion and 2016 4A champion, advanced to play No. 2 Woodland Hills in the semifinals Wednesday with a site and time to be determined. The Rams also clinched a PIAA playoff berth. Fox Chapel (17-6) qualifies for the PIAA playoffs as the fifth- or sixth-place team from the WPIAL if Pine-Richland wins Wednesday.
Andrew Kristofic and Kenny White helped keep Fox Chapel at arm’s length in the fourth. With the score tied 30-30 after three quarters, Kristofic converted a layup to begin the fourth, which was followed by a Phil Jurkovec jumper at the free-throw line. After Ben Kelly’s 3-pointer from the corner, Kristofic responded with a basket to make it 40-35. White made a layup off a steal and then converted two free throws on the next possession to push Pine-Richland’s lead to seven.
Kristofic finished with 12 points, six in the fourth quarter. White and Greg Shulkosky each scored 10.
“(Kristofic) is a kid that is big, but he has soft hands,” Pine-Richland coach Jeff Ackermann said. “He can shoot the ball well. He has a good 15-foot jump shot, and he can finish around the basket. To have a kid that big that can finish, and have the hands he has is a big asset for us.”
Kelly and Carson Cohen got looks from beyond the arc in the final minutes, but both bounced off the rim. It was a microcosm of how the day went for the Foxes.
Ackermann was pleased with how his team’s defense.
“We had maybe two or three breakdowns defensively all game,” Ackermann said. “We really wanted to make them execute half-court sets, and I thought we did that.”
Fox Chapel held Pine-Richland 23 points below its average, but the Foxes finished 24 points below their average. It was only the second time this season that Fox Chapel failed to get out of the 30s.
“Defense has been our thing all year,” Skrinjar said. “We held them right on our average that we’ve let up all year. If you do that, you think you have a chance to win. We just picked a poor afternoon to have a bad shooting day.”
Fox Chapel trailed by four at halftime, but Cohen hit a floater in the lane while being fouled early in the third and converted the free throw to cut the Pine-Richland lead to 22-20. Later in the third, he had another 3-point play on a layup. Kelly hit a 3-pointer with 1 minute, 41 seconds remaining in the third, and Dom McGriff closed out the quarter with a layup for a 30-30 tie.
Cohen, a Tufts (Mass.) recruit and a senior, finished with a game-high 19 points.
“Carson has been our leader, our heartbeat for the last few seasons,” Skrinjar said. “We would not have been where we are without him. He’s done everything we’ve asked. Hopefully, this isn’t our last game together, but if it is we’re really going to miss him a lot as a player, but even more as a person. He’s had a very positive impact on our program.”