Warwick stormed back from an 11-point first-half deficit to beat Pottsgrove 60-53 in the first round of the Joshua Montpetit Memorial Tournament Saturday night in Lititz.
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The Warriors (6-1), who are making fast finishes a habit this season, outscored the Falcons 37-22 in the second half to advance to the championship game Monday at 8 p.m. against Wilson, a 50-39 winner over Lancaster Catholic in Saturday's other first-rounder.
The Bulldogs beat the Warriors in last year's final.
Forward Jon Reynard, who scored 13 points off the Warwick bench, put his team ahead to stay when he snapped a 44-44 tie on a jumper with 5:53 left, as the Warriors scored 16 of the night's last 25 points.
Again, nothing new there. Warwick has outscored all but one of its opponents in the fourth quarter this year. And that, coach Jeff Landis said, is "not good for my health."
While he can't complain about his team's fast finishes, neither can he explain its penchant for slow starts.
"We play a lot of guys," he said. "Sometimes the combinations we have in take a while to get going. Our sense of urgency needs to pick up from the start."
The Warriors trailed 31-20 late in the first half, but Tim Heckman (13 points) buried a 3-pointer from the right corner 3.5 seconds before halftime, and Warwick outscored the Falcons 19-10 in the third period to go ahead 42-41.
Critical to the turnaround was Landis' decision to switch from the Warriors' customary man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone, which curtailed the penetration of Pottsgrove point guard Javon Williams.
"We don't necessarily like to do it," Landis said. "We think our aggressiveness on defense is one of our strengths. But it was the right call tonight."
The Falcons (3-3) had 16 of their 28 turnovers after intermission.
"And," coach Scott Paladino said, "a lot of them were unforced turnovers. You can't win a game like that. You can't win a game turning the ball over 28 times."
Bryce Carter scored 13 points and Joe Bell 10 for the Falcons, who used a 1-3-1 to good effect in the second quarter. That's when they went on a 17-1 run to turn a 19-14 deficit into that 31-20 lead.
Wilson (5-0), which was led by Sam Maralla with 19 points and Zach Zweizig with 15, never trailed in Saturday's first game, and fended off every challenge on the part of the Crusaders (5-1).
The last of those came midway through the fourth quarter, when Ty Shedleski nailed a trey from the left corner to make it a 40-35 game. But Maralla converted a layup off a sideline inbounds play, and after two free throws by Will Schlosser (12 points) connected five times at the line in the final 1:46 to help put it away.
"We talked about all the little things [that proved to be the difference]," Crusaders coach Joe Klazas said. "They definitely led in that category."
Klazas can only hope that those things work themselves out once the football team's contribution to his squad — Tyler Purvis, Kevin Cotchen and Ross Hall (out for another month following minor knee surgery) — get into the swing of things.
But all things considered he said he is "really happy" with his team's development. It's just that Wilson is a sizable challenge at this point.
"That's probably the most aggressive defensive team we saw all year in the halfcourt," Klazas said. "That's where we struggled with our execution."
Catholic High meets Pottsgrove in the consolation game, at 6:30 Monday night.
