MORE FROM THE WEB
In its final basketball season, Conwell-Egan High Wednesday night came oh-so-close to posting only its second Catholic League playoff victory.
Pat Hagenbach was having none of it.
With the clock about to hit 0:00, Hagenbach took a pass on the right wing from doubled teammate Sean Havink and swished a trey, lifting host Cardinal O'Hara to a 45-44 win in a first-round Catholic League playoff.
Hagenbach had taken only three shots (making one) all night, but he was certainly confident after letting this one go, witness that he backpedaled toward halfcourt while waiting to be swarmed.
O'Hara had not won a regular playoff game since defeating Archbishop Ryan in a 1998 semifinal; it did capture pre-playoffs in '99 and 2000. The Lions received 12 points and 10 rebounds from Ed Allen, 12 points from Mike Louden and 10 from Chris Duffin (three treys). Hagenbach, a junior guard, dressed up his performance with seven rebounds, three assists and five steals.
C-E (its male forerunner was Bishop Egan) began playing CL basketball in the 1963-64 season, when it topped Bishop Neumann in a semifinal (with no starter taller than 6-1) and fell to Cardinal Dougherty in the title game. In the interim, it dropped a quarterfinal to North Catholic in '94, first-rounders to Archbishop Wood in 2009 and Dougherty in '10, and 10th-place pre-playoff last year to Archbishop Ryan.
In this one, senior guard Jamal Nwaniemeka, who spent his first 2 years at Dougherty before it closed, raised his career total to 1,009 (870 at C-E) by scoring 20 points. He shot 6-for-12 (one trey) and 7-for-8 while adding 11 rebounds.
The Eagles trailed, 42-34, with 1:27 remaining before storming to 10 consecutive points. Dylan Pease scored the school's final points on a short, left-side jumper at 9.6, providing a 44-42 lead.
Friday's quarterfinals:
Archbishop Wood at St. Joseph's Prep, 3:30.
La Salle at Archbishop Carroll, 7.
Archbishop Ryan vs. Roman Catholic, 7, at Philadelphia University.
Cardinal O'Hara at Ss. Neumann-Goretti, 7.
- Ted Silary
