Karen called me last night to let me know that the Bishop O'Reilly basketball team won the Pennsylvania state championship AGAIN! That makes it two years in a row! Tom Crossin's son, Tim, scored 27 points to make him high scorer again for the second year. If you go over to the Bishop O'Reilly site, you'll hear a midi file playing in the background. It's the Queen song, "We are the Champions." Does anyone know the year that song was released?? And what was the album's title??? Post a comment if you do.

I've included the text of one of the many articles written about the game.

3/19/2005
Queensmen ‘D’ delivers in clutch to clinch title
By dkonopki@leader.net

“I think it was tougher this year. We took everyone’s best shot.”
Tim Crossin Bishop O’Reilly star guard

HERSHEY -- With the jury still out on which team was going to win the PIAA Class A boys basketball championship, five players from Bishop O’Reilly returned to the court with 1:54 remaining in the game.

And the defense didn’t rest.

Fighting for their lives after watching Kennedy Catholic reduce a 19-point lead to two, the Queensmen forced three Golden Eagle turnovers on three consecutive possessions, riding their defense to a 65-61 win in front of 7,833 fans at the Giant Center. The win marks Bishop O’Reilly’s second consecutive state championship.

“I called a timeout and told our guys it was up to our defense,” said Bishop O’Reilly head coach Mark Belenski, whose team finished the season with a 29-4 record. “Playing good defense got us this far and we knew it was time to turn up the intensity. That (defensive stretch) was the difference in the game.”

For more than three quarters it didn’t look as if the Queensmen were going to need a late defensive stand to repeat as state champs.

The District 2 champions raced out to a 10-0 lead against the District 10 champs and took a 52-33 lead on a pull-up jumper by senior guard Tim Crossin with 4:02 left in the third quarter. Crossin finished with a game-high 27 points. Teammates Josh Aciukewicz and Mark Williams added 15 and 10 points, respectively.

But led by the play of junior David Jackson and sophomore Blair Rozenblad -- who combined for 51 of their team’s 61 points -- the Golden Eagles (25-5) stormed back. While the Kennedy Catholic defense held the Queensmen without a field goal for the last 4:02 of the third quarter, the Golden Eagle offense went on runs of 9-0 and 15-4. Jackson capped the second run on a tip-in to make it 59-57 with 1:54 left in the contest.

“After the timeout, we concentrated on our defense,” said senior guard Chris Kester. “We watched film of (Kennedy Catholic) and knew they sometimes turn the ball over against the press.”

That’s exactly what happened.

The Queensmen used their full-court pressure to create three consecutive turnovers against the Golden Eagles, who started three sophomores, a junior and a senior. In between the turnovers, Crossin made a baseline layup and connected on three of four free-throw attempts to increase the lead to 64-57 with 47 seconds remaining.

“I think our youth played a little bit of a role,” said Kennedy Catholic head coach Tim Loomis, referring to the turnovers. “Our kids looked at the first thing we called, but not the second and the third things. We panicked a little bit.”

O’Reilly pounded the ball inside to the 6-foot-5 Aciukewicz early in the first quarter. The junior center responded by scoring 10 of his 15 points in the first eight minutes, including a run of six consecutive points to make it 10-0 with 5:35 left in the first quarter.

“We came out and executed on all cylinders,” said Belenski. “We got the ball inside and they had no answer for Josh.”

On the state’s biggest basketball stage, Crossin took over the spotlight in the second quarter. The 6-2 guard scored 12 points in the quarter, including a wild spurt just before halftime.

Crossin made a steal and missed a layup before rebounding a missed tip by teammate Chris DeRojas. Crossin rebounded the ball and made the basket. He scored again with 26 seconds left in the half, then recorded another steal and a basket with six seconds remaining.

“Crossin is a (college) Division I player,” said Loomis, a former college coach at Division II California University of Pennsylvania and Division I Florida Atlantic. “He has a knack of knowing what he’s going to do with the ball before he gets it. He makes the players around him better.”

After celebrating his team’s second consecutive state title, Crossin said the experience in Hershey might be a little sweeter this time.

“This has been a great two-year run,” said Crossin, who was also the leading scorer in last year’s state championship game. “I think it was tougher this year. We took everyone’s best shot. This (championship) really feels good.”