Boys Game of the Week: Helm scores 29 in GCC’s 62-35 victory over Gators
Geibel Catholic’s Kaeleb Lehman attempts to drive past Greesburg Central Catholic’s Max Pisula during the third quarter of Friday’s WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Charleroi Area High School.
Ed Thompson
Geibel Catholic’s Cole Kendall is defended by Greensburg Central Catholic’s Nate Ward during Friday’s WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Charleroi Area High School.
Ed Thompson
Geibel Catholic’s Enzo Fetsko is guarded by Greensburg Central Catholic’s Dylan Sebak during Friday’s WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Charleroi Area High School.
FALLOWFIELD TWP. — The Geibel Catholic basketball team will be having nightmares of Greensburg Central Catholic’s Geoff Helm for quite a while.
The 6-foot-5 Helm, who is from Blairsville and will play basketball at Shippensburg, scored 29 points to pace the seventh-seeded Centurions (17-6) to a 62-35 win over the 10th-seeded Gators (10-12) Friday night in a WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Charleroi Area High School.
“He was the difference in the game,” said Geibel coach Don Porter. “Tonight, he showed why he is going to play at Shippensburg.”
The senior scored 19 points in the first half and outscored Geibel (11-12) during the opening two quarters, as GCC led 29-15 at the intermission.
The Gators outscored the Centurions in the third, 17-14, and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Ryan Anderson cut the deficit to a more manageable 11 points at 43-32.
Greensburg Central Catholic put the game away as it started the fourth on a 19-0 run, and Geibel’s only points in the frame were on a three-pointer by senior Kaeleb Lehman, who led the team with 12 points, with 59 seconds to go in the game.
Porter talked about GCC’s defense as being a big key to the game.
“We run a five-out offense and they defended us well,” Porter said. “We had a hard time getting good shots up.”
The defensive pressure stymied Geibel’s three leading scorers in 1,000-point scorer Cole Kendall, Enzo Fetsko, who will likely hit 1,000 points during the opening weekend next season, and Anderson. All three are juniors.
“Those guys will all play AAU ball and get better,” Porter said. “We will get to work on the off-season workouts and improve as a team and develop some of our younger players.”
Anderson scored 10 points, and made four of six shots, Kendall scored seven points and made three of 10 shots and Fetsko finished with five points and made two of nine shots. Fetsko now has 981 career points.
That trio, along with classmate Isaiah Krizner, will be returning starters and the team will look to build off of this year’s 11 wins.
The experience should help Geibel compete at a higher level, as its 10 wins came against five WPIAL teams that combined for 19 wins and one non-WPIAL team.
GCC advances to face second-seeded Cornell (18-4).