Tonkavitch sparks Trojans’ first-round win over Cornell
McDONALD – Shane Tonkavitch will always remember dropping in a free throw for his 1,000th career point for California in a first-round WPIAL Class A boys basketball playoff game at South Fayette High School. He’ll probably remember a pair of key 3-pointers in the third period and several clutch foul shots in the final minute even more, however, since they all contributed to the Trojans’ 57-47 victory over the Raiders on Tuesday night.
Eighth-seeded California (18-5) advances to play top-seeded Monessen (17-6) in the quarterfinals on Friday at a time and site to be determined.
Tonkavitch scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, including consecutive 3-pointers that turned the tide in the Trojans’ favor for good.
California scored the game’s first eight points with two baskets by Dan DeMoss and one each by Rick Cope and Ryan Robinson, and led almost the entire way in a sloppy first half.
Cornell didn’t score until Jared Stewart’s hit a basket off a rebound with 1:51 left in the first period. The Raiders trailed 8-4 after one period and 15-12 in the final seconds of the second period when Grant Burns hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie it.
“We were shaking our heads,” California coach Steve Luko said of the first half. “It was horrible … like a pick-up game.”
Cornell coach Bill Sacco agreed.
“It was like a junior high game, or even a seventh-and-eighth-grade game,” Sacco said.
The Raiders grabbed their first lead on Matt Owens’ basket to open the second half, and were up 21-18 when Tonkavitch struck at the 3:35 mark of the third period.
The senior guard swished a game-tying trey on a pass from Cope, then put California ahead to stay with another 3-pointer on a pass from Robinson, which lit up the Trojan fans on hand and forced Sacco into calling a time out.
“I hit the first three, and you could feel the momentum shift a little bit,” Tonkavitch said.
“Then when I hit the next one to put us up by three, our guys really started to step it up. You could see the fire in their eyes after that.”
Robinson kept things rolling for California after the time out with a long 3-pointer and then a fast-break lay-up. Cope hit one of two free throws with 1:14 left in the quarter to complete a 12-point run that Cornell could never recover from.
“That sequence there hurt us a lot,” Sacco admitted.
“Shane hit a couple and Ryan hit one and that got our kids fired up,” Luko said.
The Trojans led 32-23 after three periods, and pushed the gap up to 16 with a seven-point run midway through the fourth period.
The play of the day came during that spurt when Tonkavitch tipped the ball away from a Raider player, then swatted in down court to a flying Robinson, who gathered it in, hit the lay-up and was fouled. He made the free throw for a 43-29 lead, and Cope scored soon after to make it 45-29.
Tonkavitch hit his milestone free throws for career points No. 1,000 and 1,001 with 2:37 left to put the Trojans up 50-34, and Luko called time out to acknowledge the feat.
Cornell wasn’t finished, though. The Raiders took off on a 13-1 run to pull within four, 51-47, after Burns hit a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left.
Tonkavitch made four of six free throws in the final 45.9 seconds, and Rob Galis added two more to help the Trojans put the game away.
“We played much better in the second half,” Luko said.
“We started executing a lot better, but then we let them get back in the game on turnovers. Our whole team is going to have to play well the entire game for us to beat Monessen.”
Robinson followed Tonkavitch in the Trojans’ scoring column with 13. DeMoss was next with 12 and Cope, who was a focal point for Cornell on defense, chipped in with 12.
Owens led the Raiders with 12 points, and Burns hit three 3-pointers in scoring nine.
Tonkavitch joins Cope, Matt Rossi and Pat Rossi in the California 1,000-point club.
“We have two 1,000-point scorers on the same team, and that’s a great accomplishment,” Luko said. “It’s good for the school and it’s good for these guys. It also takes the pressure off them, since they both got that out of the way.
“Now they can concentrate on basketball and Monessen.”