Uniontown turns up intensity to cool off Derry’s upset bid
DERRY – The defending WPIAL champs don’t have any starters back from last year, but don’t tell the road teams that are gearing up to scratch and claw with Uniontown. Derry thought it had Uniontown in line for an upset last night but the hysteria died down as quickly as Uniontown’s new coach, Rob Kezmarsky, could say “full-court man-to-man.”
“Yeah, they turned up the intensity,” sighed Derry coach Tom Esposito after Uniontown turned back the upset bid in a 65-52 Uniontown win.
“I think they’ve got to be prepared for that (intensity) every night,” Esposito said. “Everyone’s going to be gunning for them. But I had no special pre-game talk. We just want to win basketball games and they’re a very good team and we tried to do as many things as we could do well for as long as we could.”
And after taking a 20-14 lead into the second quarter, Derry fell victim to Uniontown’s full-court pressure. Uniontown went on a 19-2 run deep into the second quarter and Derry never again came within four points of tying the game.
Uniontown was led by senior wing shooter Brandon Duncan, who sank five 3-pointers on his way to 19 points. Uniontown also got 13 points from junior center Paul Gmutza and 12 points apiece from junior forwards Reese Hodge and Junior Mays.
Despite the ease with which Uniontown held off Derry after the first quarter, Kezmarsky said the team wasn’t very pleased with the win.
“You have to realize, right now it’s like we lost the game,” he said. “We didn’t lose the game, and we have to realize that we’re Uniontown and we have to be ready. These teams are coming to play against us and it will be that way the next 30 years.”
Kezmarsky then thought about his team’s good standing in spite of its inexperience.
“Whoever would’ve thought we’d be 6-1 and 3-0 in the section and win by 15 on the road when things don’t go our way?” he asked. “To show mental toughness like that makes me think we’re going to be a good basketball team.”
How good of a basketball team?
“Believe me,” Kezmarsky said, “we feel when we play our game we can beat anybody in the section or anybody in the WPIAL. It may be a bold statement, but it’s true.”
Esposito, whose team fell to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in Section 3-AAA, was asked about Kezmarsky’s statement.
“Right now?” Esposito asked. “What’s he mean by anybody? Blackhawk? Well, if they can make that statement, more power to them. That’s a lot of confidence. That’s a great statement to be able to make.
“They’re very well coached and they execute well. They’re coming from our section. I hope they beat everybody, except us one more time.”
Uniontown eased to the win because of the outside shooting of Duncan and the inside play of Gmutza and Hodge, both 6-4. Derry’s tallest player is generously listed at 6-2.
“We play good post defense,” Esposito said. “But we couldn’t collapse or Duncan would’ve lived on the arc all night. But that’s all they did in the second half was get the ball into the post. They had a great size advantage.”
Uniontown out-rebounded Derry, 33-16. Gmutza and Hodge each had 8 rebounds.
“Really, the kids right now know we didn’t play our best basketball,” Kezmarsky said. “That shows you what kind of kid they are. They’re not satisfied. We have bigger goals than being 3-0 in the section.”