Connellsville wins for sweep over Hempfield
GREENSBURG – After Connellsville held off scrappy Hempfield, 68-56, for a season sweep against its former coach Friday night, Bill Swan kicked back in his locker-room office and admitted to feeling emotionally drained. “Yeah, it’s emotional because it’s over,” said Swan, Hempfield’s coach the last four years. “Guys like Adam DeMatteo, who’s been here with me the whole time, it’s over for him, too. He’s overcome two ACLs, two hernias, a broken foot, a broken wrist and mono just to be here tonight and be one of the best players in the section. So it’s emotional after it’s all over, yeah.”
DeMatteo, Hempfield’s leading scorer and senior leader this season, was held to 13 points last night, primarily because of the man-to-man tenacity of Connellsville’s Clay Hurley.
It was one of the game’s main storylines. The overriding theme, however, particularly with both non-playoff teams in their Section 1-AAAA finale, was Swan’s attempt for his first win over Connellsville.
Swan, of course, coached Connellsville into three WPIAL playoff appearances. He captained the team as senior class president. Since he’s been at Hempfield, Swan’s had only two chances to beat his alma mater, and last night he came up short a second time. But he honestly didn’t feel bad about it.
“Losing to Connellsville is the least painful team to lose to, easily,” he said. “I hate losing to other teams.”
With both teams rebuilding after appearing in the WPIAL playoffs the last two seasons, the emotion at Hempfield’s gym was surprisingly high.
Hempfield not only honored its seniors, but its administrators, principals, cheerleaders, clock operator, scorekeeper and trainers. After the game was delayed 30 minutes to accommodate the festivities, there was one question left to be answered: Were the janitors still on strike?
Both teams matched the pre-game emotion with sticky man-to-man defense from the start. Hempfield held an 18-15 lead before Terrence McCrae stepped to the line for two free throws in the second quarter. The Connellsville junior brushed off taunts from the student section to sink both free throws and he was off and running.
The last Hempfield lead was 20-19 and McRae was just getting started. The 6-foot-3 forward scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half to pace Connellsville. Were the taunts responsible?
“I hope not,” said Connellsville coach Nick Bosnic. “We always talk about how fans don’t play any aspect in the game, but emotionally I think every kid gives more effort when things aren’t going your way and they’re against you. He missed some early fouls shots and psychologically he could’ve fallen apart. They were on him pretty good, but he stuck with it. He came over to the bench one time when we took him out and he was just worried about what he was doing basketball-wise, not anything else. So I knew he was really concentrating.”
McCrae and guard Any Lonigro, as well as Hurley, played key roles for Connellsville in the second half. Lonigro came off the bench to score 11 second-half points and make key defensive plays. Hurley, of course, hounded DeMatteo into a poor shooting night. McCrae seemingly came through with a basket every time Hempfield closed the gap. He also had 8 rebounds in the game.
The final margin was the largest lead of the game for either team.
“We had a tough game last Wednesday so we wanted to come out and match Hempfield’s energy,” Bosnic said. “Hempfield plays extremely hard, and it’s Senior Night and it’s a big game for Bill. He’s from Connellsville. But I just thought we matched their intensity and we did a lot better job handling the ball and playing defense than we had in the last couple of games.”
Can it carry over into next season for 10-12 Connellsville?
“We wanted to end the season strong,” Bosnic said. “We did that two years ago. The first year I was here we were 9-15 but we won the last three section games and it really gave us momentum, so I think our players have a positive outlook on next season.”