Feb 21, 2007 By Dave Stofcheck 5 min read

CARROLL TWP. – Dan Andria played a hunch Tuesday night, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So too is The Monkey, who received his walking papers and a one-way ticket out of town after Albert Gallatin defeated North Allegheny, 74-59, in the first round of the WPIAL Quad-A playoffs at Ringgold High School. Albert Gallatin advances to the quarterfinals, where it will face top-seeded Moon on Saturday at a site and time to be determined. Moon defeated Seneca Valley, 60-53, Tuesday night.

The Colonials last won a playoff game in 1997, when they pulled off a first-round upset of No. 3 Upper St. Clair on this very court. That was during Andria’s first stint as head coach. Most recently, Albert Gallatin’s stay in the postseason has been short-lived, after suffering first-round losses in each of the previous three seasons.

“I told the seniors they got the monkey off their back,” Andria said. “They wanted it so bad and I wanted them to get a playoff win. That first one is hard to get.”

Albert Gallatin (19-6) made it look easy, almost too easy for a team that was actually seeded a spot lower than its opponent. The ninth-seeded Colonials raced out to a 10-0 lead, were up by 16 at halftime and pushed their advantage to as many as 20 points early in the third quarter.

Thanks to a 16-0 run, the eighth-seeded Tigers made a game of it, but just briefly. Albert Gallatin took back control of the game with a 9-2 surge to close the third period, and never led by fewer than nine points the rest of the way.

Andria credited the quick start to his defense, a seldom-used 1-3-1 zone designed to contain a talented shooting team such as North Allegheny.

The Tigers did manage 11 total three-pointers, but hit just four from beyond the arc during the first half.

“You almost have to play this team man-to-man because of their shooters,” Andria said. “But I had a feeling, and I got some advice from somebody last week and they told me with the zone, we could push them out of their shooting comfort zone.

“We’re pretty long and we gambled a bit with a bigger lineup, but the 1-3-1 zone got us off to a good start. I think they were expecting man, and I think (Marc) Marshall is so big and so active at the front of that zone that he gave them problems. He plays a lot bigger than someone who is 6-foot-2. I think he gave them a lot of trouble.”

Offensively, Albert Gallatin’s Jawaan Alston, a lanky 6-8 center, and 6-4, 245-pound forward Nate Turner gave North Allegheny fits. The pair combined for 40 points, with Alston registering game highs with 24 points and 15 rebounds.

The Colonials out-rebounded the Tigers, 39-14. Albert Gallatin’s Ricky Knox added 12 points, with Jake Magerko coming off the bench to score 10. Magerko hit a pair of three-pointers, the second giving Albert Gallatin a 52-41 lead late in the third quarter.

The Colonials’ Aaron Cromwell chipped in eight points, and while Marshall scored just four, he added four steals, four rebounds and a blocked shot.

“It was a total team effort,” Andria said. “We have six starters, but I can only put five of them out there. They know that. I think Jake Magerko hit a big three-pointer at the end of the third quarter that gave us an 11-point lead and I thought Turner played the best game he’s played since his freshman year. He’s fought all those injuries and he was the Nate Turner of old tonight. He was under control. He was just phenomenal for us.”

Baskets by Alston and Turner, and 5-out-of-6 free throw shooting gave AG a quick 10-0 lead. Leading 18-8 after one quarter, Albert Gallatin opened the second period with an 11-2 run, in which four different Colonials scored.

After a North Allegheny basket to open the third quarter cut AG’s lead to 14 points, Cromwell nailed a jumper and two free throws, and Alston hit a nifty eight-foot turnaround to make it 43-23 with 5:58 left in the period.

But the Tigers’ Jon Massuga and Russ Constantino caught fire, and each nailed a pair of three-pointers during North Allegheny’s 16-0 run.

Andria called two timeouts during the span, the second coming after Massuga had cut the Colonials’ lead to seven points. Following the timeout, Massuga drilled another three-pointer, and it was 43-39 with 2:51 left in the third quarter.

Alston responded with a basket, and Knox followed with a pair of free throws and a lay-in to push AG’s lead back to 10 points.

“That second timeout was the only timeout we called that I really got upset,” Andria said.

“I sort of questioned their manhood, their integrity.

“They were looking at the clock and our lead was down to seven points. I told them, ‘Are you going to let it go? Are you going to give up? Are you going to choke it away or are you going to be the players I know you are?'”

“I told the guys, ‘You’re looking at the clock. I don’t want you looking at the scoreboard, you have to play.’ North Allegheny is North Allegheny. That’s an athletic tradition. You know they’re never going to quit.’ We knew with those shooters they were going to come. Our kids had to be smart enough to stay with their shooters.

“You have to be disciplined to do that. We were pretty disciplined in the fourth quarter.”

Massuga led North Allegheny with 20 points, including six three-pointers. Constantino added 15 points, 12 of which came on four treys.