Justice Shoats and Holy Redeemer take on their second straight District 12 opponent when the Royals face Devon Prep in Saturday’s state semifinals.
                                 Fred Adams | For Times Leader

Justice Shoats and Holy Redeemer take on their second straight District 12 opponent when the Royals face Devon Prep in Saturday’s state semifinals.

Fred Adams | For Times Leader

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Holy Redeemer will play in the PIAA Class 3A boys basketball semifinals on Saturday. Three state victories — including a quarterfinal win vs. Math, Civics & Sciences — put them there.

So did other games during the regular season.

“Credit to our athletic director and our coaches for giving us a really good schedule,” Redeemer 6-foot-5 senior Matt Prociak said. “We played Allentown Central Catholic, we played St. John Neumann, we played Williamsport. That’s what got us prepared, and we knew if we played like we played against those teams in the season against these teams, we were going to be fine.”

Now District 2 champion Redeemer (24-4) gets the opportunity to advance to the state championship for the first time in school history. The Royals will play D12 third seed Devon Prep (17-7) at 4 p.m. at Bethlehem Liberty High School.

The winner advances to the state title game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at the Giant Center in Hershey. The other semifinal features a pair of District 7 teams — fourth-seeded South Allegheny (20-7) and third-seeded Aliquippa (20-8).

Redeemer advanced with a 56-48 victory over D12 champion Math, Civics & Sciences in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The Royals’ only other attempt to reach the semifinals came in 2011 and resulted in a loss.

“Uncharted waters for us. We’ve never been to the final four in the state,” Redeemer coach Paul Guido said after the win. “We thought off our scouting reports we would have a chance to be in the game. Let’s come down here and play great. If we play great and lose, hey we had a heck of a season. But if we play great, we might have the chance to win the game and then we get to someplace we never been before.”

The game is the third in what could only be described as an ill-conceived tripleheader by the PIAA at Liberty. The parking situation during a doubleheader Tuesday featuring D2-4A champ Dallas was horrible as cars continuously weaved through the lot waiting for a space to open. All disabled parking was filled for the first game, leaving anyone coming for the second game out of luck.

The other games are at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., so the chances of Redeemer vs. Devon Prep tipping off at 4 p.m. are slim.

When the game does start, Redeemer will be playing a Devon Prep squad few thought would reach this point. The Tide’s last trip to states was in 2013, and this year they had a quarterfinal matchup with D12 runner-up Philadelphia West Catholic, which had defeated them 79-57 and 68-56 in the regular season. Devon Prep, though, upset West Catholic 60-51 on Wednesday.

Junior Jacen Holloway led the victory with 22 points followed by IV Pettit with 21. Devon Prep nailed nine 3-pointers, and perimeter shooting has been a strong point this season. Allen Cieslak is the top 3-point shooter with Holloway, Pettit and Lucas Orchard all very capable beyond the arc. Orchard averages 15.6 points. Pettit scores 14.5 per game with Holloway and Cieslak checking in a 13.1 each.

Redeemer always plays a strong non-conference schedule and needed that more than ever this season. No one can argue otherwise that Division 2 of the Wyoming Valley Conference wasn’t as strong as in the past.

Wyoming Seminary, Redeemer’s nemesis for years, was gutted by graduation and won just four games total. Dallas played in Division 2 last season to balance out the divisions when MMI Prep decided not to play in 2020-21 because of the pandemic. Dallas headed back to Division 1 this season upon MMI Prep’s return.

The rest of the Division 2 teams either lost significant talent to graduation or weren’t quite ready to challenge Redeemer for divisional supremacy. The Royals’ closest divisional game was a 55-44 win over Nanticoke Area.

After a 20-point win over Southern Columbia to start states, Redeemer defeated Executive Education 66-49 in overtime and withstood MCS 56-48 despite leading scorer Justice Shoats missing a good chunk of the second half because of foul trouble.

“Like the last game against Education High, the good thing with our team is we know how to maintain our composure,” Prociak said. “Justice came back and he did what we needed him to do — stay calm and he didn’t foul. That’s the main thing. He didn’t foul.”

Shoats has scored over 1,500 points while Prociak has scored over 1,000. Zach Perta and Darryl Wright, Shoats’ backcourt mates, have shown the ability to score when needed and can defend. Jeff Kozerski is 6-4 and provides strength inside. He also has about a half dozen small stitches under his left eye after being elbowed there in the Executive Education game.