Connellsville locks up section title
YORK RUN – Connellsville’s run through Section 2-AAAA continued Tuesday night. In fact, it hit its highest point, as the Falcons clinched the section championship with a 60-44 win at Albert Gallatin. “I sure didn’t expect it coming into the season,” second-year Falcons coach Nick Bosnic said of clinching the section title 10 days before the end of section play. “But we kept getting better and better.
“Players have developed roles on this team, plus we have a great player in James Hairston. We’re on a pretty good role and guys keep getting the job done.”
Tuesday night was no exception for the Falcons, as they fended off a pesky Colonials team that dressed only 10 players.
“Our kids gave it their all,” AG coach Dan Andrea said. “We’re very limited in what we can do, especially on offense. We have trouble scoring, except for Chris Moore and he continues to amaze me. He’s a great kid and he leaves it all on the floor every time out.”
Hairston, Connellsville’s phenomenal 6-3 junior guard, led all scorers with 31 points. That pushed his career total to 1,279 and, yes, he is only a junior. He added four blocked shots, four rebounds and eight steals, many of them leading to easy lay-ups and a few leading to thunderous slam-dunks.
“That gets them going, those dunks,” Andrea said. “That drains you on the other end, when you’re working so hard trying to score, then give up the ball and see someone dunk it. The first game, we were able to keep Hairston from stringing points together, but tonight was another story.”
Albert Gallatin grabbed a 6-0 lead out of the gate, but Hairston got the Falcons back in front in a hurry. After Kevin Bell scored Connellsville’s first two points, Hairston canned the next 11 in a row and Connellsville led, 13-6. The Falcons made it a 19-2 run to grab a 19-8 lead after a quarter. Bell finished with 14 points, including four three-pointers.
Hairston did it again in the third quarter, when he scored the Falcons’ first six and six of their last eight in the period, as Connellsville stretched a 28-17 halftime lead into a 46-24 edge with eight minutes remaining.
“There was a good stretch in the second quarter when we seemed to contain him pretty good, but we couldn’t capitalize on the offensive end,” Andrea said. “We missed four shots in a row. If we make those, we’re back in the game.”
Moore, who finished with 25 points, caught fire in the fourth quarter. Connellsville limited him to seven through three quarters, but he canned four three-pointers among 18 fourth-quarter points.
“Connellsville has come down here a lot of times and lost and we didn’t want that to happen again,” Bosnic said. “We knew it would be a battle.”
With Hairston’s offensive exploits getting most of the headlines, Bosnic was proud to point out that the Falcons win plenty of games with defense.
“That’s the best thing we do,” he said. “We play a good man-to-man defense and that’s how James gets a lot of his points. We pressure the ball and get a lot of easy baskets.”
“They are very worthy champions,” Andrea said of the Falcons. “Hairston is a great player, but he makes everybody else better. Nick does a great job with them. He puts the other four in position to maximize their strengths and to minimize their weaknesses. My hat’s off to them.”
Connellsville improved to 20-2 overall and 10-0 in section games, while Albert Gallatin fell to 2-17 overall and 0-9 in section games.