HERSHEY, Pa. -- Schenley's players complained of foul play. But they wondered why the authorities never noticed.
Schenley lost to Coatesville, 70-57, in the PIAA Class AAAA championship game at Hersheypark Arena, and the foul shooting statistics were hard to believe.
Coatesville shot 29 free throws and made 26.
Schenley never went to the free-throw line the entire game.
The whole thing left Schenley in a foul mood after the game.
"It was like eight on five out there. Coatesville's five players and the three officials," said Schenley senior forward Shawn Hawkins.
The final score wasn't indicative of how close the game was. There were 13 lead changes in the first three quarters and Schenley (29-3) trailed by only one point with three minutes left.
So did the officials really affect the outcome of the game?
"You saw it," Hawkins said. "We were getting hit hard sometimes. Maybe the refs thought it wasn't hard enough."
As Schenley senior guard Jack Higgins walked to the locker room after the game, he wondered out loud: "How can you not shoot one foul shot the whole game? How can that be?"
Coatesville committed only nine fouls in the game while Schenley had 20. Schenley senior center Nate Gerwig fouled out while Hawkins and point guard Charles Jackson had four fouls each.
"I was getting hit mostly on my drives to the basket," Higgins said. "I was getting smacked and pushed, but they wouldn't call anything."
Higgins, Schenley's leading scorer with a 16-point average, finished with only 10 points. He had 29 in the semifinals against George Jr. Republic, but got only 11 shots against Coatesville's sticky man-to-man defense.
Jackson led Schenley with 17 points, but only six in the second half. He made four of eight shots in the first half, but only three of 11 in the second. Hawkins added 16 points and eight rebounds.
Schenley was trying to become the first City League team to win a PIAA championship in the highest classification since the Spartans did it in 1978. But it ended up as another championship loss for Schenley. The Spartans have lost only five games in the past two seasons, and three of them have been in title games. The other two were in the City League final.
"We're a good team, but we just couldn't get that big one, and that's what hurts," Higgins said.
Schenley Coach Fred Skrocki didn't blame the game on the officials, but he was a little miffed. In 17 years as Schenley's coach, he has never been involved in a game where one team didn't shoot a free throw.
"Let's just say no comment," Skrocki said. "I guess you just have to dunk every time. That's the only way you can get a basket in there."
John Allen, a 6-6 senior forward who is considered one of the best players in the state, was the star for Coatesville, a suburban Philadelphia school that got its first PIAA title. Allen, a Seton Hall recruit, finished with 23 points. He made seven of 10 shots and nine of 10 from the free-throw line.
"He controlled the game in the second half," Hawkins said. "They just put him in the middle against our zone and let him go to work."
Coatesville also got 14 points from forward Kareem Shelton and 10 apiece from pint-sized guards Maurice Bryant and Tyree Brickus.
But Schenley represented itself well most of the game. Jackson banked in a 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer to give Schenley a 35-32 lead. Hawkins and Higgins both hit short jumpers at the start of the third quarter and suddenly Schenley had a seven-point advantage with 6:34 left in the third quarter.
Then Allen took over, scoring nine of Coatesville's next 11 points. His three-point play gave Coatesville a 43-41 lead.
"That third quarter really hurt us," Skrocki said. "Whenever we tried to press, it seemed like they got the momentum."
In the fourth quarter, Gerwig scored on a rebound with 4:28 left to bring Schenley to within 54-53. Coatesville then held the ball for more than a minute, and when Schenley tried to pressure the Raiders, Shelton scored a layup to make it 56-53. On its next four possessions, Schenley had a turnover and four missed shots. Coatesville converted every time and when Bryant sank two free throws with 1:05 left, the Raiders had a 64-53 advantage.
"Scooter [Jackson] went real cold in the second half and Jack had so much defensive pressure on him," Skrocki said.
Coatesville Coach Jim Smith said, "Early on, they hit their shots because they had fresh legs and were riding on enthusiasm. But we knew they were huffing and puffing and that they were going to die. The second shots, if you notice, their shots were all hitting the rim because they had no legs. We pride ourselves in being the best-conditioned team in the state."
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