District 1 6A: Conestoga over Methacton
BERWYN — High School Basketball playoffs aren’t easy. Whether it be the league, district, or state scene, nothing comes easy when you reach February and March, not many know that better than Conestoga boys basketball.
The Pioneers haven’t brought home a Central League title since 2008. Additionally, they currently sit on a 37 year District title drought. One that this Conestoga club is on a mission to end.
They took yet another huge step in that direction Tuesday night as they took down 14th seeded Methacton 56-54 in an absolute thriller.
“Yea, you know it’s been a long time since we’ve been in the state tournament,” said Conestoga head coach Sean Forcine. “It’s our goal to make the next step from last year. You know last season we won in the first round of Districts and lost in the second. Getting a bye was huge but had our sights set on that third round, and qualifying for the state tournament. We had a huge turn out from the community and I’m so happy we delivered for them.”
After a win over Neshaminy, Conestoga would fall to top seeded Lower Merion in the second round of the District playoffs last season. Now just 12 months later the Pioneers return as the third seed in District One/6A, and secured that elusive first round bye.
With the bye, comes what some call the “privilege,” of playing lower seeded clubs. That became the case with Conestoga as they took on the slotted 14th seed, Methacton.
The Warriors, who came off a season in which they fought through the districts and states before falling to Archbishop Wood - took the road after an 83-72 victory over Council Rock South in the first round on Friday.
Methacton made the trip down 422 looking to pull off a huge upset and spoil Conestoga’s chances of making it back to the state playoffs for the first time since 2017. And as the first quarter closed it looked as though the Warriors might be on the right track to doing so.
After getting out to an early 11-2 deficit, Warriors head coach Pat Lockharn called a timeout. With 4:05 to go in the first period, Methacton flipped a switch. The Warriors went lights out from downtown, scoring 12 of their 14 first period points from beyond the arc, and leading the Pioneers 14-13 after one.
“This is a district tournament, and Methacton is no joke,” said Forcine. “They made it all the way to the semis last year and they returned a lot of those kids. They’re a tough program and I did not expect this to be an easy win by any means.”
In the second period Methacton did not go away. Senior Jack Bradford and Junior Wes Johnson were lights out from beyond and kept the Warriors ahead for most of the period before some big time buckets down low from Juniors Shane O’Brien and Cory Hogan put Conestoga back in the driver's seat just before the half.
As the second half got underway, Stoga managed to keep things under wraps. Holding Methacton at bay for most of the period though the Warriors kept it at a possession game for a majority of the third quarter.
It was then that the battle down low really began as Methacton’s Robinson went to work battling for every single board and second chance bucket he could. He’d go up against the duo of O’Brien and Hogan along with senior Sam Gibbs who fought for some boards and drained a couple huge threes as all ten of his points came in the second half.
“We just battle each other, day in and day out,” said O’Brien. “Even our bench guys, every practice they work their butt off all around.”
Gibbs opened the fourth with a few threes to put Stoga up a few and set the tone of the period as the catchup game began for Methacton.
With 2:03 to go that “game,” came to a close as Robinson put down another bucket inside to give Methacton a 52-50 lead.
Both sides drew back and forth for the remaining minutes with Methacton taking a 54-52 lead as the clock showed sub 20-seconds.
It was then that O’Brien caught an Inbound pass three feet from the three point line and spun around to drain a fadeaway three pointer that put the Pioneers up 55-54 on Methacton. As the gym explored, Rowan Miller swiped it away from the Warriors offense and was fouled. The Stoga guard sunk one at the line as Methacton’s final inbound was also poked away by Conestoga who secured their first state playoff bid in eight years.
With the win, Stoga not only secured their first state playoff bid since 2017 but also moved yet another step closer to becoming district champions for the first time since 1987, back when the team was in 4A.
The Pioneers will now wait for their opponent as the Central Bucks South/Cheltenham game was postponed to Wednesday night, the winner of that contest will head off to Conestoga Friday night for a quarterfinals matchup.