It was an entire day of basketball in the city of Pittsburgh as the annual Challenge at Allderdice event featured a mix of WPIAL and City League teams from around Western PA.
Game 1: Neighborhood Academy vs Penn Hills
The first boys contest was between Neighborhood Academy and Penn Hills. Neighborhood is the top ranked team in 1A and came into this one with a record of 11-1 after beating Serra Catholic in a close game on Friday. Penn Hills entered the matchup with a record of 6-5, but their overall record is a bit misleading because they’re one of the hottest teams in 5A right now. They started the season 0-4, but have been 6-1 in their last seven games.
This one was close throughout and arguably the best game of the day. Each team leaned on their star guards early with senior Amon Hawthorne attacking early for Penn Hills. Penn Hills went on a 9-2 run midway through the first quarter with Hawthorne either scoring or assisting on most of their possessions.
Late in the 1st quarter it was the Neighbor Academy star, junior Kedron Gilmore, answering back, going on a 6-0 run by himself to end the quarter. He was up to 9 points in the first and the Penn Hills lead was trimmed to one at the end of the quarter with the score reading 17-16.
Hawthorne continued to attack in the second, scoring on another drive, but Gilmore answered with a catch and shoot three to tie it at 19. Gilmore also went to work on the offensive glass, getting two boards and putbacks late in the quarter to give him 16 points in the game and put Neighborhood up 28-25 at the half.
Gilmore started the second half with another offensive rebound and putback, but Penn Hills would answer with a triple and a steal and score by Aiden Thompson to tie it at 30. Hawthorne broke the tie by going coast to coast for the dunk and put Penn Hills ahead 32-30.
The rest of the third quarter was back and forth with Dante Wright draining two threes late in the quarter for Neighborhood Academy and Calix Clark scoring underneath for Penn Hills. After three quarters, Neighborhood was clinging to a 34-33 lead.
The fourth quarter got off to a slow start as both teams tightened up defensively with the score tied at 39 with four minutes to go. Hawthorne got a steal and another dunk to put Penn Hills ahead, but Gilmore drained two free throws on the other end to tie it at 41.
As time ran down in the final quarter, the lead seemed to change on every possession as Wright, Hawthorne, and Gilmore all took turns scoring. Gilmore put Neighborhood Academy ahead with an and-1 late in the game, but Penn Hills tied it at 47 by making a free three on the other end.
With 13.7 seconds left, Neighborhood Academy had the ball with a chance to win the game. Gilmore drove and kicked to Wright for another three as the Bulldogs took a 50-47 lead with just three seconds left.
Penn Hills inbounded the ball to Hawthorne who raced up the court and was fouled on the game-tying three-point attempt. He stepped up to the line with no time on the clock and needing to make all three to send the game to overtime. Hawthorne hit nothing but net on all three to tie it at 50-50 at the end of regulation.
Hawthorne was calm and collected at the line, as if he felt no pressure at all. When asked what was going through his head at the moment he said, “I’m the only one in the gym. I trust my ability”.
Clark scored early in OT for Penn Hills to give them a 52-50 lead. Gilmore fouled out early in the period, leaving Neighborhood Academy without their leading scorer and having to rely on Wright down the stretch. He was up for the challenge, knocking down two free throws to tie it.
Dallas Smith drained a corner three for Penn Hills and sank a couple of free throws the next time down to go up 58-52.
Wright continued to carry the scoring burden for the Bulldogs, hitting a step back three and two free throws shortly after in what was a special second half for him.
Penn Hills had the ball up 58-57 with just seconds to play, but they traveled trying to get the ball across half court.
Neighborhood got fouled with a chance to take the lead, but they missed both, and Penn Hills hung on to win Game 1 here at the Challenge at Allderdice.
Hawthorne was the star in this one, finishing with 16 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Game 2: Obama Academy vs Imani Christian
Both of these teams were coming off of big losses on Friday with Obama dropping an important City League game against Allderdice and Imani falling to Mt. Lebanon in a 6A section game.
Things got off to a slow start in this one with Obama leading just 8-2 after four minutes. It was a mixture of shots not falling and both defenses playing well with Imani’s Kieshaun Demus and Obama’s Zion Conner each having multiple blocks.
As time waned in the opening quarter, Obama senior point guard, Naron Jackson, pulled up from several steps behind the three-point line and laced it, giving the Eagles a 13-4 lead after one.
Obama big man, Zion Conner, went to work early in the second on both ends of the floor, getting an easy layup on one end and rejecting the Imani dunk attempt on the other. Demus collected the ball off the block and got the putback to go, plus the foul to give Imani some momentum.
Point guard I’Zayah Bradshaw got going midway through the second quarter for Imani as he found a slashing teammate for a layup attempt that was called a goaltend, so count the basket for Imani. Bradshaw continued to work as he drained a catch and shoot jumper from the elbow and a three on the next possession to cut the Penn Hills lead to four with the score at 16-12.
