By Marion Valanoski
ENOLA -- Kent Houser knew playing Lebanon Catholic for the second time in less than two weeks would be no easy task, yet the veteran Greenwood High School coach was confident there would be no letdown in Friday night's PIAA Class A quarterfinal matchup at East Pennsboro High School.
There wasn't a letdown, but it took a while before the Wildcats exhibited the performance that has earned them 26 victories to date and a berth next Tuesday against Reading Central Catholic.
Turning up the pressure in the second quarter, Greenwood held Lebanon Catholic to just three points while Deaven Kelly jumpstarted the offense with a pair of 3-pointers as the Wildcats broke open a close matchup with a 16-3 scoring advantage en route to downing the Beavers 45-30 to earn their third trip to the PIAA final four in the last four years.
"They pretty much know what we do, and the same for us," Houser said. "It eventually comes down to execution and defense, and I thought for 28 of the 32 minutes that we played our defensive play was outstanding."
Zach Arnold tallied four points and Michael Wolfe came off the bench to bury a trey as the Beavers stayed close to the Wildcats, trailing only 11-9 after eight minutes of action. Then the Greenwood defense took over, harrassing Lebanon Catholic's guards all over the floor while the offense -- after a slow start -- began to heat up.
"There is no ego with this group and they truly are a team," Houser said. "They don't care who is scoring the points and getting the attention. They just go out and play hard as a group and want to win."
Kelly nailed consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead to 17-9, and after Nick Frattaroli canned a trey to cut the advantage to 17-12, Jordann Ferguson sandwiched six points around two free throws by Andrew Rhoads and a layup by Mike Hogan to put Lebanon Catholic's deficit at 27-12 heading into the intermission.
The Beavers saw the lead grow to 35-16 midway through the third quarter when Zach Fortenbaugh (5) and Rhoads (3) combined for eight points before the Wildcats experienced a bump in the road.
Taking advantage of some turnovers, the visitors tallied eight straight points to pull within 35-24 and had possession of the ball when Hogan came up with a huge block on a shot by Darius Zook that seemed to revitalize Greenwood, which held the Beavers scoreless the next four times they had the ball.
"We may have taken the foot off the pedal and slowed our momentum down when we had the 19-point lead," Houser said. "They were able to convert a couple of bad passes into scores, and we also lost the shooter twice when Frattaroli and Fortna hit their threes."
Wolfe hit his second trey early in the fourth to reduce the deficit to 37-27, but that would be the closest the Beavers got the rest of the way. Ferguson tallied five points and Fortenbaugh had four to secure the final outcome.
"Our defense was great and Ferguson did a great job on Zach Arnold (five points)," Houser said. "When Kelly hit those two treys in the second quarter it forced them to change their defense, and they couldn't just let their big guys sit back in the paint."
Ferguson led Greenwood (26-3) with 16 points, while Fortenbaugh added 13 points and seven rebounds. Kelly and Rhoads both finished with six points.
The Beavers (17-12) were led by Fortna's 10 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Wolfe and Frattaroli with six apiece.
