Feb 13, 2005 By Mike Ciarochi 4 min read

CARROLL TWP. – Uniontown worked so hard for so long to get back in the game, the Red Raiders just didn’t have enough left to get all the way back. Mount Lebanon handed Uniontown a 54-40 loss in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAAA boys basketball playoffs Saturday at Ringgold High School. The Blue Devils scored 14 unanswered points to take a 14-2 lead early in the game and basically held off every challenge the Red Raiders were able to muster the rest of the way.

Mount Lebanon improved to 19-6 and a likely quarterfinal match-up against top-seeded McKeesport. Uniontown fell to 16-8 and saw its season end with a first-round playoff loss for the second time in three seasons. Last season, Uniontown qualified for the PIAA playoffs despite an opening-round loss in the WPIAL event.

“I give a lot of credit to Mount Lebanon,” Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “Geoff Kestler is a real good player and he hurt us a lot today. I’m really proud of our team, the way we battled back in the second half. I’m proud of the season we had, too. These kids are hurting right now more than anyone else, but I told them, ‘Don’t feel guilty about losing in the playoffs.’ It’s an honor and an accomplishment to get this far and there are lots of teams who wish they were here.”

Kestler scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the first half, as Mount Lebanon ran to a 34-17 halftime lead. He scored nine in the first quarter, the last two putting the Blue Devils ahead, 16-4, with 3:22 remaining in the quarter.

What Kestler started, Brandon Babe finished for Mount Lebanon. The senior guard hit four three-pointers to finish with 14 points. He hit two treys in the second quarter, one starting and the other ending a 10-point Blue Devils run that put Uniontown down, 30-12, 4:40 before halftime.

Turnovers hurt the Red Raiders, too, which was part of the plan, according to Mount Lebanon coach Joe David. Uniontown had four turnovers in the first quarter and three more in the second.

“We felt our pressure was going to bother them,” David said. “We got after it pretty good on defense and they had some turnovers. That got our transition game going and we were shooting a lot of lay-ups. Then Brandon hit a couple of really big three-pointers for us.”

With the outside game working so well, Mount Lebanon managed to get some help from the inside game, as Nate Gannon came off the bench to score 10 points.

“Hit 10 points hurt us more than anything,” Kezmarsky said. “I told the kids before the game that if they score inside on us we’re in trouble.”

Uniontown made a charge at Mount Lebanon midway through the third quarter. Eric Johnson scored eight points as Uniontown reeled off a 13-3 run to close to within eight, 42-34, after three quarters. Near the end of the quarter, Johnson got the ball down low and went up for a shot, but the ball was blocked. Mount Lebanon re-opened its lead with a 10-1 run in the fourth, thanks to six-of-seven accuracy at the foul line.

“I think the turning point was when we had it down to eight points and Eric made a couple of moves and went to the basket, but they called it a block,” Kezmarsky said. “But they executed and we didn’t. They have excellent ball handlers and they did what they had to do to win the game.”

“The key to beating their trap is to make them more around,” David said. “We tried to stay one pass ahead of them and told our kids not to shoot, to make them chase us. We’re a good foul shooting team, so that’s where we wanted to be.”

Home is not where Uniontown wanted to be, not after such a promising regular season in which the Red Raiders claimed a share of the Section 1-AAAA championship.

“I feel bad for the kids because they worked so hard to get here,” Kezmarsky said. “But what it came down to was that, even with all of our hard work, we just didn’t execute in the game.”

Johnson led Uniontown with 15 points.