Goodall, Blackshear key OF triumph
With Dom Avvisato on the bench in deep foul trouble, Old Forge had to find another way to attack a taller Sayre team.
Tony Goodall showed the Blue Devils the way, scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final 5:24, leading Old Forge to a 54-46 win over the Redskins in the opening round of the PIAA Class A playoffs Friday night at Marywood University.
Avvisato scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, but a quick foul in the third and another to start the fourth left Old Forge without its foremost inside presence.
So the Blue Devils attacked from outside. They spread the floor, taking advantage of their speed and Goodall's uncanny knack for either scoring or finding an open man.
"Goodall's been doing it for us all year and what I like about Tony is he's mentally tough," said Old Forge coach Al Semenza, who notched career win No. 375. "I'm really proud of all of them. They keep battling. We told them before we started, anything can happen on any night. Don't look at records. Just worry about ourselves. We're thrilled we get to go Tuesday night against Greenwood."
Malkolm Blackshear's 3-pointer midway through the third gave Old Forge a 29-21 lead, but without Avvisato inside, Alex Lyons and Riley Card scored on four straight possessions, with only Connor Fultz's bucket keeping the Blue Devils in front through three quarters.
Goodall was there to dish one of his four second-half assists on that basket, and he fed Fultz again, this time for a three-point play early in the fourth. That triggered a 9-1 spurt that pushed the lead to 11 with 3:34 to play.
"They presented some tough matchup problems for us," Sayre coach Tim Lindsey said. "We did a pretty good job masking over those in our zone.
"I don't think we did a very good job utilizing our size advantage at times. We like to try to dictate the tempo and I don't think we did that well enough. They did a better job dictating the tempo, and that's a credit to them."
Despite its size edge, Sayre managed just four offensive rebounds.
"I thought it was a great defensive effort by our guys," Semenza said. "I thought it started with our job by Mike Avvisato on (Taylor) Skerpon. We thought Skerpon made them go and Mike took him out of the game.
"We limited their opportunities. When they tried to catch us with a lob, our guys were there to knock it away. We were in the right position all night."
And down the stretch, Goodall and Blackshear were too quick, playing keep away while hitting 10 of 12 foul shots to salt away the win.
"Patience is the key to our game," Goodall said. "We like to hold the ball because we have a pretty good free-throw shooting team. If we have an open 3 in the corner and we have the lead, we usually won't jack it up. We'll take it outside and try to beat our guy to the basket. We usually just take layups."
Dominic Villanti led Sayre with 15 points, but despite three 3s in the fourth - two by Skerpon - it never got closer than seven in the final 5½ minutes.
Blackshear scored 13 and was solid at the point, handling Sayre's pressure.
"He really played intelligently tonight," Semenza said. "He made great decisions with the ball. All our guys did. To see this group get to the second round, it's really rewarding for all of us."
Contact the writer: mmyers@timesshamrock.com
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