Published Thursday, March 18, 1999 
The Tigers once again handled adversity Wednesday night with yet another come-from-behind victory. This time the Tigers overcame a 12-point deficit to defeat WPIAL champion Shady Side Academy, 61-57, in a PIAA second round clash at Butler High School.
These comeback victories have become so commonplace for the Tigers, people involved with the team have lost track.
"That's been a consistency for us all year," said GJR coach Ralph Blundo. "We've been down many, many times all year but our kids have a lot of character and they believe. When you win 52 straight games it becomes a habit. You know how to win basketball games and that grows on you. It was never more evident than tonight."
George Junior will play Windber -- which defeated Kane, 57-48, Wednesday in the first game at Butler -- Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
Wednesday marked the second year in a row George Junior has sent the Indians (27-3) packing in the state quarterfinals. The Tigers did it last year at Butler High by a 67-52 count.
After that game, Shady Side coach Will Saunders predicted he'd be surprised if anybody stopped GJR the rest of the playoffs. He was right as the Tigers went on to the state title. After Wednesday's game, Saunders made the same prediction.
"I'm going to make the same statement as I did last year. I'd be surprised if they didn't win it all," Saunders said. "They did what nobody's done to us all year -- they made us look bad defensively. It's one of those demoralizing feelings because you know you were close, you were right there with them. I wish them all the luck. That's a heckuva ball club.
"I'm sure some of the coaches down our way will be looking for film and I'm going to say, 'I don't know how much it will help you.'"
Although it nearly did for his Indians, the newly-anointed No. 1 team in the state.
Led by the powerful play of 6-6 senior Quincy Curry, Shady Side ground its way to a 21-13 lead after the first quarter. Curry, who scored 10 of his team's 12 second-quarter points, then gave Shady Side its biggest lead of the game, 31-19, on a pair of foul shots at the 4:13 mark of the second quarter.
Curry, who finished with a game-high 26 points paid his biggest dividends on the defensive side, however, early on. He held GJR's B.J. Grove to just one first-quarter foul shot and kept him without a field goal until the 5:10 mark of the second quarter. The hoop pushed Grove past the 1,000-point mark during his 2-year tenure at GJR.
But after Curry's freebies, the Tigers closed the half on a 9-2 run, including the final 7, to make it 33-28 after a Charles Swan basket at the buzzer.
Swan, who led the Tigers with 25 points, had 15 in the first half and singlehandedly kept GJR in the game while Grove struggled to find his groove. Grove did finish with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
"He's battled all year," Blundo said of Swan. "Sometimes Charles is his own worst critic and that's hurt him in games. I don't know what he did or who said what to him, but I want to thank them. He came out believing in himself and played great."
Just as quickly as Shady Side's lead slipped away at the end of the first half, the Indians built it back up to a 12-point margin in opening the second half. A pair of Swan foul shots pulled GJR within 33-30 less than a minute into the third. But Shady Side posted a 54-second flurry that saw Curry convert a traditional 3-point play and Mark Lovett hit a pair of treys from the left side to make it 42-30.
Despite shooting poorly from the perimeter, due to GJR's use of a 2-3 zone instead of its traditional 3-2, Shady Side seemed to be in control of the game at that point. A Curry dunk at the 4:10 point of the third kept the Indians' lead in double figures, 46-35. The Tigers, however, countered, as they have all year. Curry's dunk would be Shady Side's final points until a Scott Booker layup with 6 minutes left in the game, a span of more than a quarter of clock time.
The drought enabled GJR to close the quarter on a 10-0 run and Antwon Lawson's 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in the third cut the deficit to 46-45 heading into the fourth.
A pair of Grove free throws a minute-and-a-half into the fourth made it 47-46, giving GJR its first lead since 2-0 in the opening minutes of the game. After Booker's layup snapped Shady Side's drought, the two teams traded baskets and the lead until GJR took it for good on another pair of Grove foul shots at the 4:43 mark made it 53-51.
And that is where the Tigers won the game, converting 10 of 14 fourth-quarter attempts from the charity stripe. Grove hit 6 of 7 attempts and his pair with 3 minutes left made it 57-51 in favor of GJR.
"The poor perimeter shooting, the poor foul shooting caught up with us," said Saunders, whose club was just 3 of 7 from the foul line in the fourth. "It's been a problem all year. They knocked down the clutch ones and we missed the clutch ones."
The Indians weren't without chances to tie the game, however. With GJR clinging to a 58-55 lead with less than a minute to go, Shady Side's star point guard Jarius Acie continued a horrendous night shooting by missing an open 3-point attempt.
After a pair of Lawson freebies made it 60-55, Booker failed to convert a traditional 3-point play by missing the foul shot. George Junior proceeded to turn the ball over and Acie missed another 3-pointer, his 11th consecutive misfire over the final three quarters.
"His game is dribble penetration," Saunders said. "He did that tonight, but it is so hard to simulate a 6-10 kid and he's not used to seeing a 6-10 kid in there. He had to make some adjustments and change some shots and it frustrated him."
Perhaps the most impressive fact of the night is the Tigers staged their comeback without a substitution. The five starters played the entire game until Marquis Anderson fouled out with 24 seconds remaining. Shady Side, meanwhile, rotated 9 players on a regular basis.
"When you're 16 or 17 years old you don't get tired," Blundo said. "You just get out there and play basketball. They could probably play another one right now."
Especially when that game is one step closer to the state championship.
Notes: George Junior shot 19 of 49 (39 percent) from the floor, opposed to Shady Side's 37 percent (23 of 63). ... The Indians had 11 turnovers, GJR had 14, but only 4 in the second half. ... The Tigers were 20 of 31 (60 percent) from the foul line. Shady Side was 8 of 16 (50 percent). ... Acie finished with 4 points, all in the first quarter. ... Grove now has 1,018 points at GJR. "He's been a part of every one of those 52 straight wins," Blundo said of Grove. "Bob (McConnell) did a great job last year and we've tried to carry that on. B.J.'s grown up so much as a person and as a player. He showed great character tonight."
* * *
PIAA AA SECOND ROUND
GEORGE JUNIOR 13 15 17 16 61
SHADY SIDE 21 12 13 11 57
GEORGE JUNIOR -- Grove 5-11-13-21; Lawson 2-2-3-7; Anderson 1-1-2-3; Swan 9-5-8-25; Bazemore 2-0-0-4; Pittman 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Swan 2, Lawson 1. Totals: 19-20-31-61.
SHADY SIDE -- Acie 2-0-0-4; Frederick 0-0-0-0; Medley 2-0-0-4; Alexander 0-0-0-0; Curry 10-6-13-26; Booker 4-0-1-8; Lovett 3-2-2-10; Paul 2-0-0-5. 3-pt. goals: Booker 2, Paul 1. Totals: 23-8-16-57.
