ALLENTOWN - Size, quickness, and depth.

Central Catholic used all three of those advantages to down Tamaqua 58-29 in the District 11 quarterfinals at William Allen High School Friday night.

The loss ends the season for the Blue Raiders, who reached their goal of making districts this season, while Central Catholic moves on to the semifinal round.

The first quarter was no indication of what the game would become. Both defenses were in good form and the quarter ended with the Vikings up 9-3.

The highlight of the first period came on a dunk by Jahrel Vigo after he tipped the ball away and followed it down the court before going in for an acrobatic slam.

Vigo had another highlight-worthy dunk to open the second-quarter scoring as Central Catholic came out showing more speed than in the first and were able to rattle off 15 unanswered points to take a commanding 24-3 lead - and then stretch the advantage to 29-5 by halftime.

“I was happy with our defensive play in the first half. I thought we would be able to score about 20 points in the first half and we gave up 29, so it would have been competitive for us at that point,” said Tamaqua head coach Jim Barron. “We really didn’t have a lot of good looks, especially in the second quarter, and when we did get an open shot we couldn’t get them to fall.”

The Vikings wasted no time putting more points on the board in the second half when 6-7 senior David Fridia pulled down a rebound and went right back up for a slam of his own. On the next trip down the floor, he drove the lane for a basket and a 33-5 lead.

“Our game plan coming in was to fill the paint and make them hit outside shots, but they were able to work their way in with their quickness and they did a good job on the boards with their size advantage,” said Barron. “You can’t give a good team like that multiple opportunities, and that really hurt us.”

Three minutes into the third quarter, Tamaqua got its first back-to-back baskets of the night when Noah Mateyak hit a three-pointer and Cooper Ansbach followed it up with a drive through the lane, making it 39-12. Connor Dillon hit his first of two three-pointers in the game on the next trip down the court to make it 41-15 with 4:38 left in the third.

Dillon hit his second three of the night with 5:37 left to play to make it 51-24 and two minutes later, Ansbach also hit on a three-pointer and Mateyak hit a jumper to make it 54-29. But Ja’Keir Ensley hit a foul shot and Tysair Riddick drained a shot from beyond the arc in the final seconds to end the game at 59-28.

“They are a very athletic team, and we knew we were going to have to play our absolute best game of the season against them and that’s a lot to ask against a team as good as they are,” said Barron. “I’m proud of the effort and proud of our guys because they came in looking to do what we needed to do to win, but we hadn’t seen a team like them all season and it was a tough game for us.”

LOOKING BACK … Barron was pleased with the season overall and proud of the team for reaching districts. He also pointed out that four of their losses were by five or less points. The team loses just two seniors - Michael Styka and Connor Dillon - as they look ahead to next season.

LOOKING AHEAD … The Vikings, seeded second in 4A, will move into the semifinal round where they will play third-seeded Pottsville. That game will be played Tuesday.

TAMAQUA

Ansbach 5-2-4-13, McCabe 1-0-0-2, Mateyak 2-0-0-5, Vecolitis 0-0-0-0, Styka 0-0-0-0, Kane 1-1-4-3, Fronheiser 0-0-0-0, Dillon 2-0-3-6, Kamant 0-0-0-0, Davis 0-0-0-0, Tamagini 0-0-0-0, Gomez 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-3-11-29

CENTRAL CATHOLIC

Cook 0-0-0-0, Fridia 4-0-1-8, Spinosa 2-0-0-5, Csensits 0-0-0-0, Gonzalez 0-0-0-0, Jones 2-0-0-4, Davis 0-0-0-0, Riddick 1-0-0-3, Rader 0-0-0-0, Ford 0-0-0-0, Vigo 7-0-0-15, Mushrush 3-0-0-8, Isbell 0-0-0-0, Ensley 2-3-6-8, Stewart-Smith 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 24-3-9-58

Tamaqua 3 5 14 10 - 29

Central Catholic 9 20 21 8 - 58

Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Dillon 2, Ansbach 1, Mateyak 1; ACC - Ensley 2, Mushrush 2, Vigo 1 Riddick 1, Spinosa 1.