Devon Prep earns second state title in three years with victory over Franklin Area

Zane Conlon and Shane Doyle sat on the Devon Prep bench at the Giant Center two years ago as freshmen and watched the Tide capture the first PIAA title in program history.

Now juniors, they made their return to Hershey on Saturday afternoon with a completely different set of teammates — all 10 of the players who were a part of the 2022 championship team had graduated.

As they envisioned two years ago, Conlon and Doyle helped Devon Prep to its second state title in three years with a 60-56 victory over Franklin Area in the PIAA Class 3A boys’ final.

Conlon led the Tide with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Doyle had 15 points and four assists.

“As soon as Shane and I stepped foot on campus, we just knew we wanted to win as much as we could,” Conlon said. “After we got that one freshman year, we just set our minds to it.”

Devon Prep coach Jason Fisher said the experience from the 2022 title game helped, even if it didn’t show early on.

After jumping out to an early advantage, Devon Prep (15-13) fell behind by five points in the second quarter when Franklin Area senior Cole Buckley, who finished with 20 points, scored eight in a row. Doyle responded by hitting a pair of three-pointers to give the Tide a 25-24 lead at halftime.

“I thought we were playing a little too timid in the first half,” Fisher said. “We passed up a lot of good shots that normally we wouldn’t even think about passing up. … That third quarter, [we] relaxed and got the tempo a little bit more where we needed it to go — and then we held on for dear life.”

The Tide extended their lead by five less than two minutes into the third period on a dunk by junior Reece Craft. Conlon got going with 10 points in the period. Then senior Zach Orchard hit a three-pointer, his first points of the game, to send the Tide into the fourth quarter with a 46-37 lead.

Orchard’s second triple gave Devon a 50-42 advantage with 5:57 remaining, but Franklin Area went on a run to tie the game to 50 with 3:27 left.

Devon retook a 53-50 lead after Orchard’s third deep shot with 2:24 to play.

“I was just ready to shoot because I passed up one earlier in the game, and they told me, ‘You gotta be ready to shoot. You can’t play scared,’” said Orchard, who finished with 11 points. “I worked my whole life for a moment like this, and I just caught it, shot it, made it.”

Craft was at Malvern Prep his freshman year and joined the Devon Prep program last season. The 6-foot-7 forward finished with 11 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks.

After some struggles at the free-throw line, the Tide had to sweat out a pair of game-tying shots before they did enough at the foul line to celebrate a state title.

“This is the most joy I’ve ever felt playing basketball in my life,” Craft said. “We work really hard as a team, so this is just a great experience.”

Orchard, Ben Costello, Brian Kamara,and Greg Perullo will graduate this year.

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The rest will be back next season along with juniors Mason Thear and Calvin Smith, who started all season before sitting out during the postseason due to PIAA transfer rules. They’ll look to make some noise in the Catholic League before trying to make another state title run.

“It’s a great building block,” Craft said. “Everybody’s coming back, so it’s really exciting. For us to have this, in a year when no one really expected us to do this, and then have another group come back, it’s awesome and I’m really looking forward to it.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.