Expand<\/a><\/p>\nALLENTOWN \u2014 For the second consecutive year, Devon Prep brought an end to Valley View\u2019s season.<\/p>\n
John Doogan scored 22 points to lead the Tide to a 61-41 victory over the Cougars on Tuesday night in a PIAA Class 4A boys basketball second-round game at William Allen High School.<\/p>\n
Cooper Fairlamb totaled 14 points, five assists and three steals for District 12 No. 4 seed Devon Prep (7-18). The two-time defending state champions advance to Friday\u2019s quarterfinals against District 2 champion Scranton Prep, which was a 57-42 winner in its second-round game against Salisbury.<\/p>\n
Cash Roe scored 18 points for Valley View (20-7), the No. 3 team from District 2. Noah Symuleski grabbed 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Last year, Valley View lost to Devon Prep in the state semifinals.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Cougars ultimately couldn\u2019t stem the Tide\u2019s pressure.<\/p>\n
They did early. They were able to take advantage of Devon Prep\u2019s aggressiveness for some easy baskets and open a nine-point lead in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the guys really came out and executed our game plan,\u201d Valley View coach Mike Kurpis said. \u201cWe knew they were going to come out and pressure. That\u2019s how they typically how they get things going. I thought we handled it well, made the right pass, the extra pass and finished. That had us out to a strong start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leading, 13-12, Cash Roe got behind the press twice to score consecutive baskets. After a putback by Jaden Craft for Devon Prep, Symuleski scored off an assist from Aiden Plotken. Cash Roe hit two free throws and Brady Bachman had a basket to make it 23-14 with 4:03 left in the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were doing a really good job in the beginning. When we were flying all over the place, they were getting guys behind us,\u201d said Devon Prep coach Jason Fisher, a former University of Scranton standout. \u201cThey were cutting and getting guys underneath our defense. We left the paint wide open and they made great plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doogan scored off a spin-and-drive for the Tide and Symuleski hit a foul shot for a 24-16 Valley View lead. But Devon Prep closed the half on an 11-2 run to claim the lead.<\/p>\n
Another layup by Doogan started the run. Fairlamb then sandwiched a basket and a 3-pointer around a basket by Michael Muto to cut the deficit to 26-23 with 1:30 left.<\/p>\n
Then, Devon Prep switched to a 1-3-1 defense that caused two Valley View turnovers that led a pair of baskets by Fairlamb in the final 41 seconds to give the Tide a 27-26 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went to that 1-3-1 and we had turnovers which led to baskets that flipped our momentum,\u201d Kurpis said. \u201cWe should have been up four and we came in down one. That switch just kind of put our guys in a bad frame of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things went from bad to worse in the third quarter for Valley View. The Cougars committed seven turnovers and missed their first four shots in the opening 5\u00bd minutes, enabling Devon Prep to score start with a 12-1 run and extend its advantage to 39-27 with 2:54 left. Valley View did not hit its first field goal in the quarter until Cash Roe scored with 1:32 left.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to that 1-3-1 at the end of the second quarter. It slowed them up a little bit and changed our mentality a little bit,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cWe came out in the second half and I told the guys we had to protect the paint. If they make threes, we\u2019ll adjust. We pressured the ball and took away the paint. We took away those cuts and we forced turnovers in the second half. That kind of was the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valley View finished with 17 turnovers, 11 of which came after halftime.<\/p>\n
Devon Prep led after three quarters, 46-33, then finished off the victory in the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir momentum just carried over into the second half,\u201d Kurpis said. \u201cThey\u2019re an excellent team, so well-coached. Even though it\u2019s new kids from last year\u2019s team, that program has three state titles in the last four years. You could tell that carries on year after year and their guys all know how to play the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although disappointed by the loss, Kurpis said this season was more than what he expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith what we replaced, I\u2019m pleased,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s never easy when you go down and I knew this would be a tall task for our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devon Prep\u2019s John Doogan defends Valley View\u2019s Noah Symuleski during the PIAA Class 4A second round playoff basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-135070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Devon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-05.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Valley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-07.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Valley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-04.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Devon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-09.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Valley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-08.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Valley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-10.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Devon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-06.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Valley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STT-L-PIAA4ABOYSBB-031026-02.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n