Winter is coming, and Canon-McMillan coach Rick Bell knows the steps his players take in the summer can help in their quest to sit on the throne next WPIAL basketball season.
It was sort of like Christmas in June last week for Bell and the Big Macs when they took down Allderdice, 48-33, to win the 5A-6A division of the annual Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league at Montour High School. Bell bellowed instructions from the sideline, his face reddening when a player didn’t rotate on defense or contest a jump shot. He knows all too well that his team’s 3-11 section record last season wasn’t acceptable, but is also quick to point out the Big Macs lost two games in overtime, two in double-overtime, one by a point and one by three points.
“We’ve talked an awful lot about losing six games last year by one possession. That’s kind of where the intensity comes from,” Bell said. “We just want them to understand what it takes to do what we want to do.”
Naturally, the Big Macs want to win more games next season, make the postseason for the first time since 2013 and maybe more. Canon-McMillan hasn’t won a WPIAL playoff game since 2008, but with a core of experienced seniors who ran the gauntlet to win a competitive summer league, Bell is cautiously optimistic.
“Most of the good teams in the area, especially the South Hills area, are in this league,” Bell said. “So yeah, we’re not going to go home and hang a banner, but I think it gives us an indication we have a chance to maybe be pretty decent next year.”
Seniors Carson Miller, Britton Beachy and RJ Bell, Rick’s son, combined for 42 points in the final against Allderdice, while underclassmen Kenyan Lewis and Elliott Waller started and played well enough to help the Big Macs beat North Hills and Hampton in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Miller and Beachy have been varsity contributors since they were freshmen, Bell since midway through his sophomore year, so it’s now or never for them to break through when the real season stars.
“That’s the other reason for kind of the level of intensity — those guys have been with me and that was kind of a good group coming up through the ranks,” Bell said. “Not that I put too much emphasis on sixth, seventh, eighth grade — as a lot of people do these days — but it was kind of a core group of guys. It wasn’t just one kid, so we kind of thought by the time these guys were seniors, they might have a chance to be OK.”
Allderdice, which was led by junior Naim Miller with 10 points, must replace all five starters from its scintillating PIAA runner-up team, so coach Buddy Valinsky was pleasantly surprised just to see his Dragons reach the summer league title game.
In the 2A-4A division, Ambridge took home the championship T-shirts with a 59-39 win against Sto-Rox. Returning starter Nick Campalong, a 6-foot-4 forward, and point guard Tay Lindsey led the way with 13 points apiece.
“We’ve improved a lot. At the beginning of the summer, we couldn’t run half the stuff we ran [against Sto-Rox],” said coach Mark Jula. “We weren’t playing well early, and to finish the season with three or four wins in a row is a good way to end the summer.”
Monterey Carpenter — a junior guard who barely saw any time last year on the junior varsity team, according to Jula — made four 3-pointers for 12 points in the championship, while 6-5 sophomore Aaron Hilzendeger did a little of everything after posting impressive scoring numbers in his freshman campaign.
“Carpenter’s an amazing story,” said Jula, whose team was 11-11 last season but made the Class AAA playoffs. “If he played two minutes a JV game last year, that’s an exaggeration. We couldn’t even use him. He comes every day to the gym and he’s worked on his footwork. Now, he’s sort of money in the bank. He’s been money in the bank all summer because he lives in the gym. Every kid ought to be like him because all he does is come to the gym, shut up and go to work.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: July 8, 2016, 4:00 a.m.