When Allentown Central Catholic beat Northwestern Lehigh, 68-57, for the District 11 4A boys basketball championship in 2025, Vikings star Jahrel Vigo scored 38 points.
On Friday night, the entire ACCHS team didn’t score 38 points. The Vikings managed just 33.
But it was more than enough for the storied program to secure its fourth straight 4A crown and an area-best 24th overall.
The ACCHS was dominant in a 33-22 victory at Allen’s Sewards Gym that ranked among the lowest-scoring boys title games in district history.
A quick scan of District 11 records showed it as the lowest scoring final since Panther Valley beat Blue Mountain 22-21 for the Class B championship in 1974.
Certainly, ACCHS coach Dennis Csensits, who won his ninth district gold in 14 seasons, wasn’t going to apologize for the low score.
“This is the fourth in a row for this group of senior and I think it was unexpected to a lot of people,” Csensits said. “I think that group in the locker room knew they could do it. But a lot of people doubted us with the up and down season that we had.”
The Vikings stumbled into the District 11 tournament coming off a 12-10 regular season and a 74-37 loss to Parkland in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference quarterfinals.
The team was plagued by injuries and had to deal with a few incidents on and off the court. Cameron Hines, one of the Vikings’ top scorers, was ineligible for the district playoffs because of the PIAA transfer rules.
Grayson Schmell, a starting guard, was wearing an orthopedic boot Friday night after suffering a broken foot in the team’s semifinal win over Salisbury.
But the Vikings who could play Friday night competed with grit and determination to hold the Colonial League champion and No. 1 seeded Tigers to 36 points below their average and to 38 points fewer than they scored in a mercy-rule win over North Schuylkill in the semifinals.
“You’ve got to credit the programs in the EPC because it a heck of a league,” Csensits said. “You come through that league you are battle-tested and you’ve seen everything. You can either embrace it and learn from it or you can fold the tent. Our guys embraced it and learned from it and kept getting better.”
Senior Di’Quiawn Leak capped a terrific three-game stretch in the tournament with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.
“He’s a heck of a competitor and does a tremendous job of rebounding the ball,” Csensits said. “He’s probably one of the best rebounders I’ve ever coached. He just has a knack for going after the ball and when he gets his hands on it, he’s going to get it. He had a great tournament.”
Junior Yariel Gonzalez was a force as well with 14 points and four rebounds. Senior Jared Ford chipped in six rebounds and sophomore Nathaniel Eddinger, filling in for Schmell in the starting lineup, had five points including a key 3-pointer in the third quarter as the Vikings fought back from a 13-9 deficit.
Central would take control of the game by outscoring Northwestern 10-2 in the third period.
“Eddinger came up big,” Csensits said. “We told the guys in the locker room at halftime that I felt like they were shooting the ball in the first half because they felt they had to shoot it and not because they wanted to score. I think [Eddinger] embraced that. He came out with a scorer’s mentality and hit that big 3. We were pretty flat at the end of the first half and that 3 that he hit at the start of the second half was a big momentum-changer for us.
“Any basket in this game was a big momentum-changer,” Csensits said. “But he played pretty well.”
“We had confidence in everyone,” said the soft-spoken Eddinger, who scored just 32 points all season before Friday night. “The coaches prepared us well and let us know we can do it. They trusted us.”
Mason Bollinger’s layup accounted for Northwestern’s only points in the third period and Brady Krimmel scored all seven of the Tigers’ points in the final stanza.
But after Krimmel’s three-point play cut Central’s lead to 19-18 early in the fourth, the Tigers (21-6) didn’t score again until a Krimmel free throw with 1:38 remaining and ACCHS ahead 27-18.
A three-point play by Leak made it 30-18 with 1:20 to go and after Krimmel made a 3-pointer, Ford scored off a Gonzalez to put it away.
“We really came together defensively and got the job done today,” Leak said. “It feels really great. Everyone thought we couldn’t do it because Jahrel [Vigo] and Lucas [Mushrush] graduated, but here we are now. We dealt with a couple of injuries, but they were here to support us and they’re the reason we’re here.”
While Leak would have won the tournament MVP award had one been given, he said, “It’s a team game. I don’t score, but I am going to be the hustler and go get the loose balls and rebounds. I will get some points occasionally, but it’s whatever I can do to help the team win.”
Central would like to keep winning in the state tournament. They will host Devon Prep in the first round of the state tournament on Friday. Northwestern will play the District 2 runner-up, either Dallas or Scranton Prep.
Tigers coach Patrick Wanamaker will do his best to get his team to respond. His team scuffled through a 7-for-41 shooting night against the Vikings’ zone defense and had 14 turnovers.
“If you told me that we’d hold them to 33 points tonight, I would have thought we’d be in good shape,” he said. “I had a feeling all week that we’d see something different defensively from them when I heard Schmell wasn’t going to play. That’s not something we haven’t seen before. They just did it really well.”
He also noted that his team was outrebounded by a wide margin.
“They’re a physical group and we’re a physical group, too,” he said. “But at some point, 6-foot-5 and 6-6 might win out a little bit. That’s what happened tonight and they had guys who I didn’t expect to contribute offensively step up and play really well. That’s championship basketball. They executed a little better and gave us some fits defensively with their length.”
Wanamaker said the Tigers missed a lot of shots they would normally make.
“There were some shots that we’ll look back and say they weren’t great ones,” Wanamaker said. “But the majority of the shots we took I will be OK with when I watch it back. But especially against the zone you have to hit shots from outside. We hit our first one and then I don’t know if we hit another one until late. The other night we did a good job of shooting the ball. Tonight we didn’t.”
Gonzalez 6-13 1-3 14, Leak 4-5 2-4 10, Edmondson 1-3 0-2 2, Ford 1-9 0-0 2, Eddinger 2-5 0-0 5, Villegas 0-0 0-0 0, Daubert 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-35 3-9 33.
NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH (22)
Bollinger 3-9 2-2 8, Zimmerman 0-2 0-0 0, Fitch 2-9 0-0 6, Krimmel 2-11 3-5 8, Coleman 0-9 0-0 0,Lagowy 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 7-41 5-7 22.
