Yough upsets Uniontown
HERMINIE – It might’ve been the biggest basketball win in school history, but Yough’s 96-91 victory over Uniontown, in double overtime Friday, didn’t follow the script. It didn’t even come close. “Our scouting report said that if this game was in the fifties, we would have a chance to win. If it was in the seventies, we’d lose,” said Yough Coach Brian Znavor. “I never thought we’d put up 96 points against Uniontown, never in my wildest dreams.”
Never in those dreams would Yough have won with Ben McCauley fouling out. The 6-foot-6 junior, who’s already been offered scholarships by Pitt and North Carolina State and who’d already scored 43 points, fouled out with 1:04 left in double overtime.
At the time, Yough led by 90-84, but Uniontown’s Kelvin Brown stepped to the line and sank both shots before Lou Allen stole the ensuing inbounds pass and was fouled with 1:02 left.
McCauley was out and Uniontown could’ve crept to within two points, but Allen missed both free throws and the Raiders became unraveled. Yough’s guards made six of eight free throws in the final minute to hold on for the win.
“It’s huge for our program,” Znavor said. “This is our third year (coaching) here now. We’ve been on the verge. We’ve been to the playoffs, but when we’ve played the top-level teams we’ve come up short. Over the last two years every time we’ve played a big-time school we’ve always come up short. This was our first big win over a big program. It’s big for us. Real big.”
Yough improved to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in Section 3-AAA, which is rather ordinary considering it’s extraordinary win on Friday. The loss was the first of the season for Uniontown (7-1, 3-1).
“The last three games we’ve been playing our best basketball of the year,” Znavor said. “In the beginning, everybody thought everything had to go to Ben and everything had to be done by Ben, but now people are realizing they have to step up and knock down their shots, handle the pressure, handle the ball and it’s starting to come around now.”
Znavor estimated Yough ran the same offensive set 99 percent of the time. “We called another play one time,” he said. “I mean, he’s such an advantage to have there in the post.”
McCauley had a career-high 50 last season against a winless Southmoreland team. He had 19 at the half Friday as Yough held a 41-36 lead. Uniontown, though, gained a 60-58 lead on Junior Mays’ 3-point shot before the fourth-quarter buzzer.
In the fourth quarter, Uniontown jumped ahead 70-64 with 4:34 left in the game, and led by 73-71 with the ball at the 1:50 mark. The Raiders ran a minute off the clock before Mays drove the lane on McCauley, who altered the shot and grabbed the rebound. McCauley then took a pass inside with 42 seconds left and tied the game for Yough.
McCauley had a chance to put Yough ahead with 22 seconds left, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Uniontown guard Eric Johnson scored with 10 seconds left to put the Raiders ahead on a driving lay-up, In the final frantic moments of regulation, Brown stole the ball from McCauley, but McCauley stole it back, drove the court and was fouled with one second left. He made both free throws to send the game into overtime.
In the first overtime, Uniontown forward Paul Gmutza sank a pair of free throws to give the Raiders an 82-79 lead with 38 seconds left. They then collapsed defensively on McCauley, who kicked the ball out to guard Craig Sedunov. The freshman tied the game with a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left and the game moved into double overtime.
The headliners of each team, McCauley and Mays, had, up to that point, lived up to their billings, but each appeared to run out of steam late in the game. McCauley scored only two points before fouling out, and Mays committed five turnovers in double overtime, once slipping to the floor while driving for a lay-up. Mays did connect on a 3-pointer with three seconds left, but it was too late to offset the fine stretch run by the heretofore unheralded Yough guards.
Mays finished with 29 points to lead a balanced Uniontown offense. Johnson added 23, Brown chipped in with 16 and Allen scored 13, but it wasn’t enough to offset McCauley’s 43 points and 18 rebounds.
“I can’t wait to go watch the tape and see all the things that happened,” said an upbeat Uniontown Coach Rob Kezmarsky. “It was very emotional, but we have to take this game as a learning experience and get ready for a big game at home Tuesday. If we beat Waynesburg (6-1, 3-0) there will be a couple teams with one loss and Yough has to come to our home court.
“Again, we’re nowhere near satisfied with our effort but there were a lot of positive things we can learn from and become a better team. That’s the ultimate goal.”