William Penn, Salesianum advance to boys championship

William Penn and Salesianum both won their semi final games to advance to the DIAA Boys Basketball championship this Saturday night at the Bob Carpenter center. 

 

 William Penn entered the night as the lowest seed at No. 7, but they knew they belonged. They reached the semis by knocking off the No.2 seed Seaford Blue Jays on their home court. They were set to face off with a familiar opponent in the No. 3 seed Howard Wildcats. The two teams faced off earlier in the year as the Wildcats were able to edge the colonials by two points 58-56. This time the Colonials were ready to avenge the regular season loss. 

 

The two teams were tied after one quarter, but the Colonials were able to outscore the Wildcats the rest of the way to come away with a 55-39 win. Jaiden Guy paced William Penn scoring 20 points and hitting 8 of his 10 free throw attempts. Emmanuel Vonhm added 10 points to go along with 9 rebounds. Howard was led by Jameer DeShields who totaled 11 points while Ayden Richards-Powell added 9. 

 

The second game of the night featured the No. 1 seed Middltown Cavaliers who were set to face off with the No.5 seed Salesianum Sals. These teams were also familiar with each other having faced off earlier in the season with Sals handing the cavaliers their only instate loss of the season. 

 

In this game the score was rarely ever not within a one possession game. This game came down to the very last seconds of the game. Salesianum took possession of the ball with just around 50 seconds left in the game tied at 49. After running the clock down to 8 seconds Isaiah Hynson drove in the lane and sent up a floater that touched nothing but the bottom of the net to take a 51-49 lead with just 4 seconds left in the game. Middletown took a time out and drew up a play, but was unsuccessful on the half court heave as time expired. 

 

The Sals were led by Hynson who scored 18 points shooting 7-12 and 3 for 3 from beyond the arc. Kareem Thomas added 12 points, and Justin Hinds added 11. Howard was led by Jaiden McGhee and Amir Cunningham  who each added 12 points a piece. 

 

William Penn and Salesianum did play each other this season. Penn came away with the win at home by a score of 75-63. The two teams have never faced off before against each other in a state championship. Williams Penn’s last championship came in 2009 with a 67-54 win over Caesar Rodney. Salesianum’s last championship was in 2015 as they defeated Polytech 52-45.

 

These two teams will face off this Saturday night at 6PM at the Bob Carpenter Center. Tickets will be on sale on the Blue Hens event site. If you can not get tickets the game will be live streamed on the NFHS Network.