Johnie Doogan\u00a0led the team through the first two games and first quarter of Friday\u2019s third state tournament game. Doogan made four shots and Jaden Craft three as they combined to go 7-for-7 in the first quarter to get the Tide out to a 19-10 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew the role he was going to step into and I think he\u2019s done a good job of preparing for that,\u201d Reece Craft said. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s just great to see him repeating his benefits of working hard with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doogan finished with 17 points, but acknowledged that the spotlight shifted to his teammate after Scranton Prep closed to within 25-20 at halftime.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just got it all going for us,\u201d Doogan said. \u201cHe helped us keep the momentum going. They grabbed it a few times, but we just kept building off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaden Craft opened the second half with one 3-pointer then hit another 1:15 in. he scored on a drive, then added a 25-footer while falling down to make it 36-26.<\/p>\n
Doogan added a 3-pointer for the game\u2019s biggest lead, 39-26, and Craft hit again from long range seconds after the midway point in the quarter. He had 14 points in the first 4:09 of the half and finished with 25.<\/p>\n
It was a performance that fit in with a family history that includes his mother\u00a0Tricia (Halpin) Craft\u00a0having a productive, four-year NCAA Division I career at George Mason; his uncle and aunt, Jason and\u00a0Kelly (Halpin) Fisher,\u00a0both making the Wall of Fame at NCAA Division III power University of Scranton.\u00a0Braedan Fisher, Jaden Craft’s cousin and Jason’s song, added 10 points in the win.\u00a0Olivia Craft, Jaden\u2019s younger sister, had 16 rebounds in the second round of the state tournament as a Cardinal O\u2019Hara freshman and was also playing in the state quarterfinals Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMan this is excellent, I see all the shots he puts up all the time, so this is just work coming to fruition here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just great to see him stepping up and thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaden Craft helped move Devon Prep (8-18) return to Monday\u2019s state semifinals where it will meet District 4 champion Lewisburg, which is 25-4 and beat Bishop McDevitt 60-58 Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played in the PCL, which is one of the hardest leagues in the tri-state area,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through tough games and I feel like we\u2019re battle-tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep coach\u00a0Larry Reagan\u00a0agrees. His Cavaliers defeated the Tide 73-58 back on Dec. 6 in Pittsburgh in a game where they held Jaden Craft scoreless.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just played with a completely different level of physicality,\u201d Reagan said. \u201cI think most likely what happened was they were breaking in an entirely group out in Pittsburgh that hadn\u2019t yet played in the Philadelphia Catholic League. Now, they\u2019ve played in the Catholic League.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I said it to our kids is that they\u2019re pretty much like we would be if we had to play in the Catholic League.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep, the District 2 champion eight of the past nine seasons, is 6-3 in the last three state tournaments. Devon Prep is two wins away from being the champion of those three tournaments and four of the last five.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers (22-6) were led by\u00a0Brody Martin\u00a0with 17 points. Martin made all five of his fourth-quarter shots and finished 8-for-10 from the floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnie Doogan\u00a0led the team through the first two games and first quarter of Friday\u2019s third state tournament game.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-138485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138485","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=138485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}