Obama’s newest player, senior Eric James Jr., scored underneath and Jackson grabbed an offensive rebound and got the put back to quickly put Obama back up eight. Imani’s Deston Hubbard got a three to go with 1:27 left in the half, but Jackson answered for Obama, sinking a second deep three and getting another offensive rebound and putback. At the half, it was Obama up 11 by a score of 27-16.
Jackson stayed aggressive to start the second half, scoring on a floater to put Obama up 31-18 early in the third. Demus continued to attack the hoop for Imani, scoring on back to back drives and getting to the line. He was the main source of offense for Imani and put them within striking distance as they went on an 8-2 run to end the quarter and make the score 33-26 heading into the fourth.
Obama started the final quarter with a three from Jaden Colbert, but Demus answered with another and-1. Colbert fired back with another triple and Demus scored on another drive in what was a back and forth sequence between those two.
Jackson got the push shot off of the jump stop in the lane to fall and stretch the lead back 10 for Obama. Imani wasn’t done yet though as senior, Deston Hubbard, sank a triple and took a charge on the next possession. It was Imani’s ball with 2:35 left to play, down 41-34.
With Imani driving to the hoop and threatening to score, Zion Conner recovered on the play and blocked the ball off the glass, which resulted in the runout score from James Jr. Obama went on to win 45-34 in what was a wire-to-wire victory for them.
Game 3: Allderdice vs Moon
The final matchup was between the host, Allderdice and the visiting Moon Tigers. Allderdice is coming off of a near 20-point win against City League rival, Obama, and Moon came into this game as winners of five in a row.
This was a dogfight from the jump. Neither team could find a way to score early as it was still all zeroes through two minutes. Allderdice found their rhythm midway through the quarter, largely by crashing the offensive boards and creating extra possessions. After a three from Zach Coffey and an and-1 from Keenu Brooks, Dice was up 10-2 late in the first.
Moon senior guard, Jackson Bauman, scored again inside and Caden Kopay drained a three to cut the Dice lead to three, but the Dragons scored on a drive very late in the quarter and finished the first up 12-7.
Junior Brody Bauman came off the bench for Moon and hit a three early in the second, but Allderdice big man Lukas Stead answered with a bucket on the other end off of the offensive rebound.
Allderdice sharpshooter, Anthony Abrahams laced a three to put the Dragons up 17-12 midway through the quarter.
Moon senior, AJ Buford, went to work late in the half, scoring on a baseline out of bounds play with just over two minutes to go and would get fouled on the dunk attempt shortly after. Buford stayed aggressive and drained a three for the Tigers to make the score 22-21 and give them their first lead since it was 2-0.
The lead flip-flopped the rest of the half with Allderdice scoring to go back in front, but Buford hit two late free throws to give Moon a 24-23 advantage at the half.
Brooks got the crowd going with a dunk early in the third quarter for Allderdice, but Buford answered with a three to give Moon a 29-25 lead. Allderdice would score the next four to tie it at 29 as Stead collected his own miss and got the putback to go and Abrahams scored on the drive.
The teams traded blows the rest of the quarter with Kopay scoring for Moon and Abrahms answering for Dice. Stead scored down low again to put Allderdice in front, but Moon answered with a bucket and a three from Brody Bauman to take a 36-33 lead into the final quarter.
Allderdice regained the lead early in the fourth behind a teardrop and then a three ball from Coffey, but the advantage didn’t last long as Brody hit another big three to put Moon up 39-38. Once again, the lead flip flopped as Stead scored on another putback and Moon big man, Caleb Waclawski, scored back to back buckets down low.
Jackson Bauman drained a big catch and shoot three and sank two free throws to put Moon up 48-41 with just two minutes to go. With Dice over the foul limit, Moon had several chances to ice the game, but they kept missing their free throws and leaving the door open for the Dragons.
Keith Taylor got the layup to go for Allderdice with 47 seconds left and he’d get the steal and score thereafter to make it a four-point game. Jackson Bauman would then hit one of two free throws to give Moon a 50-45 lead.
Allderdice missed on their next trip down, but Stead grabbed another offensive rebound and made the putback plus a foul with just nine seconds left. He missed the free throw, but it was still just a one possession game with Moon leading 50-47.
Moon would get fouled with eight seconds left and miss both free throws once again, but this time they’d grab an offensive rebound to extend the possession. Jackson Bauman went back to the line with 2.3 seconds to go. He went one for two from the stripe, putting Moon up by four and effectively icing the game. The Tigers held on to win 51-47.
Even though they got the win, Head Coach, Gino Palmosina, wasn’t completely satisfied with his team’s performance saying, “It was not good enough to be honest with you”. He went on to say, “These Saturday afternoon games after section games on Friday nights are tough to get ready for. We talked about that all night and this morning. We’ve got to be better as a group”.
All six of these teams will be back in action on Tuesday as section play rolls on in the new year.