Freedom High School boys capture Stellar basketball tournament title

Joe Stellato wasn't expecting his Freedom High School team to make a run for the Stellar "Catch A Rising Star" Boys Basketball Tournament title this past weekend.

"We didn't have a good summer and we were in a tough bracket," Stellato said. "It was a surprise we came out of our bracket undefeated (5-0)."

Freedom defeated Parkland in the semifinals, then rallied from an 11-point deficit in the championship game to beat Easton 36-33. Senior Derike Chiclana earned tournament MVP honors. Classmate Nyreef Jackson was chosen to the tournament's second team.

"Derike and Nyreef were the only starters we had coming back," Stellato said. "The newcomers starting were Maceo Connor (senior), (juniors) Nigel Long and David Williams. They really stepped it up. We didn't know what they were capable of doing. We weren't sure what we had.

"Coming off the bench were (seniors) Brian Uliana and Andrew Arner. They played a lot of minutes for us."

Freedom defeated Phillipsburg, Whitehall, Trinity, Berks County and Pocono Mountain West in its bracket. The victory over Trinity was in double overtime and gave Stellato the belief that perhaps his team could win the tournament.

"We were down three with 10 seconds to go and Nyreef hit a huge 3 to send it to overtime," Stellato said. "Then we were down six in the overtime and David Williams hits a 3 to send it to the second overtime and we went on to win. Trinity was one of the better teams in the tournament."

Freedom followed with a last-second win against Berks, then rallied against Pocono Mountain West to capture the B bracket.

"It seemed that we just kept finding ways to win the entire weekend," Stellato said.

Freedom next faced Parkland, which fought its way out of the losers bracket but came into the game at less than 100 percent.

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Freedom High School boys capture Stellar basketball tournament title