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Pioneers stun C-H on Allison’s miraculous heave

By Rob Burchianti 4 min read
article image - Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
West Greene’s Lane Allison takes a jump shot in a game at Jefferson-Morgan last season. Allison scored 29 points, including a 3-pointer on a long heave near the Pioneers’ end line as tied expired, in Friday night’s 52-51 win over visiting Chartiers-Houston.

West Greene’s Lane Allison hit a clutch, game-tying 3-pointer with just over a minute left in Friday night’s key Section 3-AA boys basketball clash against Chartiers-Houston.

Little did anyone know Allison had an even more spectacular shot left in his arsenal.

Allison’s trey tied the game at 49-49 but the Buccaneers took the clock down to the final seconds with Jake Perchinsky tossing up a shot in the lane that banked in to give his team a two-point lead.

There was just enough time for Parker Burns to inbound to Allison near his own baseline and the senior turned and heaved the ball as he fell to the court and watched.

The ball zoned in on the basket at the other end and miraculously swished through for a most improbable game-winning 3-pointer.

The stunning 52-51 victory moved the Pioneers into a first-place tie with Jefferson-Morgan, bumping Chartiers-Houston out of the top spot. Allison was the game’s leading scorer with 29 points.

“That was the longest shot I have ever seen,” West Greene coach Jim Romanus said. “We have to get the video of that on one of those top-10 plays shows.”

The shot was already making its way around social media sites on Saturday and Sunday.

“I think KDKA is going to put it on somewhere because Bob Pompeani posted it on Twitter (X),” said Allison, who recalled the final minute of the game.

“Darrin Knight made a nice pass across the paint to me and I hit a 3 to tie it and then we go down and stop them for about a minute and then they hit that shot to take the lead. I’m thinking maybe call timeout but Parker got the ball in to me and I knew I had to do something so I just threw it.

“As it left my hand I saw it curving toward the basket and I was just hoping. That’s all I could do. Then when it went in I just started running around the court. I didn’t know what to do. My teammates were celebrating, everybody was screaming. My (assistant) coach (Kolton Rush) actually tackled me and suspended me in the air near the wall. It was pretty funny. It was pretty cool.”

Allison was the Pioneers’ starting quarterback in football and his throwing skills served him well on his last-second shot.

“My football coach (Beau Jackson) texted me after the game and said all that football practice helped you with that last shot,” Allison said. “It did.”

Romanus admitted he thought about calling a timeout after the Bucs’ go-ahead basket.

“Our guys got the ball inbounds quickly after Chartiers-Houston scored,” Romanus said. “It’s a good thing Lane got the shot off before I could call a timeout. The buzzer went off while the ball was in the air over midcourt and he swished it.

“Amazing.”

The significance of the win wasn’t lost on Allison.

“We just took first place in the section with that game so I was really excited about that because we want to try to win a section championship here,” Allison said. “We’ve never done that at West Greene.”

West Greene (3-0, 5-2) trailed 15-8 after the first quarter, 32-23 at halftime and 42-38 after three quarters before outscoring the Bucs 14-9 in the fourth quarter.

“We were down by 10 I think two different times in the game,” Allison said. “This just shows that we never give up. We just keep fighting.”

Justus Buckingham led Chartiers-Houston (2-1, 6-2) with 18 points and Aaron Walso followed with 13.

(The Observer-Reporter contributed to this story.)

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