By JO WANKEL

Era Sports Writer

ERIE — A strong opposing defense and shots failing to fall the right way made the difference for Otto-Eldred Friday, as Neighborhood Academy handed the Terrors a 55-38 defeat and put their postseason run to an end.

Neighborhood Academy held Otto-Eldred to six points in the first, a challenge that was returned in the second as the Bulldogs posted six to O-E’s 11. With the score Neighborhood Academy 22-17 at the half, it was still anyone’s game.

Keying the Neighborhood Academy offense were Kedron Gilmore with 14 points, Syncere Nicholson with 13 and Shamar Simpson with 12. The Bulldogs’ Courtney Wallace, who typically averages 21.3 points per game, posted 10 points during Friday’s contest.

“(Wallace) made some good passes to kids, and they had some contested shots,” Francis said. “I don’t know how many threes they made, I would say eight probably. And I would say five of them were really well-contested, and we couldn’t buy one tonight.”

The Bulldogs did put up 8 threes, four of those from Gilmore, two from Simpson and one each from Nicholson and Wallace. However, as a team that has scored over 60 points in each PIAA round thus far, Neighborhood Academy was not seeing shots fall the way they expected. Unfortunately for Otto-Eldred, the same was true.

“They’re a very good defensive team. They’re No. 1 in the state for a reason. We didn’t think we could score 75 with them not playing defense,” Otto-Eldred coach Derrick Francis said. “They’re very good defensively, but they’re very good defensively when they speed you up. They contested well. I thought Landon and some of our players didn’t connect on some shots we typically make. Once you don’t get a couple to go down, then four

55-38 victory and advances to the Championship Round on Thursday.

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don’t go down… ‘We just didn’t make shots. Period. And give them credit, I’m not taking anything away from them. But at the end of the day, before it got out of hand, we held them to 30-some points going into the fourth quarter.’

The Bulldogs’ outscored the Terrors 19-11 in the fourth, after heading into the final eight minutes with a 36-27 lead.

Gilmore sank two threes to open scoring for Neighborhood Academy in the fourth, with a basket from Francis to put two on the board for O-E in between. The Bulldogs went on a six-point run after a successful free throw from Francis, only to see No. 3 steal the ball just prior to the four-minute mark and drive to the hoop for another basket, making the score Neighborhood Academy 50-33. A basket from Thomas gave the Terrors 35 to the Bulldogs’ 55 after baskets from Hardeman and Simpson.

O-E’s final points for the night came with 10 seconds remaining as Senior Jared Obenrader made his mark, sinking a three to put the score at 55-38, which still stood as the buzzer sounded.

When asked how much of the game Francis thought came down to rebounding, his answer was quick, ‘It was all of it. I mean, sometimes I thought we did well and, at times, I thought we did awful. When they got an offensive rebound, it just seemed like it was a dagger 3, every time.’

Neighborhood Academy will face Sankofa Freedom Academy, which defeated Lancaster Country Day 63-40 Friday. The teams face off at 2 p.m. Thursday in the GIANT Center in Hershey.

AT HAGERTY FAMILY EVENT CENTER (ERIE) OTTO-ELDRED (38) Manning Splain 4-3-413, Schenfield 1-0-02, Landon Francis 5-1-2-14, Thomas 3-0-1-6, Obenrader 1-0-0-3. Totals 14-4-7-38. NEIGHBORHOOD ACADEMY (55)

Courtney Wallace 4-1-2-10, Shamar Simpson 5-0-0-12, Syncere Nicholson 6-0-0-13, Hardeman 3-0-1-6, Kedron Gilmore 5-0-0-14.

Totals 23-1-3-55.

O-E 6 111011 NA16 6 14 19 Three-Point Goals: O-E 6 (Splain 2, Francis 3, Obenrader 1); NA 8 (Wallace 1, Simpson 2, Nicholson 1, Gilmore 4). Team Fouls: O-E 8, NA 12.