Sports

Allen Canaries Beat Hurricanes, 45-35

Hilliard misses most of fourth quarter; Liberty to play Roman Catholic in states

Update: 10:50 p.m.

A look down Liberty High School’s bench in the fourth quarter – and the people sitting on its chairs – summed up the Hurricanes’ District 11 4A basketball final against Allen High School Saturday night at Parkland High School.

Senior Darrun Hilliard was forced to the bench early in the fourth quarter after hitting his head on the hardwood on two occasions. Dante Holmes and Greg Noack both fouled out of the game, leaving Liberty undermanned against a potent Allen attack.

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The Canaries exploited their height advantage with 6’-6” senior Jaren Cannon an unstoppable force in the paint and on the glass. Cannon poured in 24 points and snagged 20 rebounds to lead Allen to a 45-35 victory over Liberty to take the D-11 4A title and avenge two one-point regular season losses.

Cannon, who scored 10 points by halftime, came out on fire in the third quarter pouring in 12 points and dominating the offensive and defensive boards. His putback bucket on a rebound with seconds to play in the third opened up a 33-23 lead, which was Allen’s biggest of the game.

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“That’s been our style all year,” said Allen head coach Doug Snyder. “We pound the ball inside to Jaren. We wanted him to be more of a passer at times tonight when they doubled him. We just post up to number 42 and let it go from there.”

For Liberty, the Lehigh Valley Conference championship, the loss of its leading scorer at a crucial point in the game and a lack of scoring were too much to overcome.

“(Allen) is such a good team and we felt that we needed to keep them in the 40s to stay in the game, but we didn’t have enough offense,” said head coach Chad Landis. “We knew they were fast and these were two evenly-matched teams going at it, but (Cannon) is big and strong and he got our big guys in foul trouble.”

Liberty trailed 6-0 early and went on an impressive 12-2 run at the 6:22 mark of the second quarter to take a 12-8 lead.

Allen, paced by Cannon’s pounding the ball inside and scoring almost at will, went on a 10-1 tear to start the third stanza, where it outscored the Hurricanes 19-7.

Liberty’s chances of a comeback were dashed when Hillard, chasing a loose ball near the sidelines, soared over a press table and hit his head hard on the floor. He stayed on the floor a few minutes and was helped to the bench, but returned minutes later.

Hillard banged his head on the floor again scrambling for a loose ball with a little more than five minutes remaining in the game and his night was done.

“He banged his head pretty good,” Landis said. “The trainers looked at him and he passed the tests the first time, but not the second time, and we weren’t taking any chances. There’s more basketball to play. It tough to deal with now, but we’ve got a week off and I assume Darrun will be OK. We’ll know more Monday.”

Izel Dickerson accounted for the bulk of the Hurricane offense with 18 points in the losing cause.

Liberty (22-5) will face Roman Catholic High School of Philadelphia, the third-place finisher in District 12 next Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

 

LIBERTY (35)

Izel Dickerson 7 3-5 18, Pat Donnelly 0 0-0 0, Chevon Williams 0 0-0 0, Devon Jones 0 0-0 0, Greg Noack 0 0-0 0, Dante Holmes 3 0-0 6, Alewdy Rivera 1 1-1 5, Alex Akabogu 0 0-0 0, Darrun Hilliard 3 0-0 6, Eric Carlstrom 0 0-0 0, K.J. Williams 0 0-0 0, Louie Horvath 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 4-6 35

ALLEN (45)

Daquan Holiday 2 0-0 4, Eric Ayres 0 0-0 0, Brandon Harrington 2 4-6 9, Robert Rodriguez 0 2-4 2, D.J. Brown 2 2-4 6, Jalen Cannon 11 2-4 24. Totals 17 10-18 45

 

Liberty --  8  8  7  12 – 35

Allen --    8 6 19 12 – 45

 

Officials: Rod Strobl Sr., Perry Nardella and Andy Donatelli.

Fouled Out: Noack, Holmes.

3-Point Goals: Liberty: Dickerson, Rivera; Allen: Harrington.


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