Cathedral Prep has had one of the top offenses in District 10 throughout the season.
The Ramblers reached a new level during the District 10 Class 4A playoffs.
Prep scored a season-high 92 points on Friday to roll to the 26 D-10 boys basketball title in program history.
"When we are pushing the ball and playing together we are trusting our teammates and all of our hard work is showing," said Prep standout Michael Thompson about the offense. "It's a great feeling to win D-10 and I'm really proud of my teammates and my coaches as we all deserve this."
More: District 10 basketball playoff scores, other high school winter sports results are here
Thompson scored 27 points and Ahmari Horton had a career-high 30 points for Prep in the 92-71 win in the District 10 Class 4A championship.
Prep (17-8) and Sharon (18-8) both move on to the PIAA tournament on Friday. The Ramblers take on Knoch out of the WPIAL and the Tigers get Avonworth.
Prep was firing on all cylinders all game from four 3-pointers by Horoton to a one-handed dunk by Thompson. The Ramblers were up and down the court with at least 22 points in all four quarters.
"It felt good to win this game. We knew we had to come out and do it as a team," Horton said. "We had to talk through everything on offense and defense."
Sharon tried to hang with Prep as the Tigers trailed just 44-33 at the half, but the Ramblers outscored Sharon 24-14 in the third quarter to pull away.
The high-flying Ramblers are averaging 65.8 points per game this season, including point totals of 83, 79 and 92 in the D-10 playoffs. Nando Mirarchi added 11 points for Prep. Derek Douglas led Sharon with 21 points, while Owen Schenker had 17 annd Levi Hailstock and Cedrick Boyd each had 11.
"We give the guys a lot of freedom to play together and I don't know how much we played together in the first half but we obviously did in the second half," said Prep coach Jeremy Lynch. "Our ability to sprint the floor has been key. Nando is so good in transition and the guys have realized that he's that good when he's beating everyone down the floor and the guys have gone with him. That's the way we want to play."
Contact Tom Reisenweber at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNreisenweber.