Although some would rather forget it, Northern Lehigh-Wilson game will be memorable

From Keith Groller

"We had no right to win that game," Northern Lehigh's Bobby Hahn said.

"I'm not sure the best team won," said Wilson coach Bob Frankenfield.

Indeed, it was hard to tell anything with certainty on Wednesday night at Catasauqua High after Northern Lehigh somehow, some way beat Wilson 30-29 when unheralded junior guard Josh Malaska came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-point shots -- one at the end of regulation to force overtime and then another late in the OT to give the Bulldogs the deciding points.

I am sure when people see the final score they are going to think it was a slowdown, boring, stall-ball game.

Not so at all. Just scrappy defense, and let's be honest, bad shooting.

Again, though, this is high school sports and anything can happen and in a sense it was a great story because Malaska got to live out a dream for any high school basketball player. He will be able to tell his kids and grandkids about the night no one could make a shot, but he made two big ones to give his team a win in a league tournament game.

He didn't know what to say after the game. Who could blame him? He was probably never interviewed before.



"It feels so good to win a close game like that," he said. "We kind of stole this one. I thought they outhustled us and beat us to the ball a lot. They also played good defense. I just go in and shoot. I knew the second one was going in. It felt good. Actually, both shots did.

"We knew he could shoot, so it wasn't a surprise," Frankenfield said, remembering Malaska made three 3s late in a blowout loss at Slatington last month. "Ultimately, we didn't get it done."

Frankenfield was trying to take full responsibility for the loss. "That one's on me" he said over and over again after the game.

But sometimes the ball just doesn't drop. You can draw it up, execute it perfectly and still the ball has to fall. His team missed a bunch of shots I am sure they normally make. So did Northern Lehigh.

(And what you had was just a tough, hard-fought game that ended with great excitement, at least for Northern Lehigh fans.

Now, Northern Lehigh plays Notre Dame on Friday and it's hard to imagine the Bulldogs shooting that poorly again. If they do, they will lose by 30 because Notre Dame seems to come at you in waves. It's like they have seven kids on the floor.

It's hard to believe that Notre Dame's Joey Giangiobbe and Andrew Kohler have never played in a Colonial League title game before in their careers. It seems like the Crusaders have dominated this league for years, and yet they have not won the league tournament since 2005.

You'd think that has to happen for Giangiobbe and Kohler and the rest of the ND seniors on Friday night.

But again, stranger things have happened as we found out on Wednesday night.

And rest assured ND is nothing for granted.

"They're a good team with good size and [Jordan] Waylen can score outside," Giangiobbe said. "Even though they shot bad tonight, it's not going to be that way on Friday. We have to come ready to play."

From Keith Groller